Friday, June 5, 2009

Getting there



I am in the homestretch. Have you ever just worked and worked on something and you just didn't like something about it? Well that was me on the monogram portion of this gown, so I took out a half done high relief satin stitch monogram. Took longer to take out than it did to re stitch the new one. Here is a couple of pics. Working on construction tomorrow and will see how far I get. I am getting ready to go here for a week long stitching retreat again this year. I want to have this gown almost done if not done before I leave on Sunday or Monday. We will see.



The embroidery is a mix of threads and stitches. There is coton a broder for the shadow work dove, celtic cross and trinity; the chain and seed stitch monogram, satin trailing shamrock and shell. I used silk floss for the stem stitch, back stitch, granito and lazy daisies of the wheat and grapes as well as the floral motifs and shamrocks on the upper yoke. The roses are bullions and the shamrocks on the yoke are double lazy daisies.

The lines down either side of the design is where I machine stitched the traced pattern piece. I was so sick of the piece looking like a dingy dishrag I had to wash it after I took the first monogram out, so to save having to retrace the pattern piece I just stitched a lengthened machine stitch on the cuttin line.

Sometimes when we are in a hurry we think certain prep steps aren't important. I for one HATE prep work. Hate it, but sometimes trying to slide by without it can bite you in the ankle. Also too sometimes you don't notice potential problems until you take pictures of it. What do they say? "The camera never lies?" Well when I snapped the photo of this piece on the chair in my sewing room is when I noticed the hoop burn just below the celtic trinity. Now the angels were smiling on me, because I didn't break any fibers. But I sure could have. This had to have happened after I had finished all of the stitching, had taken out the first monogram, washed and ironed the piece and only had the monogram left to re stitch. Instead of putting the whole piece in my sit on hoop that is padded, I opted to put it in a smaller hand held wooden hoop. Thank heaven I hadn't tried to use a Susan Bates hoop with the hard lip. That would have broken the fibers of this sheer fabric for sure. Here is a link for reference on how to wrap your hoop.



The picture below is just from "wiggling" the fibers between my fingers. I am sure the rest of the mark will come out when I wash the finished gown. So lesson to be learned, respect the fabric and respect the needs of the embroidery being done.



Off to cut out the rest of the gown and slip.

4 comments:

  1. You are amazing embroiderist (is that a word?)!!!!!

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  2. This is exquisite, Martha. You are such an amazing embroideress.

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  3. You do EXQUISITE embroidery! WOW!

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  4. Will miss you ... have a great time!! :) Love the gown. Would not expect less. Do you remember how to construct? :)

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Welcome, I am so glad you chose to leave a comment. I love getting comments, questions and even just a friendly hello. I may not respond to every comment, but rest assured I read them all. Sometimes the comments and questions fuel new posts. So comment away!

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