(no subject)
As we are not going to Kentwell this year, of course I am directing my creative energies in other directions. At the moment I am working on a little frock for Miss A to wear to the formal base closure ceremony, which is to be held later this month. The design is a Victorian middy dress. We did a lot of consulting together on this, and she is very excited about it. I show her my drawings, the materials, and now that I am starting work on some of the components, I will show her each step of that as I make progress.
I am trying to nail her down to decide on which linen she wants. Her choices are lavender or pale mint. Ordinarily I would vote for the lavender, but it is really not a true lavender, more of a pale purple, and I am afraid that it would be too much of a contrast with the white French laces I will be using. I have both of the linens here, so no delay on waiting for them to get here so I can begin the project. I also have the French laces, leftover from when I had my business making heirloom clothing. I am going to start with the lace shapes, bows, that are going to go around the skirt horizontally in a band that is edged with more of the lace on either side. The lace above and below the band will be connected with entredeux, which I already know I do not have enough of. I need to get about 6 yards of it. I have plenty of ecru, but not enough white, of course.
The collar will be of white zula linen from Whaley's-Bradford, with an insertion of lace about an inch in from the edge, the three inch wide gathered lace edging extending beyond the shoulder line. I am doing shadow work embroidery, which works up quickly and is very lovely. I have drawn the embroidery design myself, so not exactly perfect but she loves it and that is all that counts. The main motif is her monogram, with an A and M interwoven. It is always painful for me to draw anything, and I hate this part of heirloom sewing and embroidery in general. She asked for violets to go on the collar, and she loves the design that I did for elaine242's wedding handkerchief, so I dragged that out of my basket and copied it with some minor adjustments.
Now I am waiting for the zula to arrive, but will be well worth the wait. I received a sample and just flipped over the quality. It is by far the nicest fine linen I have ever worked with. When doing shadow work it is really important to have fabric with a close weave, but you want it to be fine enough to see the shading from the thread crossing beneath the design. This linen is perfect for this. Other than waiting on the linen, I need to go and find some suitable embroidery threads. Unfortunately I am going to wind up having to use cotton threads instead of the silks that I prefer, but it will work out. There are no shops in the area that carry silks, and I am really going to have to carefully match these colours.
Time to get to work shaping bows!
I am trying to nail her down to decide on which linen she wants. Her choices are lavender or pale mint. Ordinarily I would vote for the lavender, but it is really not a true lavender, more of a pale purple, and I am afraid that it would be too much of a contrast with the white French laces I will be using. I have both of the linens here, so no delay on waiting for them to get here so I can begin the project. I also have the French laces, leftover from when I had my business making heirloom clothing. I am going to start with the lace shapes, bows, that are going to go around the skirt horizontally in a band that is edged with more of the lace on either side. The lace above and below the band will be connected with entredeux, which I already know I do not have enough of. I need to get about 6 yards of it. I have plenty of ecru, but not enough white, of course.
The collar will be of white zula linen from Whaley's-Bradford, with an insertion of lace about an inch in from the edge, the three inch wide gathered lace edging extending beyond the shoulder line. I am doing shadow work embroidery, which works up quickly and is very lovely. I have drawn the embroidery design myself, so not exactly perfect but she loves it and that is all that counts. The main motif is her monogram, with an A and M interwoven. It is always painful for me to draw anything, and I hate this part of heirloom sewing and embroidery in general. She asked for violets to go on the collar, and she loves the design that I did for elaine242's wedding handkerchief, so I dragged that out of my basket and copied it with some minor adjustments.
Now I am waiting for the zula to arrive, but will be well worth the wait. I received a sample and just flipped over the quality. It is by far the nicest fine linen I have ever worked with. When doing shadow work it is really important to have fabric with a close weave, but you want it to be fine enough to see the shading from the thread crossing beneath the design. This linen is perfect for this. Other than waiting on the linen, I need to go and find some suitable embroidery threads. Unfortunately I am going to wind up having to use cotton threads instead of the silks that I prefer, but it will work out. There are no shops in the area that carry silks, and I am really going to have to carefully match these colours.
Time to get to work shaping bows!