Vintage Linen 2-Creating an impossible cutwork edge

And that is exactly what I ventured out to create, an edge that would be cutwork, with a variety of colors and creative edges. Cutwork edge designs are generally larger scallops without the fuss of details. However, as yours truly is forever testing the “impossible” with machine embroidery, I decided to create an edge using regular embroidery  motifs. It can be done but requires a bit more diligence so the fabric won’t have a wavy effect when the design is completed.

It’s been a while since I created a complete outfit for myself, and an invitation to a wedding was just the trick to get me back in the sewing room. I do have to admit that it took me a long while to finish the outfit that I had designed. The wedding has an Eastern theme and I really didn’t want to create something that I would wear for just one occasion. Sketching various outfits, I finally decided upon creating my version of Thai pants, and a long shirt with slits on either side and the front.

The Thai pants are generally straight pants which fit on the waist and hips, with the width of the legs so wide that it almost looks like a skirt. I used georgette fabric for the outfit and as I really didn’t want to line it, I stitched out one layer as the pants only. The second layer was attached to the first layer only at the top of the pants, with the rest of the legs opened on both sides. The same technique was used for the shirt. Falling well below the knees, the shirt was self lined with two layers of the georgette, with slits up to the hips on both sides and a slit in the front past the abdomen.

The Vintage Linen 2 designs are a very simple floral border, using two colors to give it a vintage effect. For my outfit, however, I decided to use only one color which matched the fabric perfectly. For a bit of a sparkle, I used antique gold for “Sadia’s signature” candlewicks, along with Swaroski crystals scattered on the bodice and around the embroidery. The effect is stunning and I am pleased. Never mind the countless hours where I just wanted to pitch the whole thing and work on something else, LOL. It also didn’t help matters when I found out that I did not have enough fabric to finish the shirt!

Finishing the outfit, I needed the one most important accessory which every woman must have at all times, yup, you guessed it, a purse. As I really didn’t have any fabric left, I went shopping to find another type of fabric of the same color. Would you believe that I found every shade of blue under the sun except the one I needed. As my shoes were black, I decided to go for a black purse, which is a much more versatile color and besides….I can then use the purse with some other outfit as well.

Creating the perfect purse was not the easiest thing in the world and I had to call up my “Purse Expert”, Carolyn. My vision was to create a longish but not so tall clutch purse. With guidance (and I think Carolyn is perfecting the pattern as I write, wink, wink), I cut out the pattern for the purse.

My ideas was to have a rather stiff purse which could stand on its own and a cutwork edge flap. The fabric for the purse is a light weight crushed faux velvet. I ironed out most of the wrinkles and the crush part of the fabric and took the chance of using two layers with peltex sandwiched in between to stitch out the cutwork designs! Using the same vintage gold thread I stitched out the design on the flap, taking extreme care when cutting out the excessive fabric on the cutwork edge. As I wanted the inside of the flap to be just as nice looking as the front, I used a gold color in the bobbin (not the metallic folks but a bobbin weight thread). I used water soluble vilene as the stabilizer as the flap had right sides of the fabric on both sides and I didn’t want any stabilizer to show afterwards. As for the trimming, it was not difficult to do, even with all the meandering scallops.

My biggest surprise came when I washed out the flap to remove the stabilizer. Friends, peltex does not dry easily. After waiting twenty-four hours for it to dry, I finally threw it in the dryer. Thank goodness for my foresight in making the flap much wider than the purse as it shrank considerably. The finished purse is about six inches tall and sixteen inches long with a depth of about three and a half inches. By the way, peltex is a Pellon product, similar to Timtex and is fusible on both sides. It is perfect for creating stiff purses. My purse is finished, minus the crystals, which I’m still debating upon. Now that it’s all done, I did the math and realised that I took well over a month to create one outfit….YIKES! Oh well, at least it is completed. The Vintage Linen 2 is also finished, except I’m still trying to figure out the best possible way to set the designs for all hoop sizes. Why, oh why does every machine brand have different hoop sizes???