Thinking outside the box—Analiese

Sometimes, its the smallest of ideas that can trigger off a reaction, leading to something exciting and innovative. Such has been the case with Analiese. It is not often that I get a chance to play with designs for long, and cherish every moment that I do get. Playing with the freestanding lace tatted designs from the collection, I decided to use it not just for creating ribbons from my own fabric stash, but to try adding it to regular ribbons.  The designs in the collection are meant to be attached as a cutwork edge, but there is no need to use the cutwork placement and trimming part of the design, if the edge is a finished one, as in a store bought ribbon!

So, for my first test, I decided to not be kind and tried out a 1/4″ ribbon. As you can see from the picture, it worked! 1/4″ is rather a narrow ribbon but it is great for adding to clothing, especially if there is a tatted edge.

The process is actually very simple. Since the cutwork edge has three steps: placement, trimming and finishing, we can eliminate the trimming altogether. Stitch out the placement on water soluble vilene (see picture on left).  This becomes the guide to placing the ribbon edge directly next to it.  It is best to first try the technique with a wider ribbon than my selection of a 1/4″ one.  As my pictures of the beige 1/4″ ribbon came out too light, I am going to show the ones that I took of the black ribbon. Pin the ribbon to the water soluble vilene, or use a water soluble glue stick. Btw, I’ve tried the water soluble glue sticks and love them. There are several different varieties out there, so make sure that the glue stick is a water soluble one, otherwise the ribbon will remain sticky.

Once the ribbon is secured to the water soluble vilene, skip the trimming step on your machine and go directly to the finishing step. Voila, your ribbon has a tatted edge. One thing to be careful when pinning the ribbon to the water soluble vilene is not to stretch it, otherwise your ribbon will have a bit of wave to it.  

Ofcourse, you do have to repeat the steps for the other side as well. Once the edge is completed, soak and rinse the water soluble vilene out completely. The best method for preventing waves is to roll the ribbon tightly while it is still damp on a dowel or any large empty thread spools.  This takes out the waves (if there are any) and also prevents the need of ironing out any wrinkles.  The black ribbon that I used, is about 1/2″ (a better choice and easy to work with than the 1/4″) wide and has a satin finish. I couldn’t find a velvet ribbon in my stash, but this worked just as well for making a choker. Lovely idea and the project can be finished in less than an hour.

More ideas are to use the tatted edged and embroidered (if preferred) ribbons on t-shirts, blouses, and any amount of wearables. To attach the ribbon to the garment or other fabric is to stitch directly next to the  tatting edge. This leaves the tatting picots sort of dangling on their own and gives a lovely hand tatted effect. Plush towels, which really are difficult to embroider, can be given an expensive and personal look, simply by attaching an embroidered with tatted edge ribbon. The ribbon on the left was created with bits and pieces of left over silks. I joined the pieces together using a french seam and then embroidered and created a 2″ wide ribbon. Pinning the ribbon onto the towel, I used the same thread to use a tiny zigzag stitch to attach it to the towel. 

Ribbons of various widths embellished with embroidery (or plain) with the tatted edges can also be joined together to create a ribbon fabric. Simply use an entredeux  stitch or fancy stitches on your machine to join the ribbons. Stitch directly on top of the picots matched on either side, as this will give strength to the joint.

I hope this innovative idea can spark creative juices with friends. The Analiese collection was released at the ASG National convention and hopefully will be on my website and Carolyns‘ soon.