Reconstructing the Fabric (and deconstructing my sewing machines)
Hello again. I can't begin to tell you how delighted I am with how the Process or Outcome Project is going. Reconstructing the necessary fabric pieces from your hand-embroidered squares has been a painstaking task, but it's done!! All of the pattern pieces have now been created and are waiting for me to stitch them together into the finished coats. I am thrilled with how it is going so far.
I realised very quickly that:
a) I was asking too much of the woven interfacing (in terms of holding the embroidered squares in place securely while I handstitched them together), and
b) I was asking too much of my arthritic fingers to hand stitch all the pieces together in the first place.
I am really not a lover of the 'zig zag stitch' but while I was busy overlocking the edges of all the pattern pieces, it occurred to me that the sewing machine was more than capable of creating a 'joining stitch' which would not look too regular on the surface of the embroidery if I used a thread with a good enough colour match. I went for a more open version of the 'overlock stitch', and am very very pleased with the result. I think that it will ultimately create a much more robust end product, (and I may still be able to move my fingers!).
You can see from this image of the back section of the jacket how the finished seams will appear on each of the coats. I really like the way the stitching, which joins the squares together, appears on the external seam, almost like patterns on geological core sampling.
It is going to be very important to the 'drape' of the finished garments that your sections of embroidery are positioned to follow the grainline of the pattern pieces, so I took the decision to set them in columns parallel to what would have been the selvedge, and then to stagger the columns, so that I didn't have the difficultly of aligning four corners. I am thrilled with the resulting asymmetrical pattern which appeared.
The reference to having to deconstruct my sewing machines is because you just wouldn't believe the amount of 'fluff' which is created by stitching the sections of woollen blanket together! My sympathies went out, not only to millworkers, who had to breathe in the airborne fibres, but also to the mill engineers who had to keep the machinery running. Keeping the balance between just enough oil to keep the bobbin mechanism of my sewing machine working smoothly, and not so much oil as to make the fluff compact into immovable clumps, meant a strict daily maintenance routine. I know my machines inside and out now, which seems appropriate considering the project.
Here are a few more images of the project so far. I hope to be back in touch with you in a couple of weeks to show you my progress on actually constructing the coats themselves. My feeling is that the 'inside out' coat will be incredibly challenging. It will mean over-riding my brain telling me that I am 'doing it wrong!' x x x
Thanks again for being here!
With love
Helen x x x x
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