The saga of the embroidery frame...
Apr. 4th, 2007 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
guenievreSo those of you who ARE embroidery geeks, feel free to laugh at this. I... am not. In fact, this is the first project I've really done anything that even counts. (Ok, 2nd - there was Girard's orle, which marginally counted, I suppose. Still, it was just beads and purchased trim, so yeah.)
Meanwhile, I've mentioned the dress I'm making for Crown. I decided to do some simple vinework in pearls, gold, and green silk along the sleeves and neckline - while I don't have any *pictures* of this, it seemed fairly common in an inventory I read recently (thanks![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jillwheezul) and the pattern itself matches a fairly common illumination style. Anyway, when I started the project, I had lost one of the knobs that keeps my scroll frame together (mine's like this, but I bought it from the guy who sells mirror boxes @ Pennsic). "No worries", said I, "I'll just pick up a Q-Snap when I get the thread." So I did, and it was good... until I decided to work on the project at an event, at which point the ugly plastic frame made me twitch.
Fast-forward slightly, and I realize "I'll be going to another event! and a demo! and and and...." and meanwhile I have found the missing piece of the scroll frame. (Ok, so reallysoucyn found it.) So I decided to try and mount the sleeves on said frame. There's just one catch... the "sleeves" are, at the moment, an approximately 60"x60" piece of silk, with a temporary seam down the center - the embroidery is about a 3-3.5" band on each side of the seam. So there's a LOT of excess fabric. (Yes, I could have just embroidered an applique strip, and I wouldn't be having this problem, but I didn't want the extra fabric to change the drape of the sleeves, because the fabric is REALLY luscious).
The thing I didn't realize before carefully bundling up the fabric, basting the rolls on either side so they'd stay and sewing it to the frame? All that excess fabric wreaked HAVOC on the tension on the embroidery - which given that this is couched gold braid, chain stitch and pearls, doesn't have to be *perfect*, in the same way it would were I doing stem-stitch needle-painting type work, but it does need to be reasonably predictable. GRR.
And google? NOT helpful in this case - there is absolutely NO information out there on the best way to mount whole garment pieces for embroidery in a period way - the closest I found was this article on the Florilegium. (And of course the husband cleaned off the table and threw away the most recent TI, which had an article on scroll frames... 'course, I haven't been keeping them recently, as there hasn't been much I've needed, so it's understandable, but still...)
So the final solution? I took some canvas stretcher bars (something like this, though mine aren't mitered, wish they were), stapled fabric tape to them, and whipstitched the relevant area of silk to them to work on it. A little unwieldy, but at least it's not ugly... (though we're not going to talk about how long figuring all this out took me... )
Exhibit 1 in why "Ne Rien de Moitié" is not ALWAYS a good motto...
Meanwhile, I've mentioned the dress I'm making for Crown. I decided to do some simple vinework in pearls, gold, and green silk along the sleeves and neckline - while I don't have any *pictures* of this, it seemed fairly common in an inventory I read recently (thanks
jillwheezul) and the pattern itself matches a fairly common illumination style. Anyway, when I started the project, I had lost one of the knobs that keeps my scroll frame together (mine's like this, but I bought it from the guy who sells mirror boxes @ Pennsic). "No worries", said I, "I'll just pick up a Q-Snap when I get the thread." So I did, and it was good... until I decided to work on the project at an event, at which point the ugly plastic frame made me twitch. Fast-forward slightly, and I realize "I'll be going to another event! and a demo! and and and...." and meanwhile I have found the missing piece of the scroll frame. (Ok, so really
soucyn found it.) So I decided to try and mount the sleeves on said frame. There's just one catch... the "sleeves" are, at the moment, an approximately 60"x60" piece of silk, with a temporary seam down the center - the embroidery is about a 3-3.5" band on each side of the seam. So there's a LOT of excess fabric. (Yes, I could have just embroidered an applique strip, and I wouldn't be having this problem, but I didn't want the extra fabric to change the drape of the sleeves, because the fabric is REALLY luscious).The thing I didn't realize before carefully bundling up the fabric, basting the rolls on either side so they'd stay and sewing it to the frame? All that excess fabric wreaked HAVOC on the tension on the embroidery - which given that this is couched gold braid, chain stitch and pearls, doesn't have to be *perfect*, in the same way it would were I doing stem-stitch needle-painting type work, but it does need to be reasonably predictable. GRR.
And google? NOT helpful in this case - there is absolutely NO information out there on the best way to mount whole garment pieces for embroidery in a period way - the closest I found was this article on the Florilegium. (And of course the husband cleaned off the table and threw away the most recent TI, which had an article on scroll frames... 'course, I haven't been keeping them recently, as there hasn't been much I've needed, so it's understandable, but still...)
So the final solution? I took some canvas stretcher bars (something like this, though mine aren't mitered, wish they were), stapled fabric tape to them, and whipstitched the relevant area of silk to them to work on it. A little unwieldy, but at least it's not ugly... (though we're not going to talk about how long figuring all this out took me... )
Exhibit 1 in why "Ne Rien de Moitié" is not ALWAYS a good motto...
