Thursday, April 16, 2009

Samples I've Been Working On

I'd love to show you some samples I've been working on. With this group, for whatever reason, the finishing wasn't what I wanted, but I learned from all of them.

This pillow is a Viking yarn couching design, done on a sparkly fancy linen. (The jeans in the background were done by someone else.) Actually, I learned two things here. (1) When you're using a pillow form, put a little loose fiberfill in the corners to puff them out. (2) Allow a really generous opening for inserting the pillow form. I didn't leave enough opening, because I didn't want to do more finish sewing than I had to, and the linen ripped when there wasn't enough room for the form to go in. Then I had to do all the more sewing to try to sew up the rips on each end.

I did this on my own time, with my own materials and design package, so it could be mine when it's no longer being displayed.


The pink bag is a Viking Embroidery Club Design and I love it. It was supposed to have brass eyelets on the top but since I had such trouble with those on another project, I made buttonholes. Since there is batting the bag is quite stiff and I cut through the end of the buttonhole not once but twice and had to repair. Moral of this story: when opening buttonholes on a thick item, use a buttonhole knife and wood backing, not a seam ripper. I do love the dimensional effect of making some of the flowers on organza and Ultra Solvy.

The linen bag below is a Viking free design and free sewing project this month. It will be mine, too. This is where I had the eyelet troubles. I cut a hole in the bag to insert the eyelet but just couldn't get it to work. Then I had a little hole in the bag. I mended the hole, which no one will probably see since the bag is gathered at the top. Moral: practice on a scrap piece. I knew that, I really did. Once again, I used buttonholes instead of eyelets for the cord.


I love the soft embroidery on the linen and am excited about using this bag. I got lots of good practice with the software, too.





No comments: