So Deceptive

This little Martha Pullen work project looks so deceptively sweet and easy. In fact, it took me hours and a redo to get the little drawstring bag right.

I think I sort of knew this wouldn't go down easy and that's why I put it off 'til the last minute. I should have studied it just a little more because the first time around I got the embroidery upside down. I could have lived with that, though, if other things had gone right. In the same category, I made two extra buttonholes the first time around.

I learned that for embroidering and putting buttonholes on organza, Ultra Solvy is the stabilizer of choice. Just trim it closely and it will disappear just fine. I needed a special trip to the store to get a Dritz Mark B Gone with water soluble ink because my fine-point pen just wouldn't show up on the organza. With fourteen buttonholes to mark, I needed it to show up. My old faithful purple pen didn't work well either.

Then there was the invisible thread. I tried every trick I knew and never did get it to sew on organza the way I wanted it. I finally used bobbin thread in the needle and bobbin and it wasn't obtrusive and looked fine and was very easy to work with.

Starching the organza was a whole new adventure. Mary Ellen's Best Press worked lots better than the spray starch in a can. The second time around I kept unplugging the iron so it wouldn't get too hot as the layers of starch built up. Too much heat and it's very easy to melt a hole, especially on a crease. Enough said about that.

In retrospect, I wish I'd stitched the buttonholes in white instead of red because if one or two aren't perfectly straight it wouldn't be easy to see that. But with the gathers that becomes a non-issue anyway. And I'm ever so grateful for my machine's sensor buttonhole foot.

Now, I can go on to other things. I have a whole new skill set that one day I might be very happy to have.