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| 1st finished cuff; 2nd cuff being cut out; collar being embroidered |
I've been steadily embroidering, and already embroidered about ¼th of the collar. Meanwhile, I've been slowly cutting the white fabric from the 2nd cuff and I'm also finishing the second spool of gold thread. No worries, I still have a 3rd one, at a rate of one spool per cuff, I bought 3.
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| zigzagged flounce on top of the hand hemmed flounce |
I also threaded the machine with white thread, to start zigzaging the other 20 flounces' edges. I've made 3 so far, one a day, since I started, but I've been sort of testing the best way to make them, looking the neatest I can. Yes, the hand hemmed ones look much prettier, but they take an average of 8 hours to make, and the zigzag takes 10 minutes.
1st flounce: I didn't cut it open, just traced it, but the diagonal line didn't come out as nice as the other sides, the only advantage was the machine not wanting to eat the 45° corners.
2nd flounce: I cut the diagonal and the hole first, but the machine wanted to eat the 45° corners, so they're not very neat.
3rd flounce: this time I hand turned the machine at the corners, and it turned out much better, weren't for a bit where the thread went berzerk, and I had to redo from there.
From now on, I'll make at least two a day, now that I spotted the difficult points. If the fabric were stiffer, this would be much easier. Anyway, when I attach them to the petticoat, I'll put the hand hemmed ones at the top, and the flawed ones at the bottom, where they're not so visible.
Flounces: 7 down, 17 to go.
+ I really do enjoy embroidering, and now I picked up a good pace doing it. The zigzagged flounces did turn out OK, not as bad as I thought they would, and, after trimming, hiding the loose threads, and pressing, I'm sure they'll look better.
- My machine isn't a fan of the white silky satin, wanting to eat it up at times. That’s one of the reasons I don't machine sew doll clothes, my Elna doesn't love delicate jobs.
THE CUNNING PLAN
Finish the embroidery, finish the flounces and petticoat, and start sewing the dress.
