Over the years (50+) whenever I cut out material I always played around with the pattern layout to ensure I saved as much material as possible. So what did I do with all that saved 'scrap'? Nothing!! Well not much - some was used to make doll's clothes when my daughter was little, but most ended up eventually being given away or recycled at the tip. So when I had some linen material left over from adapting a pair of curtains into fake roman blinds - I told myself this time I would use the scrap in some future projects rather than getting rid of it! Yesterday, I kept my promise to myself. Adapting an old dress pattern I cut out pieces to make a top to go with a pair of navy linen trousers I have. I had to piece the back (looks like a yoke now) and it is shorter than I would have liked.....but I am pleased with the finished result
Linen creases like mad, so not sure what it will look like when its been on a while! I set up my machine for embroidery and put a small motif on the front, and a double larger one on the back. I used a double needle to border along the edges of the neck and sleeves.
I always start my machine embroidery with trepidation. I add sufficient stabiliser and am very careful with placement and tightening the frame, but no matter how careful I am at some point something inevitably goes wrong. This time, on the back the first motif stitched out perfectly.......but (you guessed it) the second was a pig (why I ask myself?). It skipped stitches, made some horrible noises (loops on the back) and the thread shredded and broke three times meaning I had to back track through the machine controls to start again where the thread had broken. All in all I was glad when the machine finally stopped! I think my machine does it deliberately just to wind me up! However, I stayed cool, calm and sensible and took a break before continuing. I ended the day with just the sleeves to set in, so this morning I was pleased that they went in without any problems and I gave a final press with my amazingly wonderful new iron (Rowenta Focus) that I bought last week.