Great sighs of relief now this job is done!
Working with diaphanous and flimsy materials is not my forte. There are several great hurdles I have to overcome. First, grimy rough hands. If I have been out gardening, I cannot easily change over to dealing with delicate fabrics because I am highly likely to snag threads on jagged fingernails. Having a sewing machine with a wooden base can present a similar problem, as the old veneer has a few rogue splinters waiting for the fabric to wrap itself gently round them.
Also, I was having to cope with tired old eyes. The fabric had to be cut to size, and the corners rounded. The job took hours, and was made all the more difficult by the fact that I was waiting for my new glasses to arrive. At one point I was cutting through four layers, and could barely see how many layers there were. The fact that I kept counting the shadow of the tulle as an extra layer didn't help.
My next job was to prepare the satin bias binding to go round the edge. Ironing a central crease along eight yards or so of binding didn't take as long as I feared.
When working with white I am always terrified everything will end up grubby, either from my hands, the sewing machine or the table. I made sure that there was no oil on the machine, because I have had bad experiences in the past when I have suddenly noticed a black stain has appeared. As for the table, because I use the dining table, I always have to check carefully for pasta sauce, gravy or other such horrors. To avoid disaster, I covered the table with a sheet, and wrapped a large scrap of fabric around the base of the machine. Once I had set up the machine, sewing on the binding was relatively straightforward.
And here is the result! It still has to be attached to a comb, but I shall leave that for later because for the moment I would rather store the veil gently folded flat rather than hanging. Next time my daughter is home I shall have to try it out on her, to see where I should make the fold so that it hangs well down her back, and then attach it to the comb. That will be the last bit of sewing I have to do for her bridal outfit. Hooray, no last minute rush!
Here goes for Week 345:-
Many thanks to Chris for linking up last time with her table runner. If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.
If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like. Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them. To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.
If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.
Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.
Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-
1. Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.
2. Link back to this post in your own post.
3. Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.
4. The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.
So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part. The
first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.
