Saturday, July 16, 2011

Constructing the Baby Bishop I

This past week was the first week in over a month that I've put in five whole days at work, so I haven't accomplished too much. But this morning I spent several hours sewing and have done quite a bit!


The first thing I did was work on the buttonholes. I actually put them in before I attached the neck binding, just forgot to photograph it until later. Most are a bit ragged, as I have this love/hate relationship with my buttonhole attachment. The top hole looks pretty good, but all the rest had issues when stitching them out. On each and every one of them the program stopped stitching the second bar too soon, so I had to resort to using the satin stitches in two widths to finish them. Luckily, this wasn't too hard. I have a Viking Designer I and the applique stitches F3 and F4 (adjusted to 4.5 width), matched the buttonhole stitch B2 perfectly.  Someday I'll have to sit down and figure out why the buttonholer is so wonky.



Then I rummaged around in my stash and found several yards of this sweet Swiss edging. The bottom view is trimmed to 1/4 inch to better align it to the edge of the fabric. I haven't found a good tutorial on attaching Swiss edging to fabric, so when my current rush of projects is over I may sit down and make one. If anyone knows of one, please let me know!



However, I do have a tip. I use the B foot to attach any entredeux type edgings, as it has a groove on the bottom so the entredeux can easily be centered in it. Then I move my needle position 3.0 to the right, and the needle is always perfectly positioned.


All I need to do now is to add the elastic in the sleeves and all the handsewing of the neck binding, back opening facings and the buttons. 


After I took the previous picture I decided it needed something around the hem, so I drew scallops that bottomed out 1 inch above the fabric edge for some featherstitching. I'm using two strands of the pink floss that matches the smocking. The dot above the peak of the scallops mark the spot where I'll add either a bullion rose or bud, depending how long it takes me to do the rest of the handsewing.

Now it's time to sit on the patio with an iced tea and stitch!

4 comments:

  1. Cynthia,
    I just love the pink and white. Pink is my fave color after all. Anyway, I love it.

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  2. Love your bishop, Cynthia ! I don't know how you work and sew......I feel quite ashamed that I do not achieve as much as I should. I will post my latest smocking when I have the chance. I really like your hem treatment too.....very sweet and delicate.

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  3. The bishop will be so sweet with all your special touches, when completed! I have found my D1 automatic buttonhole foot to have a mind of its own if everything is not perfect. That includes having consistent levels throughout. So, if it is moving over different thicknesses, i.e, double thickness of facings as opposed to single thickness of the bishop itself, it tends to go astray. I also use stabilizer under all my buttonholes. Have you ever tried making the buttonholes manually, without that little buttonhole wheel? I sometimes resort to that, too.
    I think we all have different ways of attaching Swiss trim. I use one of two methods, depending on where I am attaching it. One tutorial is on my blog, but I have never shared the second method I use. I will be waiting to read yours!

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  4. As always its coming along beautifully. I envy you making all these wonderful baby clothes etc. Now you asked what stumping was. Well our house was originally sitting up on hardwood stumps or wooden poles with a metal prong that used the sit into the pieces that form the framework. About 200 of these were dug out and removed and replaced with new concrete ones. Most houses these days sit on a concrete slab or even steel poles or brick pillars. It involves a lot of vibration, noise and dirt everywhere. Not very pleasant and would not have needed doing if the river didn't flood us back in January. Luckily insurance has not been a big issue as $23,000 AUD is a hell of a lot to stop your house from sinking LOL. I'll take a pic and post it on my blog later

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