I’ve plodded along on my gown lining- it fits nicely and I’ve adjusted the shoulders. However, I’m apprehensive about actually cutting into my nice wool for the gown, especially as all three kids have been home for Spring Break and have divided my attention enough times that I’m especially resistant to doing anything demandingly precise while they’re present. Logically I understand that it must be done and that my measurements are sound, but mentally I’ve got that fear of uncharted territory and thus have been delaying the inevitable by working on some of the accessory side projects.
I did the brick stitch embroidery for an alms purse some years ago after taking a class on an extant item in the Victoria & Albert Museum that inspired it. Mine is sized up from the original, but unfinished. I’d like to finish a linen bag as backing for the embroidery, and attach the colored tassels in order to have the completed alms purse as part of my final outfit. I’ve located the rest of my thread for the tassels and will make the bag this week in between fretting over the cutting of the actual wool gown layers, I suppose.
Lastly, I got a bit bored with my already completed St. Birgitta cap, and made a new one during a virtual embroidery meetup, because I’ve been tinkering with how to hold the two sides of the cap evenly while attempting to completed the joining embroidery of interlaced herringbone stitch. The stitch itself is no problem, but anchoring the pieces parallel to one another, along a curved seam, in a stable way? It’s a pain, y’all. I used a stiffened piece of aida fabric; we’ll see how that goes.
Clearly, embroidery is my comforting handwork go-to. I guess I’ve learned that about myself this week.
Onward to the terrifying reality of cutting into the “good” fabric tomorrow, while my distracting family members have returned to school.
When I made a Birgitta-style cap for a friend of mine, I basted the pieces to a strip of graph paper. Not historical, I know, but it worked really well.