Patchwork & Embroidered Waistcoat: Step 6 - Embroidery on Fronts & Back ...

Here's the waistcoat pieces finished & now pressed - they have shrunk in stitching so a good job I'd left them oversized. They're now pending a fitting with the customer before I can get to the next stage.

Fronts

Back

Patchwork & Embroidered Waistcoat: Step 5 - Back ...

I've just finished the embroidery for the back (more close-ups of the stitching are here), working it in a similar manner to the fronts. Because the colouring of the 'plain fronts' fabric has some lavender/purple in it, I decided to use a purple thread for the last stage.

The 1st row (worked  using 3 different stitches - feather, a floral & a cross) is stitched in white thread on all pieces & worked close to the edge, removing tacking as stitching.

Another row, in blue thread, worked on the patchwork edges to hold the pieces down & flatten them. This time only the feather & floral stitches have been used.

Another blue row was then stitched on the inside of the lighter colour pieces & using a slightly smaller cross stitch than the original.

Finally, a purple row on the inside of the darker colour pieces, again using the smaller cross stitch.

Patchwork & Embroidered Waistcoat: Step 4 - Fronts ...

I've now finished with the embroidery (pre-programmed machine) on the 2 fronts (further close-ups of the stitching are here).

The 1st row (using 3 different stitches - feather, a floral & a cross) is stitched in purple thread on all pieces & worked close to the edge, removing tacking as stitching.

Another row, in pink thread, worked on the patchwork edges to hold the pieces down & flatten them. This time only the feather & floral stitches have been used.

A further pink row on the inside of the lighter colour pieces & using a slightly smaller cross stitch.

Finally, a white row on the inside of the darker colour pieces, again using the smaller cross stitch.

Patchwork & Embroidered Waistcoat: Step 3 - Preparing waistcoat panels ...

Yesterday I prepared the patchwork waistcoat panels for their stitching. As I won't yet be cutting the waistcoat shapes, I've left the patched pieces over-sized because:

• they may slight shrink after all embroidery is complete
• waistcoat sizing has yet to be finalised. The customer has recently lost weight (which may be temporary) & a fitting is not yet possible.

Laying the patchwork panels on my cutting board, it was a quick & easy job to trace off, then tack-outline the pattern piece outlines. The stitching/embroidery can now be started & completed while the plain fabric panels can be stitched together & used for a fitting. (I'm just finishing this stage & will show these pix next).

I finally decided (mainly because of the patchwork piece sizes used AND the customer's preferences) that delicate machine embroidery (feather & cross stitch) would be best suited for the stitching. Using some of the blue pieces, at first I thought a navy thread would work but a white one looked better - it was more prominent & helped to link the 'airy' theme of the fabrics being used. I finished the sample, posted it to the customer & then remembered that I hadn't taken a picture !! Earlier today I heard the sample's OK so I can now begin working on the back (I'll try to remember pix & put them up on the studio blog as I progress!!! For the fronts (in pink/lavender fabric), I'll likely use the white thread again although I'll try a sample first.

Anyway, the first photos of the waistcoat (left) & the pattern outlining yesterday, reminded me of the amount of use I get from my cutting board. It's great when it's on a tabletop & you need to quickly fold your work away + it's really handy as a 'background' as you can see from previous blog images below. If you want to read more about it, click here: cutting board.

Black Cushions revived ...

Some original decorative 18"/45cm square cushions made a few years ago have now been re-vampled into 12"/30cm ones to be used for back cushions (see more details here). Here's some close-ups of the techniques & fabrics originally used in their making. Since I wanted the cushions to be purely decorative, I combined both dressmaking & furnishing fabrics & haberdashery. Both cushions have a thick, heavy tassel furnishing braid, edge-stitched on after completing the cushion - the weight of this trim holds the cushion firmly in place on the chair as well as helping to co-ordinate the overall decor.

Below is a black furnishing moiré with metallic braid zig-zagged down to create a false flap. The button has been made using some of the patterned velvet to cover a plastic dressmakers covering button.

This next image shows the dressmaker's velvets (one plain, the other metallic stitched) seamed with a metallic polyester in the joining seam.

Random & mosaic patchwork samples ...

While I was pinning & tacking the patchwork waistcoat, my thoughts led to one of my projects. Discussing in my mind (with myself!) what stitching to use for the patchwork (whether hand or machine), I began to wander on to mosaics & machine embroidery. Having a few small scraps to hand (while cutting the waistcoat), I thought after tacking, I would have a break & make a machine embroidery sample ... with my mosaic theme. So here's the initial machine embroidered samples for my mosaic project (if you want to see the beginnings of this project in more detail, visit here - Project:Mosiac).

First I snipped & neatened the small scraps, pinning them randomly onto some sew-in interfacing (for stability).

I then straight stitched them quickly into place using white thread.

After this, I proceed with the same straight stitching, alternating dark & light threads (actually oddments that had to be used up!) Around 6 colors were chosen that were similar to those in the fabric. Randomly stitching in a sort of floral/leaf design & vaguely following the colours/patterns of the fabric.

This is the finished sample - the texture is rather nice & appears 'bubbly' (a result of the fine fabric, the interfacing & the stitching technique. The patterns & shapes created, generally what I was hoping for.

Overall, the sample matches to what was (at this stage) in my head - the sample will now hang up  awaiting the next development - possibly when the waistcoats next continue!

Patchwork & Embroidered Waistcoat: Step 2 - fronts & cutting ...

Both fronts (left) are now tacked & the main plain sections (fabrics above) have been cut out - the purple fabric will be used for the back of the patchwork fronts & the batik blue/pink will be used for the patchwork back.

As yet I haven't decided on the 'embroidery' that is to be used to hold the patchwork pieces in shape ..... Some initial experiments & samples in machine embroidery have led to ideas for Project: Mosaic.