Pleatwork Hemd Continued
Well, I have gotten a lot done on the hemd. It is very slow going, but I am finally in a groove. Not sure that I will finish it in time, so I may have to use the one I already have done.
The Final Pattern/Chart
So, since I wasn't happy with my little sample of my first embroidery design, I went back to my books. It was in The Book of Smocking by Dianna Keay that I found pattern darning. It was like the angels sang when I saw it and I knew that it was the answer. It looks just like the style of embroidery used on the Mary of Hungary hemd, so I knew it would work. When I looked it up online (since none of my embroidery books mentioned it) I found that it dates back to the ancient Egyptians.
I then came across this pag http://home.comcast.net/~mathilde/embroidery/chrtindx.htm hich houses a bunch of charts. I found a couple I loved and combined them to come up with my own pattern. I did the first pattern on some small graph paper I had, but it was to large based on the amount of pleats I would have per centimeter. So, I found an online graph paper generater and used that to transpose the pattern to match the size of my pleats. It was a very long and tedious process to get it done, and my eyes were going cross trying to do it. But in the end it all worked out and I had a pattern I loved:
The Pleating of it all
The fabric was very limp and hard to work with when I did my sample, so I knew I needed to give it some body. I knew I could either add an interfacing or I could starch it. I decided to try starching it first since adding another fabric would mean trying to match up the grains perfectly because if the grain is off when pleating, it doesn't lay right. It starched beautifully!
Based on my sample, I figured out that it pleats down to 8 pleats per centimeter...thats a lot of pleats! I had some pleating dots left, so I decided to use them since I had to mark 84 inches of fabric. The dots are placed 3/16 of an inch apart and the rows are 5/8 of an inch apart. I needed about 10 rows for my pattern. I trued the fabric, then laid it out, placed the dots on top, making sure to keep everything even and went over it with the iron. I then got to work pleating. I prefer to pick up about twenty dots on each row and move on to the next row...basically working all 15 rows before moving on to the next twenty or so dots. It took me several days of working in this way to finish the pleating. It ended up being about sixteen hours of work. I had decided to use the selvedge edge as the top. Normally, I stay away from using the selvedge because fabrics are woven on a machine and there is a lot of tension at the selvedge, skewing the grain. This did cause a problem with the pleating. Even though I was careful about truing the fabric and ironing on the dots, the first few rows were way off grain, so I had to eyeball them. That slowed me way down. Luckily, I am adding trim to the top of it, and I had done extra rows just in case, so I will can cover up the first few rows with the trim.
This is a picture of the pleating in progress:
Once the pleating was finished, I pulled it tight, straightening out the pleating as I went and then I blocked it to be about two inches longer than the finished width I needed. The reason I did this is because the process of pattern darning causes the fabric to shrink because of the tension needed to maintain the picture pattern.
The pleating blocked and ready to go:
The Embroidery
Pattern darning is a a counted thread style of embroidery. It uses an uneven running stitch over a certain amount of counted threads in each row to create the pattern In this case the pleats are what get counted. I am using a modern metallic embroidery thread. I had some already and since I am trying not to spend any money, it was the only thing I had that had the right width for the look I wanted.
I would have to say the first few rows were the hardest. The pleats are so small and close together, making it hard to see. I ended up using a clip light at the edge of my cork board (which I use as a work surface on my lap) so I could actually see what I was doing. It me a while to get through those first few rows since I had to keep unpicking because I counted wrong. Once those were in though, I could just look at what was going on above the row I was working on to find my place if I got lost in my counting. Once I got my groove going, though...it got a lot easier.
The pattern starting to emerge:
I still have about seven more rows of eight to embroider at this point. And then I still have to sew it together. I don't know if I can finish in a week, but I am darn well going to try!
The Final Pattern/Chart
So, since I wasn't happy with my little sample of my first embroidery design, I went back to my books. It was in The Book of Smocking by Dianna Keay that I found pattern darning. It was like the angels sang when I saw it and I knew that it was the answer. It looks just like the style of embroidery used on the Mary of Hungary hemd, so I knew it would work. When I looked it up online (since none of my embroidery books mentioned it) I found that it dates back to the ancient Egyptians.
I then came across this pag http://home.comcast.net/~mathilde/embroidery/chrtindx.htm hich houses a bunch of charts. I found a couple I loved and combined them to come up with my own pattern. I did the first pattern on some small graph paper I had, but it was to large based on the amount of pleats I would have per centimeter. So, I found an online graph paper generater and used that to transpose the pattern to match the size of my pleats. It was a very long and tedious process to get it done, and my eyes were going cross trying to do it. But in the end it all worked out and I had a pattern I loved:
The Pleating of it all
The fabric was very limp and hard to work with when I did my sample, so I knew I needed to give it some body. I knew I could either add an interfacing or I could starch it. I decided to try starching it first since adding another fabric would mean trying to match up the grains perfectly because if the grain is off when pleating, it doesn't lay right. It starched beautifully!
Based on my sample, I figured out that it pleats down to 8 pleats per centimeter...thats a lot of pleats! I had some pleating dots left, so I decided to use them since I had to mark 84 inches of fabric. The dots are placed 3/16 of an inch apart and the rows are 5/8 of an inch apart. I needed about 10 rows for my pattern. I trued the fabric, then laid it out, placed the dots on top, making sure to keep everything even and went over it with the iron. I then got to work pleating. I prefer to pick up about twenty dots on each row and move on to the next row...basically working all 15 rows before moving on to the next twenty or so dots. It took me several days of working in this way to finish the pleating. It ended up being about sixteen hours of work. I had decided to use the selvedge edge as the top. Normally, I stay away from using the selvedge because fabrics are woven on a machine and there is a lot of tension at the selvedge, skewing the grain. This did cause a problem with the pleating. Even though I was careful about truing the fabric and ironing on the dots, the first few rows were way off grain, so I had to eyeball them. That slowed me way down. Luckily, I am adding trim to the top of it, and I had done extra rows just in case, so I will can cover up the first few rows with the trim.
This is a picture of the pleating in progress:
Once the pleating was finished, I pulled it tight, straightening out the pleating as I went and then I blocked it to be about two inches longer than the finished width I needed. The reason I did this is because the process of pattern darning causes the fabric to shrink because of the tension needed to maintain the picture pattern.
The pleating blocked and ready to go:
The Embroidery
Pattern darning is a a counted thread style of embroidery. It uses an uneven running stitch over a certain amount of counted threads in each row to create the pattern In this case the pleats are what get counted. I am using a modern metallic embroidery thread. I had some already and since I am trying not to spend any money, it was the only thing I had that had the right width for the look I wanted.
I would have to say the first few rows were the hardest. The pleats are so small and close together, making it hard to see. I ended up using a clip light at the edge of my cork board (which I use as a work surface on my lap) so I could actually see what I was doing. It me a while to get through those first few rows since I had to keep unpicking because I counted wrong. Once those were in though, I could just look at what was going on above the row I was working on to find my place if I got lost in my counting. Once I got my groove going, though...it got a lot easier.
The pattern starting to emerge:
I still have about seven more rows of eight to embroider at this point. And then I still have to sew it together. I don't know if I can finish in a week, but I am darn well going to try!