More devilish fun
Here I sit at the theatre, listening to the low rumble of the washer and dry as I practice avoidance on a project for Iona. Sunday is laundry day. Maintenance day. The day I have alone with all of the costumes currently on stage to thoroughly clean them and check them over for missed repairs. We want to keep them as good as new during their 100+ performances after all!
There's not much to do in the half hour between loads. It is too frustrating to drag any major projects for the shop over because of the lack of space in the wardrobe area and frequent interruptions of the dryer's buzzer. So small project and hand sewing get my undivided attention while the clothes agitate themselves clean in a sudsy bath.
While, such project only get my undivided attention if they do not annoy me.
My next project for Iona is a bright orange velvet tailcoat for a clownish inspired costume. Only problem is the velvet she bought is silk velvet. And like almost every other type of fabric made of silk it is soft and drapey...hardly suiting material which needs something a little more crisp. The first solution was to fuse interfacing to the back of each piece for stability. Only after we cut everything out she decided she did not like the texture of the needle board (the board of closely placed points that you put the velvet face down against whilst ironing as not to crush the pile). Simple solution...deal with it because I'll have to use the needle board to press open my seems. Besides, a little steam and a little brushing usually fluffs the texture right out. Much easy than trying to refluff crushed velvet at least.
She did not like that answer, instead asking me to hand stitch the interfacing in. Problem is, this is a fusible interfacing so as soon as I get anyway near it with an iron it with try to glue itself to the closest piece of fabric...resulting in ugly puckers and bubbles. Had we fused it to the back first, said bubbleage would be controlled.
So nix the fuseable interfacing. Time to cut yet again. This time a non fusible backing. Which then has to be hand based onto each piece of velvet. No machine stitching here...the machine likes to push the top layer ahead of itself, stretching it out. Of course, even hand basting ain't no cake walk. I've 8 more pieces to stitch...maybe three hours of work. Of course I still have to assmeble the thing. And hope the velvet doesn't decide to droop between the seams...
There's not much to do in the half hour between loads. It is too frustrating to drag any major projects for the shop over because of the lack of space in the wardrobe area and frequent interruptions of the dryer's buzzer. So small project and hand sewing get my undivided attention while the clothes agitate themselves clean in a sudsy bath.
While, such project only get my undivided attention if they do not annoy me.
My next project for Iona is a bright orange velvet tailcoat for a clownish inspired costume. Only problem is the velvet she bought is silk velvet. And like almost every other type of fabric made of silk it is soft and drapey...hardly suiting material which needs something a little more crisp. The first solution was to fuse interfacing to the back of each piece for stability. Only after we cut everything out she decided she did not like the texture of the needle board (the board of closely placed points that you put the velvet face down against whilst ironing as not to crush the pile). Simple solution...deal with it because I'll have to use the needle board to press open my seems. Besides, a little steam and a little brushing usually fluffs the texture right out. Much easy than trying to refluff crushed velvet at least.
She did not like that answer, instead asking me to hand stitch the interfacing in. Problem is, this is a fusible interfacing so as soon as I get anyway near it with an iron it with try to glue itself to the closest piece of fabric...resulting in ugly puckers and bubbles. Had we fused it to the back first, said bubbleage would be controlled.
So nix the fuseable interfacing. Time to cut yet again. This time a non fusible backing. Which then has to be hand based onto each piece of velvet. No machine stitching here...the machine likes to push the top layer ahead of itself, stretching it out. Of course, even hand basting ain't no cake walk. I've 8 more pieces to stitch...maybe three hours of work. Of course I still have to assmeble the thing. And hope the velvet doesn't decide to droop between the seams...
posted by Unknown at
4:20 PM
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