Viking 5x7 embroidery hoop.

I am so excited, I have been wanting this hoop for over 6 mo. Ever since Viking started moving its warehouse from on state to another,(don't remember which ones), it has been next to impossible to get some things from dealers,, for me its been this hoop. So the only way to get one is to find on on the net,, well I found one on a Yahoo group  called, sewitsforsale,, I just got it Sat..

Time for a change.

Changing fabric that is,  fall/winter is going out, spring/summer is in, well most of the fall fabric is out,, some that could be used for either season stayed, the lighter weight, or sheer stuff stayed.

These are the bins of spring fabric..

Some of the winter is on the left, spring is on the right, I roll up the fabric and put it in the bins as I get he spring out and roll it on card board for fabric.

Now to start planning to use it,,,

Christening gown II

Apparently you can only post so much on each page? so I am having to finish on this post.

For the lace, I lay the lace on the skirt, straight stitch each side, turn over, cut the material down the center, open each side and iron flat, on top, I zigzag where the fold is about 1/8th in over on the material side, this helps prevert the material from unraveling, and stabilizes the seam, which with voile, you really need it.

I made the dress out of Voile, which is very sheer and of loose weave, I don't normally stabilize buttons on a dress, cause I usually use more sturdy material , so I didn't think about stabilizing the buttons, oops. So I dug put some linen, cut 1/2 in squares out, then I needed to finish off the edges, they were too small for serging, so I used frey check. I used a pin to hold them, worked perfect.

The result.

More pix of details, the skirt has 3 sets of 6 pintucks. 1 puffing strip, and one lace strip, I didn't originally plan on putting riffon in the lace, but someone suggested I "bring" some pink into the skirt, it can be removed or use white instead.

Close-up of bodice.

Close-up of waist, I used the fabric, folded it in half, used a shell stitch from my machine to make the waist trim.

Christening gown

DONE, I won't bore you with all the details that got me here, suffice to say, I have been working on this since Aug of 09, and it finally finished,,

The dress measures from neck, 30 1/2 inches in length, and above the ruffle it is 41 in wide.

Some of the process of making it.

 

Using the hemmer on the ruffle.

Starting the pintucks,, I love pintucks, they are a cheap and easy embellishment, all you need is a double needle and pintuck foot, and two spools of thread. To start the tucks, just mark the fabric, I used a water soluble pen, and marked every few inches, once you get the 1st tuck done, the rest is easy.

The pintuck foot I used has 7 grooves. as you can see, I allign the previous tuck in a groove of the foot, this allows me to keep the other tucks straight using it as a guide,