I spent about nine hours yesterday sewing on lace, an extremely laborious, meticulous, time-consuming process. Each motif takes about an hour and a half to trim and sew down – clipping away the net close along the edges, then appliqueing the lace with tiny, nearly-invisible stitches every quarter inch, all the way around the edge. Each time the outlining cord has been cut, whether by me or the lacemaker, the edges need to be carefully whipstitched down to prevent raveling. So it is truly a labor of love.
So far I’ve sewn down five motifs and have another five motifs left to go on the front, so it will be another two days to finish the lace in front. By that time, my dobby box should be back from AVL, so I will alternate weaving the double-happiness ribbon with sewing down the lace on the sleeves. All in all, it promises to be a busy week, but I think I can get the lace and pearls on and the double-happiness ribbon woven by the weekend. Which was my goal, so I think I’m doing OK.
Here are some illustrative photos of what I’ve been doing:
I’ve deliberately left the second photo full-size (meaning it is about 1.5 MB, so those with slow connections might want to skip it) so you can zoom in and look at the stitching if you like.
And, just for eye candy, a shot of the lace on the sleeve:
Back to work! If I get on it now, I should have time to finish one more motif before I leave for work.
