Up Next: Embroidery

Every time I turn around there's something else I have to learn how to do. Sew with a machine. Sew by hand on a grand scale. Design the patterns myself. Sew boning tunnels. Sew in three dimensions for my hoops ("Yeah, well, I only see two!" "That sounds like a personal problem."). And now, fucking embroidering!

What?

Exactly. That was what I said. But there's two things happening here. First, I was trying to figure out how to decorate my stays, and the fact is that finding acceptable black lace might actually be more work than just embroidering something on the front panel would be. Second, he watched Amadeus again now that I've finally started sewing in earnest and pointed at the embroidery on the waistcoat and asked for it so sweetly that I just couldn't say no. So now I get to learn to embroider, too. Awesome.

At least, since I know how to sew by hand, this shouldn't actually be too much of a stretch--many of the stitches are similar, so it's simply a matter of having a different end than attaching two pieces of fabric to one another. Not such a leap that I can't handle it. (I can leap thick craft-books in a single bound! Ha. I am so making up a super-heroine/domestic goddess costume!)

According to my project bible, embroidery would have been done on the material before it was cut. So I'll have to trace the pattern onto the material and then add the embellishments before I cut it. Which pretty much means that if I cut it wrong, he ain't getting no damned embroidery, after all. No way am I fucking with that twice. I'm less worried about the cuts on my stays than his waistcoat. Also the embroidery would be on a much smaller scale--1 panel as opposed to along the entire edge of...well, along the entire edge.

In the meantime, I am blessing the internet for its troves of old-fashioned embroidery patterns. I love the free exchange of information. So much better than having to check out 100 books from a library!