Over the weekend I managed to make a second padded coat hanger for the local show. The inspiration for it was a vintage embroidered pillowcase. The white embroidery was beautiful but the seams had disintegrated, I think I bought it many years ago from the St Michael Hospice stall at the Great Yorkshire Show, they used to have an amazing stall just selling vintage lace and cloth, all beautifully laundered. Some of it was just short lengths of lace, obviously cut off something that couldn’t be rescued, I bought all sorts over the years, I think this was one such item.
My original plan was to make a deeper coat hanger with the lace across the middle, unfortunately it was just a tad too narrow, it wouldn’t cover the hanger, so I decided to make a shoulder cover for a hanger, I’d seen pictures on the internet, but really I was making it up as I went along!
I covered the hanger first with the plain end of the pillow case. It is beautiful quality linen, it was actually quite hard to sew as the thread count is so high! I decorated it with another length from the stall, a vintage length of broderie anglais, isn’t it gorgeous! The lace is quite heavy so it didn’t drape very well round the curve of the hanger. I put the box pleat in the centre to help it to hang straight. I added three vintage mother of pearl buttons to hold the pleat in place.
I drew round the hanger to get the shape for the shoulder cover, As it wasn’t quite wide enough to stitch a seam straight down, I added a curved gusset at each end. I used a close zig-zag to finish the edges inside and edge stitched along the shoulder seam. I’d kept the hem of the original pillow case so I just hemmed the gusset to match. A narrow seam sown the front edges and it was finished.
I’m still not sure about this make for the show, the linen is so white, it makes the lace look off white, probably not helped by the buttons. I’ve also discovered it’s not that great to photograph either! If I have chance before the show I might make another one and then decide which one to enter.
End of Month Stash Report
I know I’m a bit late for this one! I’ve done lots of sewing in April, but unfortunately it’s not from my dress-making stash, and my figures don’t include my quilting or home furnishing stash! Even more unfortunately, I went on a WI trip, we visited the James Herriot museum and the Mouseman of Kilburn workshop. We had a fantastic day, the sun shone and in the three hours we had in Thirsk, I found a lovely fabric shop and bought two fabric lengths!! so, here goes…
Balance brought forward from 31st March 83.9m
Fabric bought 2.5m
Fabric used 0m
Balance on 31st April 86.4m
I’m going to have to get cracking with some sewing as at the end of June I’ve won a weekend for two in Richmond Hill, just outside |London and I’m planning to hit Goldhawk Road big time!!! I think I need to do a few high yardage makes, such as a Gabriola skirt or three!
