I did it

Ok, the time had come to deal with the expensive lace.  I had thread traced the pattern  pieces onto the lace and now I had to take a pair of scissors and cut into the fabric and let me tell you that I felt quite nervous doing this, predominately because I bought the last of the lace so if anything went wrong, I couldn't buy any more.

I took advantage of Skyping my dear friend Sigrid so I could show her the lace and what I had done so far, and to share my thoughts with her, just in case I was way off mark. She agreed to my tactics, however the internet kept fading in and out, so both of us kept freezing on the screen or we only got part of our sentences, so perhaps she didn't agree with me and I only thought she did lol.

Sunday it was Vivien's turn I called her to get some reassurance that my thoughts and ideas were not too off base.  To this end thank you both ladies - you have been a godsend.  Just being able to talk things through with you has helped me so much.

One of my conundrums was do I cut through the motifs or around them???  In general I cut around the individual motifs, on the basis that I could cut them off afterwards.  There were some that it only caught part of the motif so I just cut through those.

I decided to use a french seam on this fine lace, so my first stitching line was wrong sides together on a very narrow seam, and then I trimmed it as close to the stitching as I would dare.  Once all the seams were completed, I then sewed again but this time right sides together.

I haven't pressed any of the stitching - there are beads and sequins on this lace, so the best I can do is to just hover lightly above the lace, but I won't even do that until I test it on a spare scrap of fabric, and I definitely use my silk organza pressing cloth.

I managed to break 5 needles sewing this lace even though I tried carefully to slow down, and move the needle by hand over the larger beaded areas..... so glad I bought a pack of 100 needles, knew they would come in handy.

I am hoping that I have given you enough information to tune back in post wedding on the 18th of May when I will show you the completed wedding sewing with us all wearing them.  My dress is morphing into my original idea and turning out as I imagined it would, which is good news for me.

Its late, I am tired and now need some sleep.

Tomorrow I am off to see the cake lady and then on to the florist to choose my flowers.

Catch you later..................