Assembling the lovers purse

I’ve been doing this for two days now. Ok, so I’ve had a cold and I’ve not been working very fast, but I’m still well and truly sick of it. Because this is a different assembly to the lovers purse I thought I’d document it.

Warning, this post contains a honking big mistake. Yes, I know I teach this stuff and am therefore not meant to make mistakes according to some, but I think some people are wrong. Everyone, no matter how skilled, cocks up sometimes. The way I see it, true skill lies in knowing how to fix your mistakes.

First I had to blend in a few millimetres of extra split stitch down the sides of the bed curtains on the nighttime panel. I think it came out mostly ok. There’s an inevitable bit of a wobble from the addition being done in hand, but it will be bent around the edges anyway, so…

because the backside of underside couching is quite rough, I decided to pad it by tacking a thick piece of linen round the back. This is attached by sewing through the back of the embroidery

 

Then I folded the edge of the embroidered linen over and tacked that down.

 

Next I whip stitched the two panels together, right sides out, using waxed linen. This is probably the more period way to assemble the purse, and in this case I chose it for the greater accuracy needed along the edges of the embroidery. I started at the bottom corner to ensure things lined up.

 

You need to pull it quite tight.

it was when I got the two sides together that I realised my mistake. The night panel wasn’t just narrower than the day ( the reason I’d delayed assembly was to make up those few millimetres down the sides, remember) it was slightly shorter and with a bit of a wobble on the top line.

 

At this stage adding an extra bit of embroidery really wasn’t an option as I was worried about damaging the edges if I unpicked, and the wobbly corner was probably too big for the tiny margin of fabric available anyway. I measured out the bit of silk tablet weave I’d put aside for the top, and decided I could fudge it. I sewed a piece of tablet along the short edge, making sure the straight edge lined up with the top of the day panel. Then once that was in place I whip stitched the rest of the tablet weave along the top.

This was the big mistake I referred to earlier. Measuring accurately. To be honest I had made a point of ensuring I measured each panel accurately before I began sewing. I think this problem occurs during finishing and stretching as much as anything.

 

All things considered I think that was the best fix option, although it’s most obvious from the side. I debated for a while about whether or not to couch a piece of gold twist along the side, wondering if it would be too much. Then I realised I was being an idiot because less is more does not apply to medieval art.

 

Normally I would embed the cords in the seam, but in this case I’d used a method which creates a neat start, so I just sewed that end in place.

 

I took took each cord up the side before looping it over the top and anchoring it on the inside

 

The tassels are to be added in pairs. To get them to hang centrally I pierced the seam with a stiletto, which left a hole big enough to take the tassel cords through on a big bone needle

 

I loosely knotted the tails tails inside, until I had all of the tassels in place.

 

 

Obviously this left a lot of unsightly dangly tassels, so once they were in place I turned everything inside out. I pulled all the tails and knotted them tight( branston says this sounds cruel and painful) before snipping the excess and stitching each knot to the lining for extra security- because there’s nothing more annoying than one of your tassels falling off ( just ask any burlesque dancer).

right side out again and the next job is making eyelets in the tablet weave. I used a cream silk. The more eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed that this is the same piece of tablet weave that I made for the top of my other opus Anglicanum purse many years ago before this blog was even begun, and I no longer have any of that gold silk.

 

Once the cords were threaded I wrapped the ends together and sewed on the final few tassels. I feel I should add that I used fingerloop braids here because I’m still trying to make friends with fingerloop, but I think I would have been happier with the result if I’d used some other firm of twist or plait. I know fingerloop has it’ fans, but I find it unsatisfactory. I don’t think I’ll use it much again.

 

I made the lining from the bit I’d assembled from narrow strips left over from my striped dress. I french seamed it for balance.

 

Before whip stitching it into place

 

Thank goodness thats done! I have a list of a dozen jobs to do this weekend and I can finally cross one off!

 

~ by opusanglicanum on May 3, 2015.