What Are You Working On? is for all things hand-made, home-made, and creative in a variety of mediums, where we talk about (and sometimes display) our handiwork, whether yarn and fabric crafts, woodwork, metalwork, art, or anything else “crafty”.
Do you create with your hands and heart?
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What Are You Working On?
Schedule:
June 20 — open
June 27 — open
July 4 — taking off because July 4th
Heirloom Sewing is an art form that began in the 1890s by French nuns doing the delicate sewing to help support the nunneries. Heirloom sewing uses fine fabrics combined with an assortment of lace, insertions, tucks, narrow ribbon, and smocking. Heirloom sewing is in reality, a way to create fabric that is then used to create garments. Most often, these garments are for babies or children, especially christening gowns, but it is also used in women’s blouses and fine lingerie. Whereas in the past, all heirloom sewing was done by hand, the techniques have been adapted for modern sewing machines.
At the Sewing Expo in Chicago, I took a class in Heirloom sewing. I knew I’d love it. I used to watch Martha Pullen’s Sewing Room where she demonstrated heirloom sewing techniques and would display items from the last couple of centuries and explain what was used. It was the only thing I regretted losing when we had a lightening strike too close to the house which fried all our recordings, including her shows.
As I said earlier, Heirloom sewing is a way to make fabric that is then used to create something like a baby bonnet. Below is the “fabric”.
It is a piece of bastiste (fine, thin cotton) in the back, two rows of lace, a row of entredeux (looks like a railroad for ants), an embroidered insertion. another row of entredeux, and then a ruffle with bastiste and lace.
One of the main points of Heirloom sewing is that no seam really shows. They are all “rolled,” or butted. The main techniques in Heirloom sewing deal with how to attached the different elements. How to attach lace to fabric, how to attach lace to lace, how to attach lace to entredeux, etc.
For lace to lace, you butt the two laces strips and sew them with a fine, narrow zigzag stitch.
For lace to fabric, place right side together such that the fabric sticks out above the lace about 1/8”. Again do a fine zigzag which will roll over that 1/8” fabric. We were told that in the 1890s, the French nuns would spit on their fingers and roll the 1/8” over and then whip stitch.
For lace to entredeux, those fine holes, trim one side of the entredeux to to 1/8”, butt the lace to the entredeux, and again do a narrow zig zag which will pull the 1/8” fabric into a very small roll.
For entredeux to flat fabric, place right sides together and sew a straight stitch almost against the entredeux, then lay flat, trim to 1/8” and do the zigzag again.
There are many more heirloom sewing techniques. I will have a list of videos and websites at the end. I took the class from a wonderful woman who publishes Classic Sewing and is focused on heirloom sewing. Her name is Kathy McMakin.
At the end, you should not have any seams stitching out. (This is actually straight, just laid out wacky.)
I know this isn’t for everyone, but I love it and bought a book by Martha Pullen and some patterns for a woman’s blouse. Will see how this goes. I have way too many hobbies — Knitting, quilting, embroidery, and writing.
Speaking of which, the writing that is, check out my books at Amazon, written by W. F. Halsey. Light and amusing cozies featuring strong women protagonists.
What Are You Working On?
Some tutorials: