The progress so far.
I drew my design on paper and made the toile, which fitted me quite well.
I wanted to make the main blouse in a floral fabric; with the front panel, the collar and the cuffs in a contrast fabric. I am pin tucking and machine embroidering these contrasting areas. I decided to pin tuck the fabric first before cutting out the front section.
To ensure the pin tucking was straight I tacked where the centre front line of the blouse will be, then marked out the pin tucking lines. To keep my lines straight I pulled the tacking thread in a straight line along the fabric, then put in pins to mark the lines, then tacked where the pins were. It was an easy way to be sure I did not wobble!!
I pressed each line for the pin tucking and removed the tacking before I stitched rows and rows of pin tucks close to the folded edge of the fabric. By removing the tacking before I stitched I did not get tangled up with the tacking thread and the thread of the pin tucks.
The pattern was laid on the fabric after pin tucking and the outline was tacked to enable me to see how much pin tucking I needed to do.
After all the pin tucking was complete, I ran rows of machine embroidery stitches in the pin tucked channels. The stitches are pre programmed in my machine, so I just chose two patterns I liked, that were also an appropriate match for the floral fabric.
I've stitched the shoulder seams in place and started to construct the blouse. The front and side panels, the back panel and side backs are in place and the sleeves are in. It's just a matter of the collar and cuffs and it will be done. With this done, I only have another three garments to make for the City and Guilds course I'm doing.
