Ellen shares a goffered veil as part of the UFO Challenge.
Entered in the categories:
- Old enough to drive, vote, or retire. Project that has spent the longest time to complete
- Finally, knocked the bastard off! Most longed for project / most relief on completion
As Ellen of Wyteley shares:
A long, long time ago, in a land quite close to here, I was admiring the look of someones goffered veil. First, I attempted to purchase such a piece, but the only one I could find within my budget turned out to be really quite crappy. So when I next purchased a 2.5 m piece of white linen, for an under-garment, I reserved enough for a semi-circular shoulder length veil, and I reserved a strip of selvedge the two full 2.5 metres long, to make the frill from. I cut out the veil and this strip and then I got thoroughly daunted by the idea of attaching a lot of fabric to not very much fabric, and it all went and sat in the naughty corner for at least two years. So when the UFO challenge came out, I revived the project; I looked at a bunch of websites, but they all seemed too complicated. So in the end I hemmed the semi circle with a very small hem and then made the frill up as I went along. I decided to not try to make it perfectly even. I put a running stitch through to put the gathers where I wanted them them, then I basted them to themselves with back stitch, because they moved too much on running stitch. Then I sewed them very carefully to the underside of my straight edge of my semi-circle. First, I stitched the bottom on, then I searched the top on, and then I decided it didn’t look secure enough and stitched the bottom on again, and then I ironed the beejeezus out of it and put a running stitch it all. They are now thoroughly attached. This hand sewing took a very long time, because I was determined to to stitch each and every fold thoroughly onto the main body of the veil, so that the only bits that stick up are the bits that are meant to stick up, i.e. the front edge.
What would I do differently? The silver strip I used was 3 fabric thicknesses; it was folded into thirds and I used the salvage as one of the hard edges and the fold as the other hard edge. In hindsight I should have put the cut edge on the inside! I remembered that far too late. I sincerely hope It won’t turn fluffy over the years. Perhaps I should have used a similar but thinner fabric, because the frill is a little bulky, but at least this way I didn’t have to fart about deciding whether two colours of white are actually exactly the same enough or not. I’m one of those people where things either have to be distinctively different or exactly the same; not quite the same would drive me crazy. how delinquent you have been.
Read more about the UFO Challenge and the entry categories here.
