Amazing what can be found lurking in the depths of my stash. I was looking for misplaced bits of items I'd cut out to sew for the kids late last night when I ran across a bunch of rolls of Christmas ribbon. Pretty sure my mom bought them in the mid '90's when I worked at a craft store and there was a huge 90% off clearance. She cleaned out her crafting closets earlier this year and I inherited a couple of boxes of random stuff. I retaliated by gifting her a stack of miscellaneous quilting fabric.
While moving some of this aside, I noticed that a couple of rolls had rather nice color and edges. Looking closer, the wired edging wasn't through the gold cord, but sandwiched between the cord and the edge of the ribbon. It seemed like it would disassemble rather nicely. Nothing to lose, so I gave it a shot. SCORE! Its a pretty high quality floral ribbon (it was sold for like $2 a yard back in the day.) The cording isn't a covered core either, but is multiple strands twisted. I matched it up with DMC's gold metallic "pearl cotton" and its a solid match. Nice, since it will couch down nicely with that, and I can make more cording with a drill if I run out. It came to pieces without shredding or destroying and the individual element seems like it will hold up well. I had 8 yards of the color I was playing with last night. That gave me 16 yards of cord. I have another 9 yards of a different color that has the same color corded edging so that will give me another 18 yards. The velvet portrait dress doesn't have any visible trim on the bodice, just the sleeves. The trim on the sleeves is in straight vertical lines down the under sleeve and on the edges of the panes in the upper sleeve. The total trim isn't at all extravagant. I'll probably add a guard to the skirt, but 30 or so yards will probably be plenty. I had planned to do some macrame and do something a bit more textural, but I may just settle for the cord since the portrait trim is so understated. The other option is to make or find something else for the dress and use the salvaged cording for the balzo. I'm going to give it a day or two before I decide. Either way, free trim from the bottom of my stash makes me happy.
Woo! Awesome stash find. I would go with simple couched cord like the portrait. The wow factor in that portrait lies in the texture of the velvet and the amazing partlet. I'd be afraid of detracting from those things. But, that's just me, and I'm opinionated. :P Either way, I'm sure you'd make it look awesome.
ReplyDeleteYou are probably absolutely right. I was thinking about doing a small winged picot on cord just to add a little width, but it was primarily because I am worried about getting the lines totally straight. Simplicity has its hazards :) there is also the issue that I am anything BUT subtle. Its a new challenge for me.
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