Seven Threadly Sins

by Janet Bolin

  Materials:

  Flannelette in skin tones

  Scraps of fabric, lace, trims

  Many colors of embroidery thread

  Water-soluble stabilizer

  Small paintbrush

  Doll construction:

  (If you don’t have an embroidery machine or software, lower your sewing machine’s feed dogs and use a hand embroidery hoop to guide the fabric underneath your presser foot to stitch the designs you’ve drawn on the fabric.)

  1. Open your embroidery software. Specifying a straight stitch, draw a simple outline of a doll.

  2. Save a copy of this outline as an individual design to be used in making the doll’s outfits (below).

  3. In your first design, add facial features and lines between fingers and toes if desired.

  4. Specifying a tight satin stitch in skin tones, trace over the original outline of the doll. Make certain that the satin stitching will be the final part of the design to be stitched. Those of you who have done appliqué work will recognize the technique.

  5. Sandwich water-soluble stabilizer between two pieces of flannelette and tighten in your hoop.

  6. Insert the hoop in your embroidery machine or attachment and stitch the doll. Stop the stitching before the satin-stitched outline.

  7. Remove the hoop from your machine. Don’t unhoop the fabric and stabilizer.

  8. Being careful not to puncture the stabilizer, carefully clip the excess flannelette on both the top and the bottom of your “sandwich” away from the simple outline of the doll. Also, carefully clip the flannelette away from the hoop’s edges, on both the top and the bottom of the hoop. Now you have hooped water-soluble stabilizer surrounding a flannelette doll.

  9. Reinsert the hoop in your embroidery machine or attachment.

  10. Stitch the remainder of design, the tight satin stitching outlining the doll.

  11. Unhoop the stabilizer and doll. Cut away excess stabilizer. Using a paintbrush, dab warm water on remaining stabilizer until it dissolves away.

  Clothing Construction:

  1. In your embroidery software, open the simple doll outline design you saved separately. Save it with a different name (e.g., ruffled cocktail dress). Specifying a straight stitch, draw an outline of the garment you wish to make, then erase the straight stitching (feet, hands, head?) that won’t be part of the garment.

  2. Still in your embroidery software, add additional fabric appliqués and other decorative touches as desired.

  3. Sandwich water-soluble stabilizer between flannelette on the bottom and fabric for the garment on top.

  4. Insert the hoop in your embroidery machine or attachment and stitch simple outline(s) plus your additional appliqués and decorations.

  5. Remove the hoop from your machine. Don’t unhoop the fabric and stabilizer.

  6. Being careful not to puncture the stabilizer, carefully clip the excess fabric away on the top and bottom of the garment and away from any appliqués. Also, carefully clip the fabric near the edges of the hoop on both the top and the bottom. Now you have hooped water-soluble stabilizer surrounding your doll’s latest garment.

  7. Reinsert the hoop in your embroidery machine or attachment.

  8. Let your machine stitch the tight satin stitching outlining the garment and any appliquéd additions.

  9. Unhoop the stabilizer and garment. Carefully clip the stabilizer close to the satin stitching. Using a paintbrush, dab warm water on the remaining stabilizer.

  The flannelette on the backs of the outfits should adhere (lightly) to the doll’s flannelette “skin.”

  Please send finished photos of your fashion figures and their clothes to Willow@ThreadvilleMysteries.com.

  Willow’s Tips

  1. Buy lots of different weights and kinds of embroidery thread and play with using them in your needle and (for heavier threads) in your bobbin. Test each one on fabric (I use unbleached muslin) and note on the fabric which tension works best for each one. When you’re ready to use one of your new threads in a design, refer to your test fabric and your notes.

  2. Test new embroidery motifs on scraps before stitching them on your large pattern pieces (or your new sheets or pillowcases . . .). Keep those trial designs for use in crazy quilts or for appliqués on linens or clothing.

  3. Chief Smallwood sometimes accuses me of having a wild imagination. Maybe that’s not good in murder investigations (I tend to think that it is good, however . . .), but when sewing and embroidering, let your imagination soar. If you don’t like what you made, don’t call it a mistake. It’s a creation.

  Most of all, have fun.

  WILLOW

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