To all who mourn in Israel, He will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for his own glory. Isaiah 61:3

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Trying My Hand at Cut Work

Aaaaahhh...to be back home!  I love going on vacations or getting out of town for long weekends...but I really love coming back home.  After I got the house set right again and all the laundry done, I had a bit of time on my hands today.  I have three projects that need to be started here in short order, but don't have a couple key elements to begin them, so I decided to try and do some embroidery for cut work on my regular sewing machine.  One of the projects on my to do list for this year is a 1950s summer dress and I have of course been doing more than my fair share of research.  Quite a few of the dresses I have seen and fell in love with have cut work worked into the details.  Since I am not one for much simplicity, I have decided that when I make my 1950s dress, it too shall have this lovely cut work!  

After reading several entries in sewing blogs that have "how to's" for cut work, I finally got the chance to put that "how to" information to work today.  Here are a couple of the sites that I encountered....Oh and may I just add that I will most definitely be using my sewing machine and I most definitely will NOT be doing this by hand.  Just wanted to be clear on this point...


Many of the blogs I encountered were geared towards those lucky ones who have an embroidery machine.  I do not have one, but found that using the zig-zag stitch on my machine worked just fine!



Lovely blue dresses with lace cut work from Whitaker Auctions


Madeira Lace cut work dress from Etsy


Gorgeous dress from V&A.
  This dress is so fabulous!!  Lots of medallions and swags!!


I used a piece of shock pink dupioni silk for my trial run.  I figured that since my fabric for my 50s dress was dupioni, I could see how the fabric would hands.  I lined the back with wonder under and a very thin piece cotton for stability and just free handed a design that I thought would be challenging.


I used a zig-zag stitch set on a very low stitch length and went to work!


After stitching, the cutting begins...being very careful not to cut the stitching....but I did catch a few...


Finished product.  I am pretty pleased with this first go and think that I will be happy with a dress made with this addition.  Can't wait!!









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