On the edge

Juliet and I tackled a very important step in the project on Sunday. The finished panels have to have the edges cut straight and then be hemmed.

We carefully pinned the two green panels together, measured not once but three times and cut. They looked good. The process had taken nearly three hours though.

I took some of the offcuts home along with one of Juliet's samples to test settings on my machine to see if I could replicate the required hem. I was able to obtain the required depth quite easily, but had problems keeping it straight. I probably need to use a walking foot because Juliet has a Pfaff and is not having any problems.

Today we did the orange and blue panels. Pinning, measuring and cutting the orange one went well and was accomplished in far less time than yesterday. However the blue panels were a major problem. They were the first ones done and have quite narrow edges - too narrow for the hem allowance we are using. What to do? We decided that there was just enough fabric that the hem could be substituted by a binding and that this wouldn't be too noticeable. So we cut the edges. Amazingly all the layers were included, though it was by the barest whisker in a couple of spots.

We tacked to hold it all in place and called it a day. Only 5 and a half hours, but we did have couple of breaks - for lunch and for a quick trip to Textile Traders for some T-pins. Somehow we managed to buy some fabric too. Silk chiffon at 50% off. We are going to do some nuno felting once this project is out of the way.

Juliet is going to work on the panels tomorrow. I am going to the Art Gallery with my sister. Guess who will have the easier time?