pin-sticking 1

i have made a point of holding back until i had a good plan for this - often i get stitching and cutting before i have really planned the practicalities, in my eagerness to be making - so i have prepared my fabric, made pinning samples to try out different pins, spacing, beads and sequins, planned the layout with paper shapes

... eventually got the silk fabrics out and cut out the motifs, using Patricia's wedding dress silk for the red and white, a reclaimed bow tie for the blue and a snippet from some sales table thai silk for the gold/yellow

but before they go into their final positions i am starting on the base - the front is covered with the printed letter fabric - i am still keeping an  open mind about the reverse, but have worked out how to make it tidy whichever way i go

starting with the edging makes sense so that i minimise the risk of damage to the more delicate motifs after they are applied

the lace was reclaimed from a collar, hand-made bobbin lace - having briefly tried my hand at bobbin lace i am in deep admiration of the hours of work, skill and concentration involved in creating even this short length - it just happened to be exactly the right length to trim the edge

the beads are all from my mostly reclaimed stash - the longer pins are vintage german brass from someone else's stash via the sales table at guild meetings - i also bought some gold coloured sequin pins (Lills) to top up the silver ones which came with the kit - these have been my only additional purchase for the project so far

the pin-sticking is proving to be harder than on my samples because of the coating on the fabric - last time i printed on fabric i used Jaquard No-Flow as a base coat, this gave a softer handle and really sharp print - but i had some fabric with a different print coating already prepared so i chose to use this - beginning to regret it as my right index finger is getting sore due to the extra resistance of this thicker coating, but i think it holds the pins better than a softer fabric would