Drawn Thread: A Lost Art of Sewing

Jul

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We are bringing a post back home today…..sharing the lost art of drawn thread that we shared on Jenn’s “Lost Arts of Sewing” series a few months ago. This time, however, we have interspersed a few pictures of CL, wearing the garment for her “One Year Old” pictures, in the write-up {something we didn’t have when it was originally posted over at A Jennuine Life}. Hope you enjoy!

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Hi everyone! We are thrilled to be here….sharing a “Lost Art” of sewing! When Jenn asked us to share in this series, we racked our brains on what to share…. We are “sewing aunts,” instead of sewing mommas, that sew for our ‘baby’ sister’s girls {and share about our sewing adventures over at FrancesSuzanne}.

If you’ve seen much of our work, it is no secret that our go-to embellishment detail is the French knot {as seen here, here, here, or here for a few examples}. But, who wants the same old, same old when posting on a friend’s site? We wanted something different, so we opted to go the road less never traveled {at least by us} and attempted the “Lost Art” of drawn thread.

We began with the Oliver + S Playdate Dress – again, a pattern we had not attempted. We are not ‘live on the edge’ sort of girls…..but Oliver + S has never let us down! We made a size 12 months, in the hopes that it will carry CL well into the fall season. Other variations, besides the ‘drawn thread component’ {that we will be sharing momentarily} were changing the original sleeves with Oliver + S Puppet Show sleeves {following Gail’s amazing directions} and foregoing the pockets in the outfit.

The dress was made from white linen and accented with a light peach batiste on the flat piping and yoke lining areas. Our focal point for the outfit, using drawn thread, was in the yoke piece portion. A large rectangle of white linen was cut – with dimensions large enough to fit the entire front yoke across. The center was marked, as well as the area marked for the two ruffles on either side of it.

Heritage Shoppe was our starting point / online tutorial to guide us through the drawn thread process. Martha, of Southern Matriarch {to see her flawless, professional version of drawn thread, check it out here}, was also extremely helpful in our drawn thread quest {although in the end we went a bit rogue}….

Edges were secured with a buttonhole stitch, and slits were made on the inside edges of the ruffle area.

The ruffle areas were prepped for ‘drawn thread’ by removing threads within the given space.

The sides were gathered in groups of four threads. One side of four done {photo below}.

Then, two sides done {photo below}.

And finally, all four sides were completed {photo below}.

The drawn thread design was painfully completed…..and no, that is not a typo: painfully!

{note top portion of the hoop embroidery….blech!}.

Needless to say, half of it was done again….living and learning by our novice mistakes.

The yoke was traced on the rectangle.

Then, prior to cutting the yoke pattern piece, we reinforced the drawn thread area by zigzag stitching and adding a thin layer of liquid glue to it.

A small, shadow-embroidered flower was added to the center yoke. And, yes…we added our ‘signature’ French knots to the flower’s center portion…

Peach lining was placed underneath the drawn thread yoke.

The yoke was then added to the main dress, and the results are shown below.

Little Miss CL seemed to ‘accept the dress’….and looks to have many more weeks/months of wear left in it! PERFECT!!

Now, truth be told, there might, or might not, have been a few tears through this process {at least by one of us}….but in the end, we’d both say: 1) we are glad we semi-learned the art of drawn thread and 2) we wouldn’t count it out of future sewing endeavors!!

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Sharon