Forget Me Knot - Vest - Part VIII

The Braided Trim

On either side of the cables section on the vest border, there are some spaces for additional trim. I forgot about it when I originally drafted the artwork, so I had to go back and resize the artwork to include this trim. I've finally got to the point where I can make the trim and today I'll show you how it is made.

The trim consists of a braid of 3 strands of embellished soutache. I got this idea from Jane Conlon's book, Fine Embellishment Techniques. Bascially, I've added an line of stitching in decorative thread down the center of the soutache.

To do so, I used the cording foot to guide the soutche through the sewing machine and used the same thread I used for the quilting and satin stitching. The cording foot makes a big difference when trying to do this, as it keeps the soutache in just the right place to stitch.

Here is one package, all done and wound back onto the card. I ended up having to embellish three packages of soutache, which is 15 yards. It only took about 30 minutes to do, once I figured out the best way to get it stitched.

Once the soutache was embellished, I braided it. In order to braid it easily, I stitched the ends to a piece of tear away stabilizer.

I then put it into a binder clip and pinned the unit to my dress form and braided and braided and braided some more.

When I got to the end, I stitched the ends down to another piece of stabilizer and now it is ready to be hand stitched in place on the vest. I was also able to get the vest assembled last night, getting the darts and side seams stitched. When I get the trim stitched on, I'll show you what it looks like so far. I hope to get that done in the next few days.

Parting Shot: A Lot of Snow. There's so much snow at school, that the children can't use this part of the playground. Thankfully, there is a nice sized hill behind the gymnasium that the younger children can sled down during recess.