Heirloom Sewing Techniques

Heirloom Sewing in Todays World. by Hope Yoder  Heirloom sewing is a term used to describe many different techniques used when incorporating Swiss or French laces into various techniques & shapes. It can also be referred to "Sewing From Yesteryear". The most popular era in history where heirloom sewing was the main focus in garments was the "Titanic Era".  Remember the romantic white blouses with rows of pintucks & laces.  Heirloom sewing can also refer to special items that were made with love and stored in a cedar "Hope" chest for the future generations.   In todays world of instant gratification there are many embroidery designs that help speed up the process of creating new heirloom sewing projects. Hope Yoder  has invented a new technique of combining machine embroidery & English cotton netting (bobbinet) to simulate traditional heirloom "Lace Shaping" in the embroidery hoop. While these designs don't look exactly like their traditional counterparts, they are very delicate and dainty. Her embroidery collections that recreate traditional heirloom techniques in the embroidery hoop are Cathedral Lace Windows, Madeira Applique, Lace Shaping & English Lace Ovals.

Helpful Hints for Heirloom Sewing Below you will find some "Helpful Hints From Hope" regarding heirloom sewing & embroidery principals.   English Cotton Netting Fabric shrinks @ 6" in width. Dip in hot water, wring out excess water and dunk in straight liquid starch. Fill a bowl with just enough starch to cover fabric. Swish around and wring out excess starch.. Let air dry until 80% of the moisture is gone and iron dry. Netting is perfectly stabilized and ready to use with Hope's Heirloom Embellishment embroidery designs. Heirloom Principals  Use a high quality 100% natural fiber fabric such as silk, linen, rayon or cotton when using heirloom techniques. Synthetic fabrics such as polyester have a memory to prevent wrinkles and are not suitable for heirloom techniques such as twin needle pintucks or wing needle stitching.  Spray Starch Spray natural fiber fabric with starch lightly and let soak in for 30 seconds. Iron dry. Mist fabric (do not wet fabric) again and iron dry, repeat 3 more times. Use this method to stabilize fabric before doing any embroidery or decorative stitches (such as wing needle work). The only exception is when doing pintucks.  Hooping Fabric Place "Wash Away Wonder Tape" on the wrong side of your top hoop frame. Place a piece on all 4 sides and peel away the paper. Once you have drawn placement lines on your fabric, lay the hoop on top of fabric and the tape will keep the fabric from shifting while you finish hooping. Another good tip is to purchase a rubber mesh shelf liner at your favorite discount store. Lay underneath the bottom part of your hoop to keep it stable so it doesn't slide over the countertop.  Creating and Removing Placement Marks Use a blue water-soluble fabric marker (not a purple air-erasable marker) when drawing placement lines on your fabric. You can apply spray starch and heat from an iron to marked fabric without causing any damage to the fabric. Occasionally when pressing on purple air-erasable lines they may become permanent. When removing the blue marks, soak fabric in WATER ONLY. Occasionally detergent can cause a chemical reaction and the lines will not disappear.

Hope Yoder Offers Us a New Twist on Heirlooming by Martha Pullen, Sew Beautiful Issue No. 102, 2005 Hope Yoder has been on a roll this year. Pick up just about any sewing magazine on the newsstands, and you'll find something she's designed. Be it her blouse on the cover of Sew News, her embroidery techniques in Designs in Machine Embroidery, or her "Victoria Dreams Heirloom Shirt", which, of course, graced our pages last spring. Her book Embellished Heirloom Treasures (self-published 2005, $21.95) makes evident why Hope's design approach is so popular. Her work is feminine without being overwhelmingly frilly, and she often blends white with just the right intensity of color whether she's making a linen tea cozy, or an heirloom blouse. Although she didn't invent the Cathedral Windows technique, she works it with an interesting new twist teaming it with delicate machine embroidery. "My embroidery designs are not your typical embroidery - stick it in the hoop and go - but they are heirloom techniques that have been recreated in the embroidery hoop, making it easy for everyone to make beautiful heirlooms." Complete instructions for lending her flair to a tea cozy, a baby quilt, petite purses and the book's cover blouse are detailed step by step. Embellished Heirloom Treasures is Hope's second book. For additional sewing materials, visit her website. Most recently released is Vintage Reticule, which includes a new embroidery design and a purse pattern featuring crazy quilting, reverse bobbin embroidery, couching yards, and threads.