Muslin Quilt with Hand-Dyed Center and Hand Stitched Overall Design

Last summer I hand-dyed several pieces of Osnaberg muslin and several pieces of linen. The sizes are 48 x 54, 32 x 55 and 31 x 42. I found some linen/rayon fabric in a cream color on sale for $2.50/yard and decided to border the dyed pieces with the cream fabric. Now I am doing a running stitch in free-hand embroidery with either perle cotton or embroidery floss in the colors of the dyed fabric to quilt the pieces together. The batting is Warm and Natural in a cotton polyester blend and the back is unbleached muslin. This is so much fun and the first one is finished.

Challenge of repairing a tear in a silk skirt

Using an iron that was too hot caused the silk to disintegrate and almost ruin a beautiful skirt. I thought I could just find a shirt at the thrift store and then cut and paste to make the repair. I was attempting to not duplicate, but come close to the design on the hem of the skirt.

After searching several thrift stores and many racks of clothing I decided that the cut and paste method was not going to work and found a lovely black silk shirt in about the same weight although not the same color. The skirt is really dark purple.

I cut out an oval patch, sewed around it on the sewing machine, ironed the edge under and then very carefully hand appliqued it over the tears. The trick was trying to keep everything as flat as possible.

Then I visited the local fabric store and purchased embroidery thread that was a fairly good match to the existing design at the bottom.

I cut a paper pattern that was the same shape as the bottom design and began my hand embroidery. It was actually quite satisfying to see the design come to life.

I ironed it (very carefully) quite often during the sewing process to make sure again that it remained very flat and there were no bumps.

The finished product really turned out quite nice and it is actually quite difficult to see the "black" patch that is underneath the design