I was busy Thursday and Friday evenings, but it was probably a good thing because yesterday and today I spent 1.5 hours getting the silk ground and backing fabrics prepared, transferring the pattern and then getting it all set up on my Millennium Frame. All of that needs to be done carefully and that means setting aside a block of time rather than trying to do 10-15 mins a day.
I had a bit of a moment when my iron spewed water all over the piece of silk that I wanted to use as the ground, leaving a water stain. I dug out another piece of silk but I couldn’t get the creases out so had a look online to see what I could do about the water mark. It’s apparently caused by minerals in the water precipitating out as the water dries, something which you notice on silk because it’s so sheer, whereas you wouldn’t see it on, say, cotton. The lesson here is to either empty your iron before you iron silk, or to replace the water with fresh so that there are fewer minerals to precipitate out.
One treatment seems to be to rub the silk with a clean piece of white silk, which I happened to have on hand (oddly enough) and which seemed to work. My challenge now will be to keep the ground clean whilst I work, which will mean having a piece of fabric with a hole cut in it to drape over the work whilst I embroider so that I’m not transferring oils from my hand on to the silk. That will come tomorrow. For today, I’m just happy to have it framed up and ready to go.
If you’re wondering, the green painter’s tape is just to prevent fraying on the edges of the silk. I’d have used just normal masking tape, but I don’t have any wide enough to fold around the edge. The edges will be trimmed off prior to the finished piece being laced to a board and framed. Also, if you’re wondering why one corner is a bit wonky, it’s because this is an offcut from my wedding dress! Ultimately that will also be trimmed away when it’s framed. If I was going to be super fussy, I’d lace the left- and right-hand edges to the frame, but the design area is taut enough, I think.
So, tomorrow, we get going!
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