Broderie Perse

Okay, so no trousers piccies today - I finished my dress form, and have been doing homestead things like making nondairy cheese, the laundry and the garden, and cutting out motifs from fabric for broderie perse handkerchiefs. It is very interesting to look at fabric in terms of motifs rather than as a whole, either for colour or drape as in quilting or dressmaking.

I decided to make handkerchiefs first rather than the barettes becasue it was faster, and I can sell them three to a batch.

Broderie Perse is an old quitling applique technique from the days when chintzes were even more expensive and rare than they are now, and so the individual motifs were cut out, glued on, and then stitched with a tiny whip stitch in a matching colour. Usually, these were centre medallions on whole cloth quilts, or later, centres on medallion quilts (not the same thing - confusion!) but since the craft has been revived, the technique has been used in other ways. Using it to make 'old-fashioned' flowery hankies is definitely a non traditional way! But it came to me one night several months ago as I was falling asleep. Nowadays, there are all kinds of fusible webs and adhesives apart from glue, and often motfis are not stitched, but 'I want to do it the old fashioned way.' And as I don't have a zig-zag on my antique sewing machine, they WILL be hand stitched. Fiddly? A bit. Unnecessary? Probably. But it keeps the old craft alive in its traditional method.