
For years, I loved doing French
Handsewing by Machine. You know, those lovely dresses and
christening gowns with rows and rows of laces pieced together, with delicate batiste fabrics, fancy bands, and the like. Well, I
decided it was time to see if any of these techniques could be done in
miniature. The answer is a definite YES! As long as you
have patience! |

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Pin tucks -
Tiny "false" tucks created by
sewing rows with a twin needle. |
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Insertion -
Any lace or eyelet trim that is straight on
both edges, allowing it to be "inserted" between two
sections of fabric. |
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Edging -
Lace or eyelet trim with one straight edge,
and one scalloped or other decorative edge. For attaching with
straight edge to fabric, and "edging" this piece of fabric. |
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Beading -
Can be lace or eyelet, insertion or edging,
but has large holes thru it for the purpose of inserting ribbon.
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Entredeau -
Fancy French word for
"joining". This is an eyelet type of material that
consists of a single row of tiny holes. Used to join fabric to
fabric, or lace edgings to fabric. But for us, makes GREAT
miniature beading......
Entredeux is often part of eyelet trims and
edgings too! |

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I want to make a skirt that has
rows of pintucks, arranged in groups of three. Knowing that the pin
tucks will pull up the fabric, I have cut my batiste wider and longer
than the planned finished size of the skirt panel I need.
I have marked my batiste fabric with a
disappearing fabric marker, leaving 3/4" between each mark. |
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Pin tucks are made using a twin
needle, two upper threads and one bobbin thread. It is as simple
as sewing a straight line! Twin needles come with different spacing
so buy the narrowest you can to make the finest pin tucks. |
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Sew down each line, making one pin tuck,
then stitch along either side of the first pin tuck, making a set of
three. Continue across the width of your skirt. |
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When stitching was completed, I
rinsed fabric with cold water first, to remove disappearing marker,
washed in very hot water, to shrink fabric a bit, and make the pin tucks
even smaller. Then I trimmed all edges straight, cutting the
fabric section down to the size needed for the skirt panel. |

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I have a piece of insertion that
is actually eyelet beading. It is edged with entredeux on either
side, and I will attach this to the bottom edge of my skirt
panel.
The first task is to trim away the excess
fabric on either side of the trim, cutting right along the outside
edge of the entredeux. |
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Place your insertion and your
skirt panel right sides facing. Notice that the edge of the trim
band is offset from the edge of the skirt fabric. (approx
1/8") Set your sewing machine to a zig zag stitch. Now set
the width of the stitch so that the needle goes thru the small holes
in the entredeux with the left half of the stitch, the swings out just
BEYOND the edge of the skirt fabric.
Set your stitch length so that each time the
needle completes the left half of the zig zag, it goes thru a single
hole in the entredeux. |
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The band has been attached right
sides facing to the skirt, and see how neat the zig zag edge is?
The stitches have gone thru the entredeux holes, the over the edge of
the skirt fabric, causing this fabric to form a tiny rolled edge
against the eyelet band. |
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Now open the band and skirt out
right sides up, and press well, pushing the little rolled edge up
toward the skirt.
NOTE: If you want to make a band using
a piece if insertion lace, you use the same zig zag method, but not
worry about having to hit the entredeux holes. |
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NOTE: If you want to make a
band using a piece if insertion lace, you use the same zig zag method,
but not worry about having to hit the entredeux holes. This is a
section of a skirt that was made by joining fabric sections together
with lace insertion, using the same method we just used above.
Click Here to see
the entire gown. |


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Look at the trims that you have
used, and consider how they can be used elsewhere in your dress.
Time to think creatively!!! I thought
that a small piece of the insertion that we used for our skirt band
could be used for a bertha collar. It turned out to be just the
right width!
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I used 3 strands of embroidery
floss to go thru the entredeux on the collar piece, and then cut
pieces of the eyelet edging and glued around outside edge.
The opening at the center back will be filled
with a fabric panel after placing on the doll, and bottom back edge
will also be eyelet trimmed. |
I am not going to cover the
assembly of the dress, as the methods used are the same as in my Dressing
Chloe tutorial. In short, skirt back edges were joined,
and skirt gathered to doll, bodice made and attached to doll, sleeves
attached to doll, and collar placed around neckline. |
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Detail of skirt after attaching to doll. |
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Entredeux beaded with embroidery floss made a sweet cuff
for the sleeve. |
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Finished Collar. |
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Here is the end result! Hope you have
enjoyed this tutorial, and will try your hand using some of these
techniques. If you would like to receive email notification when
new tutorials are added to my site, please join my mailing list on the
home page!
Cindy
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