French jacket: the trim

This is the rough version of what will probably become the trim of my jacket. In my previous post I described how I wanted the vibrant colours of the lining to become part of the trim. I spent most of the long Easter weekend hand sewing and testing several ideas.

I started with a lightweight navy ribbon.

I used a chalk pencil and a quilters ruler to mark every half inch.

Using the narrowest satin ribbon (3 mm wide) I then made tiny stitches on the marks. This was a very slow process, as the ribbon had to be pulled through with extreme care to prevent damaging the base ribbon.

After many hours of peaceful stitching with nothing but the sound of singing birds in the garden to distract me, I finished all 4 meters.

The leftover lining, two strips of 2.25 m by 7 cm wide, didn't give me much to play with. I sewed tiny tubes and turned them right side out.

Together it looked like this:

Obviously I have to polish it up a bit. Some of the stitches got twisted during the threading process and in other parts the seam of the silk isn't in the right spot yet. I will go back and make it decent later on. I'm happy with the outcome. It's lightweight, flexible and will add a colourful touch to this summer jacket!
I'm taking a step back from the trim to pick up working on the sleeves.

Final decisions, like will I keep it straight and graphic, or add a more fancy effect,

whether I'll add fringe, and if so, how wide, straight of grain or cut on the bias, it can all be decided later. For now I'm happy with the options.

Back to more thread tracing and quilting!