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Description
We had a couple of meters of the black silk velvet left over (from this: Happy Customer - Silk Velvet Coat ), so with one half of the remnant we made this scarf. The term "opulent" is barely adequate.

The finished size is 180cm (6ft) by 60cm (2ft) including lace trim.

The main fabric is black silk velvet. It is so black that it sucks light and deviates the orbits of small planets. It is so dark that it makes the black silk habotai lining look dark grey. And it moves like oiled pussycats (especially while being sewn).

The heavy lace trim is utterly awesome. It's so cool we bought a whole reel and made it available for you as well, now in stock from our Etsy store: fancytogs.etsy.com

The embroidery is one of our own stock designs but needed some careful adaptation and planning for use on the velvet.
Problems identified were:
- velvet, it's stubbly and tufts can stick through embroidery
- loose weave on the silk backing fabric of the velvet, it could distort badly due to stitch tensions and it could result in any white backing peaking through
- we wanted to keep the oiled pussycats drape of the velvet, so it was essential that the embroidery method did not leave the velvet stiff
- the full lining meant we didn't want the risk of flaps of tear away or cutaway embroidery backing hanging off and poking sideways or breaking off and rattling around inside
- we could not risk hooping the velvet directly in case we crushed the pile
- we only had one piece of velvet left that was big enough for making the scarf, it had to work.
At this point we decided we would be auditioning for Mission Impossible.

After lots and lots of considering alternative embroidery methods, and a bit of testing on small scraps we came up with a devious plan.
- the main embroidery backing used was black polycotton sheeting, steamed to pre-shrink before mounting in the sash frame and then tensioned using wide low density satin stitches, plus marker stitches for the design centreline
- we taped a layer of lightweight tearaway self adhesive backing onto the polycotton and stitched that down (sharp needle used to prevent bounce) to the polycotton. We then cut back the centre of the self adhesive layer so it would NOT be under the design area, and we stripped the cover sheet off the remaining self adhesive.
- We fused a lightweight woven interfacing onto the back of the velvet, for just the design area, using a few tailoring tricks to prevent the pile being crushed. This was to prevent the weave distorting with the embroidery stitches
- We used tailor's chalk centreline marks on the back to position the folded velvet to the marker stitches and we firmed it down onto the self adhesive backing around the outside of the design area.
- Then we started embroidering the velvet.
- First stitch was a running stitch outer oval. That was to nail the velvet in place. Second stitch was the inner oval, a 5mm wide satin stitch whose hidden purpose was to take up any slack in the velvet. Only then, with the velvet firmly attached and tensioned could the real embroidery design begin.
- prior testing on small scraps had established that the pile was too short to be reliably trapped flat by underlay, and toppings were not an option. Instead we went with simple underlay using minimal contour and centreline perpendicular runs to hold the stitch area in place, and used standard tight 0.4mm absolute density for the satin stitches. Our testing had shown that while we would get a few tufts peaking through, the colour contrast with the purple was enough that the few black tufts were only visible with very close inspection and would not detract.
- after removing from the sash the polycotton was cut back with pinking shears to 1cm outside the outer oval, also removing all of the self adhesive backing.

Thankfully we had a big enough piece of scrap to enable a full embroidery test before committing to the final piece of fabric.

. . . and this is what the other half of the last 2m of black velvet fabric was used for:

Feel free to download the image for personal use (eg desktop, screensaver, pinterest, facebook, tumblr, etc) as is, but no derivative works or commercial use please.

-----------------------------

Fancy Togs is a small dressmaking and embroidery business run by Clare & Lawrence in Shepshed, Leicestershire, UK. Together we make our range of original art wear, made to measure clothing, custom embroidery and Irish Dance Costumes.
Website: fancytogs.co.uk
Shop: fancytogs.etsy.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/FancyTogs

Description
We had a couple of meters of the black silk velvet left over (from this: Happy Customer - Silk Velvet Coat ), so with one half of the remnant we made this scarf. The term "opulent" is barely adequate.

The finished size is 180cm (6ft) by 60cm (2ft) including lace trim.

The main fabric is black silk velvet. It is so black that it sucks light and deviates the orbits of small planets. It is so dark that it makes the black silk habotai lining look dark grey. And it moves like oiled pussycats (especially while being sewn).

The heavy lace trim is utterly awesome. It's so cool we bought a whole reel and made it available for you as well, now in stock from our Etsy store: fancytogs.etsy.com

The embroidery is one of our own stock designs but needed some careful adaptation and planning for use on the velvet.
Problems identified were:
- velvet, it's stubbly and tufts can stick through embroidery
- loose weave on the silk backing fabric of the velvet, it could distort badly due to stitch tensions and it could result in any white backing peaking through
- we wanted to keep the oiled pussycats drape of the velvet, so it was essential that the embroidery method did not leave the velvet stiff
- the full lining meant we didn't want the risk of flaps of tear away or cutaway embroidery backing hanging off and poking sideways or breaking off and rattling around inside
- we could not risk hooping the velvet directly in case we crushed the pile
- we only had one piece of velvet left that was big enough for making the scarf, it had to work.
At this point we decided we would be auditioning for Mission Impossible.

After lots and lots of considering alternative embroidery methods, and a bit of testing on small scraps we came up with a devious plan.
- the main embroidery backing used was black polycotton sheeting, steamed to pre-shrink before mounting in the sash frame and then tensioned using wide low density satin stitches, plus marker stitches for the design centreline
- we taped a layer of lightweight tearaway self adhesive backing onto the polycotton and stitched that down (sharp needle used to prevent bounce) to the polycotton. We then cut back the centre of the self adhesive layer so it would NOT be under the design area, and we stripped the cover sheet off the remaining self adhesive.
- We fused a lightweight woven interfacing onto the back of the velvet, for just the design area, using a few tailoring tricks to prevent the pile being crushed. This was to prevent the weave distorting with the embroidery stitches
- We used tailor's chalk centreline marks on the back to position the folded velvet to the marker stitches and we firmed it down onto the self adhesive backing around the outside of the design area.
- Then we started embroidering the velvet.
- First stitch was a running stitch outer oval. That was to nail the velvet in place. Second stitch was the inner oval, a 5mm wide satin stitch whose hidden purpose was to take up any slack in the velvet. Only then, with the velvet firmly attached and tensioned could the real embroidery design begin.
- prior testing on small scraps had established that the pile was too short to be reliably trapped flat by underlay, and toppings were not an option. Instead we went with simple underlay using minimal contour and centreline perpendicular runs to hold the stitch area in place, and used standard tight 0.4mm absolute density for the satin stitches. Our testing had shown that while we would get a few tufts peaking through, the colour contrast with the purple was enough that the few black tufts were only visible with very close inspection and would not detract.
- after removing from the sash the polycotton was cut back with pinking shears to 1cm outside the outer oval, also removing all of the self adhesive backing.

Thankfully we had a big enough piece of scrap to enable a full embroidery test before committing to the final piece of fabric.

. . . and this is what the other half of the last 2m of black velvet fabric was used for:

Feel free to download the image for personal use (eg desktop, screensaver, pinterest, facebook, tumblr, etc) as is, but no derivative works or commercial use please.

-----------------------------

Fancy Togs is a small dressmaking and embroidery business run by Clare & Lawrence in Shepshed, Leicestershire, UK. Together we make our range of original art wear, made to measure clothing, custom embroidery and Irish Dance Costumes.
Website: fancytogs.co.uk
Shop: fancytogs.etsy.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/FancyTogs