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Para-Medic #5- Brolly Good Show!

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And it’s done!  Last night I faffed about joining strips of pinked bias fabric together, then gathering 16 tiny sections and pinning it all to the edge of the lace.  My wife was very complimentary, and I was chuffed…but then I started to flap about how to actually sew it down.  Those gathers needed to be controlled, stitched carefully to the edge of the lace, but also not to make too much of a mess on the inside of the parasol.

I went to bed, and dreamed about hand-stitched ruffles.  What an exciting life I lead.

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Today I posted a question on the Historical Sewing FB page, asking for advice.  And got it, very very promptly.  There were several brilliant ideas, and one that suited the problem PERFECTLY.  I pinked some strips of silk organza selvage [god I love my new pinking shears] and basted it onto the back of the ruffled strip.  A bit faffy, but once attached, it was SOOOOO easy to attach to the parasol.

Here’s a reminder of how she looked when I bought her

Before dissecting the main ‘skin’
these bits survived

 

And here she is, in all her glory.  The missus will probably do a little tweaking to make the wood prettier, but my work is done!

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The organza stay
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User’s eye view
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I LOVE the way the selvage shows violet on the edge of the pleated trim
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at rest
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Close up of those ruffles
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And the lady herself.

21 thoughts on “Para-Medic #5- Brolly Good Show!”

  3. It’s lovely! You’ve put such a lot of work into this,I’d be nervous of using it in case it rained/got damaged/lost/someone’s sticky child touched it.

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  8. Looks stunning….Might a bit of scotchguard spray help prevent marks.. you could spray the scraps to check effectiveness.. and might prevent a prison term for abusing children with sticky sweets and adults with beer 🙂

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      1. Use as a weapon if you like but so many people will be sad if you get blood on it. And think of all the work that’s gone into it! Perhaps the wife could sharpen the point and then you could get out of any situation quickly and effectively.

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  12. Very pretty, great work! Thanks for passing on the pinked selvedge strip tip. I’m not going to do a brolly but can see this idea coming in handy for decorative bits and bobs on various things.

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  13. Looks fantastic! This now makes me truly regret I didn’t buy 1920’s silk parasol I saw at flea market couple years ago. Silk had totally gone to strips, but it had lovely carved (faux) ivory handle and I thought it was too expensive to the current condition. I could have revived it, now thinking back. Darn 😀 But you did great job on this one.

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    1. They can be very very expensive- and I don’t think they’re always worth it to be honest…sellers cashing in on collectors as ever I suppose. There are loads on ebay ranging from a few quid to several hundred pounds…

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