It is a truth universally acknowledged that it is terrifying to take scissors to an antique, with the intention of dismantling it. Here is a diagram of this horrifying process:
Nevertheless, I took my tiny Ginghers to the parasol, in an attempt to get the silk off. The whole time, I muttered to myself, "I am restoring, not destroying!" It was only moderately comforting, but after a few minutes, the shock of cutting into an original piece wore off somewhat.
Phase 1: Separate lace and silk.
They were sewn together near the end of the spikes. A dozen or so snips, and the lace was free! Now we get a better picture of the condition of the silk canopy
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| Destroyed side |
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| Not so destroyed side... looks like a pattern piece to me! |
Phase 2: Remove silk from parasol
This took a little longer. Both the top silk and the lining were securely stitched to little holes in the spokes (will be handy later!) and to a few points up the line. Nevertheless, this went pretty much without incident. Since the lace is quite securely fastened on, I decided to leave it be and just attach the silk under it, if possible.
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| No more silk! Except for the little guards on the spokes, which are still intact. |
Next step: use the extant silk to make a pattern. There are salvageable panels from both silk shapes, so it shouldn't be too bad... I hope! My trip to Haberman's yesterday furnished me with the material for the new canopy. I happened to find silk in exactly the same color as what had come off the original! (I should have enough of it to line it, too, should I decide to do so in the same color.) It also furnished me with the gumption to get this show on the road! My frog closures for my wrapper also finally arrived in the post yesterday. Now, I have to get these two projects cranked out so I can get going on the rest of my pre-Jackson sewing madness!
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