Birgitta cap - pleating and embroidery

Birgitta cap - pleating and embroidery
Originally uploaded by Catrijn.

My cap is done, and was very well received.

Here's a close-up of some of the finishing details: pleating the bottom edge into the band, and embroidery on the band.

For the pleating, I did it as gathers onto a short running stitch, and then pushed together almost as tightly as possible. I'd sewn about 3/4 of the band on the first edge ahead of time, and then pinned the pleats down to it, and easing a little bit of a curve at the front corner. The flat parts of the band were attached with running stitch, but I switched to backstitch over the pleats to make sure each fold was caught at least once, and ended up sewing that section a second time to flatten down the folds.

With one edge of the band attached, and folds pressed to mark where it would be turned over, I free-handed the embroidery as described in Dahl and Sturtewegan's article. It's very simple to do, and really makes the edge pop. I'm very glad I ultimately added it, since I'd been debating leaving it off.

Once all that was done, the band was turned under and finished with hidden slip stitch.

Birgitta cap, race to the finish

Birgitta cap, starting front band
Originally uploaded by Catrijn.

I've gotten a lot done on my Birgitta cap since the last time I posted, but apparently I forgot to take photos of any of it? My deadline for finishing is in just a few days, though, so for now the time goes to getting it done and writing up documentation, with a final set of posts here to come later.