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.