Embroidering Flowers for Hours

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Embroidering Flowers for Hours

The work required to make the Best of Show winner at the International Pfaff Convention may have been tedious for some, but, for sewing teacher Jennifer Stern, designing and sewing the fabulous gown was a treat

by Carol Fresia



	Custom-designed and digitized flowers embellish Jennifer Stern's silk gown, which was awarded Best in Show at this year's Pfaff dealers' convention. Jennifer had to rehoop the fabric for every single flower, but the remarkable results are well worth the time spent.

Threads editors recently spotted this stunning machine-embroidered gown at Manchester Sewing Center, in Manchester, Connecticut, and learned that it won Best of Show at the International Pfaff Convention this summer. No surprise -- it's an impressive display of embroidering and sewing techniques. But it's also a glorious bouquet of brilliant summer flowers, and, quite simply, a delight to look at. The dress was designed and sewn by Jennifer Stern, who teaches at the sewing center. The flowers were adapted for machine embroidery from a hand-embroidery design by Susan O'Connor (first published in Inspirations, No. 18; www.countrybumpkin.com.au).

Jennifer is an avid machine embroiderer, partial to Pfaff machines, and is still amazed that she won the prize in the competition. After finding out that she had not received honors in her category ("Creative Use of Software"), she kicked off her shoes and started to regroup for next year's contest -- until her name was announced as the top winner in the show.

Jennifer reports that she had to learn to digitize embroidery designs to create the floral embellishments on the gown's bodice, hem, and back godet (not visible in our photos), as well as the borders of the organza train, the matching wrap, and a small handbag. And despite the fact that she rehooped her fabric a total of 197 times for the ensemble, she claims to have spent more hours at her computer digitizing than actually sewing.



These silk ribbon flowers are tricky to make at first, Jennifer admits, but she practiced with wired craft ribbon and mastered the process before making the flowers for her garland.		The key to embroidering smoothly on organza is a heavy-duty stabilizer. Jennifer used Ultra Solvy to obtain symmetrical results on the border of the detachable train.

Creating the ensemble was a learning experience in every respect, Jennifer says, from figuring out which fabrics and stabilizers would support the opulent embroidery (silk satin and organza, lined with taffeta, and Ultra Solvy), to teaching herself to make the luscious silk floral garland at the back waist. Her goal was to make a gown that was both eye-catching enough for a major show and also wearable for a special occasion. And while some people might find an undertaking like this stressful, Jennifer enjoyed every minute she spent working on it and wishes she could work on projects like this dress full-time. But we're sure her students would prefer that she keep her day job and share some of her secrets with them.

Carol Fresia is an associate editor of Threads.

Photos: Judy Neukam

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