Madeira Appliqué

Cut out the inside of the vest fronts, leaving 1/4" seam allowance. Set aside the cutaway fabric to use later for the appliqués. Clip the curves and corners in the seam allowance (2).

Turn the border right side out using a point turner. With a dry iron, press the seamline to get a nice crisp edge. Spray starch along the seamline, and let it sit for one minute. The starch wets and dissolves the water-soluble thread. Press the border until it's completely dry, and gently pull the two pieces apart.

If the two pieces don't pull apart easily, spray them with a little more starch and press completely dry again. The separate pieces are the right- and leftfront border pieces.

Attaching the Border

Thread the machine with lightweight white thread in the needle. Pin the wrong side of the vest's right-front border to the corresponding organdy vest front, matching the raw edges and tucking the border's pressed seam allowance between the pieces (3). Change to a size 100/16 topstitch needle, and thread the needle and wind the bobbin with lightweight thread. Attach an open-toe presser foot.

Select a pin stitch or one that looks similar to a pin stitch (4), and adjust the length and width to 2.5 mm. Place lightweight tear-away stabilizer under the vest front.

Pin stitch, with the needle beside the linen border during the forward-and- back portion of the stitch and the "bites," or side-to-side motion of the stitch, catching the linen border (5). Stitch all the way around the border. For one of the vest fronts, you may need to mirror-image the stitch so the bites swing in the right direction.

Repeat the steps to attach the second border to the remaining organdy vest front.

Carefully tear away the stabilizer from the wrong side of each vest front. Hold your thumb over the stitches to prevent distorting the fabric or stitching.

From the March 2005 issue of Sew News magazine.