Miss Murdstone’s Cap 2

To break up the whiteness of the cap I used almost 3 metres of 1cm wide black satin ribbon to make shell edging.

The edging is simply made by using a long piece of thread and sewing a continuous running stitch in a zig zag from edge to edge of the ribbon along its length. Then you gently pull up the thread and it gathers the ribbon into a series of scalloped ‘shells’ as you can see in the photo.

You need about three times as much ribbon as the finished length.

It’s time consuming but very useful as the gathers mean it will ease round all sorts of shapes quite comfortably.

The finished length of shell edging was hand stitched around the line between the spotted voile and the lace and in order to make it easier to put on in a hurry (as I have a couple of quick changes from bonnet to house cap) I left two tails hanging down at the back.

Certainly a much better finishing touch for my costume than a mob cap.

 And here, semi-reluctantly modelled by my 13-yr old daughter.

She much prefers the waistcoat and black tails she wears as the head boy of Dr Strong’s Academy.

The show, “Young Copperfield“,  is going well in spite of the usual disappointing audiences but I will be pleased to see the back of Miss Murdstone on Saturday night – awful woman she is!!