Fun with Flowers

Transform a solid-color skirt from simple to striking with quick-to-stitch rickrack flowers.

By Linda Turner Griepentrog

PURCHASE RICKRACK BY THE YARD or in precut lengths in several colors and styles. Sew the skirt or embellish a ready-made skirt. The featured size 10 skirt required 5 1/2 yards of rickrack; adjust the amount for other sizes and skirt styles. Additional yardage is needed to embellish the skirt back.

1. Plan the trim and flower placement. If the skirt is gored, it's easy to follow the seamlines for vertical rickrack rows. If not, decide on a symmetrical or asymmetrical look–there are no rules, and the flowers can vary in size. However, an odd number of flowers is more pleasing to the eye than an even number.

2. Lightly mark the vertical placement lines on the skirt with an air-soluble marker.

3. Pin the rickrack over the lines. Pin the flower petals in place, beginning at the waistline edge. Keep the rickrack flat. If you're constructing the skirt, complete all the skirt front seams and begin the rickrack lines at the waistline cut edge. If the skirt is ready-made, fold under the upper rickrack edge and abut with the waistband seam. Or open the waistline seam, tuck in the trim ends, and restitch the seam.

4.With matching thread, straight stitch or zigzag down the trim center to the middle of the flowers. Pivot and stitch continuously around each petal, overlapping and ending the stitching lines in the flower centers. If the rickrack continues to the hemline, stitch it in place after the petals. (Turn the trim ends to the skirt wrong side on a ready-made skirt, and continue into the hem allowance on a constructed skirt.)

5. Stitch a button over each flower center.

Shape Up

Not a flower fan? Form butterflies with an upper and lower wing on each side of the vertical placement line and accent the wings with a long bead for the body. Or shape the rickrack into spirals or other geometric shapes.

Vary the rickrack size depending on the dimensions and shape of the chosen motif. Smaller rickrack is easier to manipulate than larger varieties.

From the January 2006 issue of Sew News magazine.