They covered each panel separately. Looks like they first wrapped the
wire of the frame with narrow twill tape, in a spiral. I don't see any
reason to re-do that. Then they probably sewed on the panels from the
outside--not much stitching is seen from the inside, though some is, and
it's hand overcasting, with a fair amount of space between stitches. All
the joins are covered on the outside with upholstery gimp, which looks
like it was glued on. I assume you'd need a heat-resistant glue of some
kind. It's not clear whether the fringe around the bottom was sewed on
or glued on, as those joins also are covered with upholstery gimp.
I could put the frame on a table to work on it, but that still does not
address the problem of getting the tension on the material right. There
are two layers. The inner layer is a thin satin-weave silk in cream
color, the outer layer is silk chiffon. I think they glued the layers
together before sewing them on, because they're still stuck together
even at the silk splits. For all I know, the glue is what is making the
silk shatter, though it could well be 20 years of exposure to heat.
Thanks,
Fran
Lavolta Press
Books on making historic clothing
http://www.lavoltapress.com
e...@huskers.unl.edu wrote:
Can you get any clues from what's left? (Were the pieces seamed together
first, and then stitched around the top and bottom? Or was every other panel
stitched to the frame, and then every *other* other panel stitched to the first
set?)
It sounds like you'll need a skill set similar to wire-and-buckram hatmaking
(which may help you track down the right person for the job).
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