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I have two big concerns about the freezer paper. First, paint seeps around the edges, making an imprecise image. It says it doesn't, but you can clearly see the bleed-through in the photos. That wouldn't be a problem if I don't use paint, but the fabric marker can and does bleed somewhat, and it wouldn't prevent that. My second concern is whether it can be reused 100+ times. I don't want to cut a fresh stencil out for each and every motif I need to transfer. There's more than 100 of them! If I use a blank stencil template, I can cut it out once and reuse it as often as I need to.

I'm actually going to put this off for awhile, because there are other aspects of the costume I need to get busy with, and I really can't afford the materials right now. I've been getting distracted with all the pretty embroidery work instead of doing the boring stuff that needs to be done. Shame on me! But, ooh, pretty!

I need to do some embroidery for the stomacher of the gown, too, and I was planning to use floral appliques, but now I'm seriously considering ribbon embroidery. It's probably going to come down to a matter of color--whether or not I can find the right shade of embroidery ribbon.

Ya, the cutting of multiple stencils is a big downside. One way to keep a nice clean edge when using paints is to make one pass with a clear medium to seal the edge and then a second pass with the color coat. Downside to this is that the multiple coats can stiffen the fabric. Dunno if you could adapt it to markers.

All this brainstorming is making me very interested to see what you decide on!

I need to do some embroidery for the stomacher of the gown, too, and I was planning to use floral appliques, but now I'm seriously considering ribbon embroidery. It's probably going to come down to a matter of color--whether or not I can find the right shade of embroidery ribbon.

You can buy narrow ribbon from Dharma and then dye it whatever shade you want. 4mm ribbon runs $13.65 for 55 yards and goes down in price if you order more than 4 rolls. http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/2097-AA.shtml
I know I do this when I need a specific color especially if I am willing to do some dye experimentation.

You can buy narrow ribbon from Dharma and then dye it whatever shade you want.

Thanks, I'll consider that.

Another alternative: I work at a ribbon store, and you could special order spools of embroidery silk from us for a slight discount. PM me if you're interested and I'll get you hooked up.

What am I thinking? Silly me! I had some fabric that was embroidered voile and I wanted an over and under skirt, with a band of the embroidery at the bottom. I just cut out the pattern, and it did require some piecing to have enough to go around the bottom, and stiched them between the ones already on the band I was adding to the bottom (the pattern was vertical on the fabric, so I had to turn it for the horizontal band). Confusing, but I'll take a pic for you. Just hand-stitched them down. You'd have to get right on top of it to know it didn't come that way. So, not knowing the color of the fabric but you might be able to do something similar.

The fabric is a copper/gold shot taffeta. It looks orange in some lights, but tempered with gold, if that makes sense? The embroidery must be black. And it must resemble this sort of heart-and-vine motif.

Here's a photo of the fabric with the design painted with fabric markers.



You can't see the nuances of the fabric in the photo, but in real life, it looks more subdued, and it shimmers between orange and gold. It's really quite beautiful. Normally, I detest orange, yet I love this fabric. The fact that it's shot with gold makes a huge difference in how it looks, but it makes it difficult to photograph.

Unfortunately, the fabric markers didn't stand the test of time. The other day, I found the piece I'd done with markers and it looks terrible now. The ink has faded unevenly, leaving it splotchy and looking awful.

I will look into the idea of using embroidered voile, if I can find something in a similar pattern. Thanks for the idea!