A question for the embellishers (machine needlefelters)

Has anyone else experienced discomfort or felt 'chesty' after using their embellisher machine?

This has happened to me two or three times now - the first time I thought I was catching a respiratory tract infection. The second time the GP thought I had an allergy. But I used my needlepunch machine quite a bit last week and I've been uncomfortable and wheezy for four days now. I've got a DIY chipboard/MDF mask to wear once I feel better.

This could have been part of the reason:


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The bolero and waist decoration are scraps of silk and wisps of fleece needlepunched together in a soluble fabric sandwich, machine quilted and then rinsed. The trousers are chiffon with wisps of fleece punched through from the back for a little colour and a lot of texture, and again machine quilted. All the garments were embellished with beads, sequins and buttonhole stitch in multicoloured stranded cotton.

We had the builders in last week..............

so I hid upstairs and played with my machines. I got out the embellisher and some silk sari scraps and had a good old 'mangle'! I needlepunched the scraps onto a felt-like synthetic dishcloth then machine quilted the result with preprogrammed stitches. What to do with it? I decided to try my first stump doll. I used the embellisher fabric for the 'skirt', adding a frill made by running the raw edges of a folded strip of silk under the needlepunch machine.


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Clearly I'm still suffering a 'hang-over' from last year's TAST because I herringboned the frill to the skirt and decorated it with french knots.

To make the top of the dress I wrapped the body in pieces of fleece to match the colours in the skirt and tied it down with stuffed knitting ribbon attached with buttonhole stitch. Then I added more buttonhole stitch and beads for extra texture.


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Here's a picture of the finished doll:


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