Threads of life..

Threads sewn on a machine over water soluble stabilizer, and then rinsed to reveal magic. Amanda McCavour is the magician. I wish I had that much talent with just a pen and paper, even, much less cramming all that thread through the machine! :o

Credits:

1. Fashion In Motion 

2, 3. Amanda McCavour 

4. In the Sky and On the Road  

5, 6. Kim Yokota

7. Kat Hyun 

8, 9. DudeCraft 

Dancing coconuts..

Architecture in Helsinki - Like It Or Not from helsinkids on Vimeo.

This is one of my favorite songs, and then I saw the vid, and it's even better. :p

So..I'm studying it, to work out how it's made. My theory is the individual elements were embroidered, and then someone skilled in Flash animation strung them all together. Any thoughts on that? (I am terrible about dissecting things like that, lol.)

Japanese hairband tutorial..

Okay, I said before that I was putting together a tut for a different style of Japanese hairpins, but I changed my mind, and made it into one for hairbands, instead. :p If you want them to be hairpins, you just put them on hairpins, rather than a band. (I apologize in advance for the blurriness of the pics...my good camera is waiting to go to the camera hospital, and I am stuck with a REALLY PATHETIC one. Argh.)

Okay..let's get started.




1. Cut out your circle of fabric. For the size I have on the hairbands, I cut out a circle 3 inches in diameter. But you can make them bigger or smaller, depending on how you feel. I have a set of bobbypins with a tiny 1/4"/half cm flower on each one that is SO CUTE. :p To make those, I used a 1.5" circle, in a fine silk.

2. Sew a running stitch all around the edge.




3. Pull the thread gently, to gather up the edges into a tight gather in the middle. Stitch off to secure.




4. Okay, this is where the sucky camera got in the way. When I get my other camera fixed, I am re-doing this one. What you are doing here is flattening the gathered circle, and then carefully measuring off five equal points around the edge, like a five pointed star. Take a tiny stitch at each point, leaving the thread stitch following behind, making a hexagon shape, pretty much. Make sure you take that last stitch back where the first stitch is, too. This is easiest to see from the smooth, non gathered side. Don't stitch off.




5. Now...flip back over to the gathered side, and carefully tug your five points together by pulling up the stitch thread, gathering the fabric over the bunched up middle where you had gathered before. As you pull, you will see five petals forming out of your circle. The threads in the five point stitches will try to slide to the back, and you will need to ease the threads back onto the front as you pull, so the petals all meet up in the middle. Pull the thread firmly to hold the petals in place, and then stitch straight down the middle, out the bottom, and then back up and then back down again in the exact same spot. Don't clip the thread tail; you will use this to sew your flower onto your hairband or clip at the end.





6. Thread up a contrast thread on a needle, make a tiny knot, stitch straight down into a fold so the knot gets hidden, and out the bottom, and then back straight up again. Keeping a single thread, take random, individual stitches, spraying out from the middle, like stamens, going out and back up the same hole on the bottom each time. You can see in the second pic how this keeps a very neat back to the flower. You can use these stitches to readjust some of the petals, too, if you need.

When you are done with those, pull the thread together into a double thread, and pull back up through the middle one last time.




7. Make a random scattering of french knots over the middle area of the stamens with the doubled contrast thread.




8. Now, attach to whatever you feel like. :)




9. Done. :) If you have any questions, or something is wildly unclear, post here or email me, and I'll try to clarify it! I promise, though, that these are actually really simple and easy, even if the description is hugely wordy. lol

BT4!

Pauline, of Pog and Em, has received my BackTack 4 swap package, so I can post now! Woohoo! :D

The theme was Gold, Frankinscence, and Myrrh. Which translates as, something shiny or gold (Gold), something for the senses, that you can taste or smell or whatever (Frankinscence), and something special just for them (Myrrh).

So.

Gold:



I drew the image, making a composite of a few different pics I found on the net, onto linen, and embroidered it. I didn't do the faces, because 1. I liked the style of the linen as a detail of the image, and 2. I really hate how hard it is to translate an expression on a face using just thread, which made the decision for me (Jesus, btw, used to look a lot cuter til I tried to draw him in permanent ink on my final piece AFTER all the embroidery. Argh.) :p Then I made the back Star of Bethlehem, sewed them together and put circles of cardboard and fleece inside for body, and beaded around the edge, to both pretty it up, and hide the hideous join of the two sides! lol


Frankinscense:



I made these as hotpads, for putting pots on, and scenting the air at the same time. Linen, and vintage print edging them, and then filled with whole spices..cinnamon quills, cloves, cardomom seeds, oh, and ground ginger, cause I had no dried ginger pieces. And it made it all through customs!! Woohoo! lol Anyway, Pauline is using them as sachets in her bedroom, and now I am in love with the idea of a spice scented bedroom (they are STRONG scented...I stored them in my sewing room while I finished the rest of the package off, and my whole sewing room smelled delicious, lol!) My first photo of these were front on, side by side. Yeah. I had to retake them. Just was not what I was going for! rofl

And Myrrh:



The just for her part got a little overboard..I kept adding one more thing and one more thing, while waiting for the yarn to arrive. The yarn is hand dyed, supersoft, and the most beautiful colors..If I were a yarn artist like Pauline, I would have been sorely tempted to hoard it myself. :p

The flower pin is made the same way as my poppy pin, but in dark blue, and clear teardrop shaped beads in the middle.

And then a little zip bag from a vintage...something...I am not sure what it was, but I *think* it was a teatowel...or something. Natural colored coarse weave, almost like burlap, but from cotton, and softer, with woven in stripes of aqua. And then I bound the inside seams, because the weave was so loose, with an aqua binding, but the less said about that, the better. Really. :p

And, of course, some chocolates. Gotta have some choc, right?? :p

Thank you, Pauline, for a wonderful swap! And thank you to the BT4 team for organizing!

A giveaway...

I've been planning on doing this giveaway for ages (meant for Post 100..and then Post 200...what am I up to now?? :p ), but I might as well get my butt in gear and join the Blogtoberfest giveaway bonanza over at Curlypops, huh??




It's a cross stitch book, filled with patterns of Dutch scenes, and stuff. It's not for the faint of heart, being all in Dutch, but the illustrations are all in color, so I would imagine it would be easy to work out how to make them up on your own.




I haven't cross-stitched in close to 15 years, so I don't really have a need for it, but I just think it's such a cool book, and want to pass it on to someone who WILL use it!!




To enter, just leave a comment, and it would be cool if you spread the word, too. :D I'll leave it open til Nov 1 Midnight my time, which is Halloween Midnight to the other side of the world. Whoooo-ooooo....Okay, my spooky whoo-whoos leave a lot to be desired. Never mind. lol

So how about it?? Anyone up to the challenge?? :D

Suggestions needed..

I was going to make a little baby jacket, and I was going to put this on the back:



By the time I finished the embroidery, though, I wasn't very enthused by that idea anymore...and I am kind of stalled for a new one. Anyone wanna pitch one my way??

It's better colors than what the picture shows...for some reason, it just wouldn't come up very nice. But it's on a pinky-coral cotton back, and I didn't cut it off the main yardage, so it's on a piece that is about 1.5 metres long.

Anyone?? It is currently sitting like a white elephant in my bedroom, with no purpose, and desperately trying to avoid stains and dust. :p

The Butter Thief..

One sweet, mischievous boy for another sweet, mischievous boy.



For no other reason than I had a sudden craving to try out embroidery on a stuffie body. :p




(Opinions on the hair sought...dh says I should trim all right down...ds says he has "Jamaican hair" :p I love my wild and crazy boy...what do you think??)

Patience..

Alright...who here thinks I would have the patience and persistence to duplicate these pants??


Owned by Melanie's dh...I'm hard at work trying to convince her to "lose' them in my direction. :p

Back to the pincushions....

So, I finally got it all done with the pincushions. I tried. And tried. Lots of different things and ideas. I just could.not.get.inspired. I would have all these ideas, but the execution just wouldn't deliver. I finally just had to stop, and send, cause the deadline had been reached. So. Here they are.


The first is silk...the base is a shot silk, alternating with a purple tone. Over that, I had this really luxurious silk scrap, so I decided I really wanted to make a lotus flower. Laying out those petals took FOR-EV-ER (said in my best Sandlot Kids voice). And I kept having to rip them back out cause they weren't working, or I forgot how the heck I was laying them out, or something. Ugh. And then, when I finally finished, with little French knots for the middle, it looked like a dahlia. Sheesh. So much for my lotus.

The next one I tried didn't come out like the picture in my head, either. :eyeroll: I used a tiny Japanese bamboo steamer basket, with two levels, and a lid; and then I used the same beautiful red silk, and hand drew and cut out a stencil, using a royalty free image I found online, of a Koi fish, and applied it with fabric silk screening inks and freezer paper. I made it so it can be lifted out of the basket and taken with when you go out; and I lined the bottom tier with cardboard covered in the silk, as a place to store small scissors, or thimble, or needle packs, seamrippers, whatever.



All that for something that looks like the most uncomfortable looking carp ever, crammed into a tiny basket. Whee. My poor partner. :p

How to make a covered button..

Making all these embroidered buttons, I might as well make a tutorial, right?? I have no idea if it's even of any value, though....covered buttons are ridiculously easy to make!


Okay, to start..I am using these kind of buttons. They come in two pieces, and you need to sew the fabric on. There are other, easier ones, that I like more, that come with a form you use, that just pops it all together, no sewing. I'll mention those later.



So, first...get your fabric ready. I am using a bit of embroidery. You can use anything you want, though..plains, or prints, whatever.


Center it and trace a circle around your image...I used this thread spool, because it just happened to be the right size, and you can peer through the middle hole to center it over the design, so you don't have to guess, and go all wonky.


Cut out your circle;


Sew around the edge;


Gather around the button, pulling tight, and knot off. (Here is where it would change if it were one of those kinds with the form, rather than sewing...you would center the button on the fabric, and slip the whole thing into the form, and tuck the fabric to the middle)


Center the back piece over the shank; (do the same with the other kind in the form, tucking the fabric edges underneath)


And then center the hole of a thread spool over the shank, and push down *hard*, to get it to click in properly.


Done. :)



Now you can do whatever you want to with them. I made hairbands.



So...whaddya think?? Did it make sense?? If you were trying to figure out how to do these, and sat down in front of this with your supplies, do you think you would be able to successfully come out the other side with a covered button, using my instructions???

Needlework...

"No one can rejoice more than I do over the change that has taken place in the treatment of girls as regards their education. Under the old-fashioned system of what can only be called "smattering" their individuality was ignored; their powers, if any, were disregarded; one monotonous "table of lessons" hung in every schoolroom-one code of rules sufficed for all. Ear or no ear, a girl must learn music; eye or no eye, drawing was to be taught her; two or three languages were to be a sine qua non, whether she has the aptitude for them or not. What was the consequence? The mind was left perfectly untrained and uncultured. The system gave a sort of shallow smartness to those quick at apprehending-a most useless quality when it is all a girl possesses. In fact, to all intents and purposes, woman was considered to have no mind worth thinking of; to be incapable of reasoning; her powers were surface powers, requiring only surface treatment."

That, ladies and gentleman, was the first paragraph to the introduction in a textbook for student teachers, for needlework, in 1914. I wonder how many men got a look at what was being taught in those needlework schools?? :p



That is the coolest book, full of lesson plans, and illustrations, and tests, for teaching needlework of all sorts...this was for the pros, not for dabblers. I got it at a book sale ages ago, and I just LOVE it. Anyway, long way around to it, I picked it up yesterday to have a look for embroidery stitches (of which there turned out to be few...this is more for proper dressmaking, etc, than embroidery), because I had been browsing in Borders, and picked up Caroline Zoob's Childhood Treasures:

Apparently it's been around for a bit, but I've never seen it before. Anyway, it is a GORGEOUS book, loaded with eye candy, and I love the fact that it manages to look old fashioned and very sweet, with nary a pastel in sight. :p So, I was looking through it, and saw these little fabric covered buttons made from linen, with little embroidery on them...SO cute. I had to try them. Except my embroidery skills are moderately rusty, lol. Hence trying to dig through the first book and refresh my memory, which turned out to be a bust, but was so much more interesting just to leaf through. But I perservered, and came out with a couple:

I had a lot of blue and pink threaded on my needles, so I ended up doing a bunch of them....which I regret, cause I love the blue and red ones SO much more..


And yeah...my embroidery skills definitely need some practice, lol...I am capable of WAY better than these sad little examples.


While I am on the subject, this is a birthday card I made for a little girl ages ago....it's hard to see, but it's embroidered on butter yellow linen, and then applied it to the card with spray adhesive. Good stuff, that spray adhesive. :p


My kids have gotten in on the act, and have started their own projects....which, since I only have the one hoop, is kind of frustrating, lol.