For Needlecrafters

Soz
Thanks. It took me about 6 months to finish and I enjoyed every minute of it. You must have seen it in the gallery, where I posted it before it was framed.

That vest is beautiful and the bunny is adorable :-D

Aw, gee, thanks Montana. Actually the scanner didn't work perfectly...his little body has several shades of blue, and his head has lighter blue for eyes on each side. These are all metallic irridescent beads, which the scanner doesn't pick up too well. His wings too have a lot of different shades.

I wonder why I think this is a male dragonfly? Never thought of it 'til I posted this message.

LOL. We;;, I wish I could see it in person ;-)

Montana, I can't imagine even making that many stitches without at least spilling coffee on them. Or perhaps a cat could barf on it.

This morning my husband called me over to say he thought our cat must be sick....the cat threw up over the side of the deck rather than on the carpet we had drying out there!

My sister (who had 5 cats) said she was going to write a book, "Decorating With Cat Vomit."

Sorry, this is actually OT, well, unless your cat too lays and throws up on whatever needlework you put down. I have a theory that they push their fur out harder when they're laying on needlework.

Haha! My cat is still a kitten and she hasn't thrown up as of yet, but I do keep my needle work out of her reach and she always knew it was off limits to her, for some reason. This is a plus for sure. When I first got her, I was afraid she would attack the thread as I was sewing, but a few serious looks in her direction stopped her in her tracks. She loves to watch me as I'm working, but she keeps her distance. What a good kitty she is :-D

YES, I hand-sewed the lace. Thank you! I knew there was something especially labor-intensive about that part but couldn't remember.

It was very fitted so pulling over head wasn't an option, had to actually use all those buttons.

I did a bunch of practicing with the tea dying, one was too green, one was too pink (you could control intensity by how long you dyed it so that didn't matter), ended up combining two of 'em and worked well.

And yep, just cut out a bunny shape sans ears, so could've been a bear shape or whatever, sewed ears separately, then inserted them while sewing the bunny together. It was incredibly soft.

(All of my pics are dark, I'm still getting the hang of my iPhoto program -- there's no "save as" option because, it says, it saves your work as you go, but it never actually DOES. I'm sure there is something I can figure out but I've brightened and otherwise spruced up several of these pictures only to find when I post 'em that the changes are gone.... argh....)

I didn't see your dragonfly before I posted, very cool!!

That does sound like a cool skirt. I've been meaning to make one of those for the kid (so fun to make things for her, she's SMALL. Heh!)

Oh that reminds me, a dress I made for her when she was a baby:





Lousy pics with digital camera, but idea. Another vintage linen tea towel (hmmm.) Just sewed it on to a t-shirt, I do a lot of dresses for her that way, quick and easy. Another one (again dark):



That was her "princess" halloween costume, vintage (sensing a theme?) silk sari and then just some kind of drapery fabric on sale at Joann.

Your silk sounds gorgeous!! Maybe a simple A-line skirt, just below knee length? Sounds like the fabric has so much going on you'd want to do something with a simple cut.

Fun thread, thanks!

So fun! Love those little dresses, they're so darned cute and have the great advantage of actually being comfortable....as a kid all my best clothes were scratchy & uncomfortable.

This is also a great idea for dresses for Me, as I wear this style just hanging about. A good idea for a shirt stained beneath the bustline.

An A-line skirt would probably be perfect for that very busy fabric. I recently completed my collection of the old "Stitch by Stitch" books with the pattern pack (a real find!). Collected all 20 volumes 1 at a time. Great patterns & ideas, though some are outdated (1970's). I have tons of yellow sticky notes in these volumes, so the tops look like porcupines. I'm sure they have an A-line skirt pattern...

All my pix are very dark too, I brighten all of them before posting.

So how did you line up all those buttons????


Montana, what a Good Kitten you have! I find almost all stitching very meditative, and cross-stitch is fun since you can focus on color without worrying about forming the stitches properly. I sure hope that picture is framed under glass!

I haven't done much cross-stitch, but did recently pick up a very nice colored cross-stitch pattern printed on fabric, which I plan to do in perle cottons.


If I did all the projects I have planned, I'd be at it for years! I figure I just can't have too many toys....

Soz
What tallent you have. Very beautiful dresses :-D

BK
Yes, she's good when I'm stitching, but she has her moments. When I'm eating, she starts clawing the furnature and when I'm working in the house, she's always under my feet. I love her anyway ;-)
Yes, the picture is framed behind glass and is out of the sunlight. I have others that I haven't framed yet and I'll post them when I get the chance :-D

Your cross stitch project sounds like a lot of fun and I can't wait to see it when it's done :-D

The "real" Boris Kitten loves thread and yarn, and always tries to play with it. When I gently correct him, he sits and looks at me with a delightful expression, sort of like, "See, I'm a very good kitten!" (He's actually over 2 yrs old, but he'll always be My Kitten.)

I've found cats understand better than we imagine what's OK to play with and what's not. I just don't leave needlework within barfing distance!


Sorry this is really OT, but I can't help myself.....
I wonder what the clawing-while-you're-eating thing is about? Most of my cats have learned to beg at the table, but they're not allowed to be ON the table while I'm eating, and they must wait 'til I'm done. Does kitty get scraps? Most of my cats will eat bits of vegetables, and of course meats, but they're not allowed sugary foods.

I used to have a wonderful white cat with 2 different colored eyes who would eat virtually anything I ate, including grapes! He loved cheese puffs and pizza. He was so tall, he could put his front feet on the table while on the floor, and quietly touch my elbow to remind me he was due his share. He could also open doors by turning the knobs. Scared me to death first time he did it! I loved that cat.....he died of old age around 15.

Boris LOVES "Cat Grass," which I can get at Wal-Mart. It's Oat Seed, I think. Lateley I've started growing him Wheat, which I can get cheap at a health food store, maybe $2.00 for a whole pound, and he adores it! It's called "Hard Red Winter Wheat." I sprout it and we eat it together! I've heard they need greens to be really healthy, but it's fun to watch them eat them in either case!

After 6 months of age your kitten should start loving Catnip. Mine only really like the Organic kind! When I get the cheap Hartz, they barely pay attention to it.

I won't give her table food. She has kitty treats that I give her a little of every day along with her food. It still makes her angry when we eat and don't share with her. She's a very fussy eater and she wouldn't eat what we were eating even if we did give it to her. I think she just likes being a brat sometimes, lol.

My Rosie is like that too, Montana. When she meows up at us during meals, we put a taste of whatever we're having on a finger and offer it to her. She sniffs it, then goes away. I think she just wants to know what we're having. (She knows better than to jump on the table and see for herself!)

wow, I feel so useless when I see all your crafts,
they are just beautiful.

Sozobe, you should get into making and selling girls dresses,
they are just precious. We have a store out here that's
called "Spoiled rotten" and they sell similar dresses for girls
for $ 100 and up.

I've even tried giving her a taste of what we're having, but she will sniff it, leave it there and continue to be a pest the whole time we eat, unless I break out the squirt bottle (evil grin) ;-)

Teehee! I've made an awful lot of ugly and useless things....I'd guess every crafter has. The only thing that matters is that we learn something from them, and have some fun doing them. I'd guess you're seeing the things that worked, not the things that didn't.

Go ahead and make some ugly/useless things on purpose, Calamity, you might find you like them better than you would have thought!

Reminds me of a theory I have, that if you hate what you're making, just put it away somewhere and look at it in a couple of months. It almost always looks better.

Hey crafters, what's the yuckiest thing you ever made? I have so many I can hardly count 'em.

I knitted a cardigan once which, when I tried to put it together and do the ribbing, came out so fantastically ugly and messed up I was shocked! And I spent so long making the thing! I ripped out the ribbing and tried again, and it was even worse. Eventually I just threw the whole thing away, and was so relieved when I did. Should've burned it to punish it!

In art school, they told us to throw away our first 1,000 drawings.

(I should have thrown away the second 1,000 as well. I learned to get by, but drawing never was my strong suit.)

I've also knitted 2 really ugly tank tops. I made one in a cotton terry yarn in turquoise, and when I wore it I looked just like a big turquoise porcupine!

My Favorite Purse
Hi again everyone! Here are some pictures of my favorite purse, my own design with no pattern. The fabric is all linen, some old napkins & slacks. The thread is all perle cottons. The designs are all mine EXCEPT for the 2 center flowers, on the darker color, which are iron-ons from an Art Nouveau book. The center front dragonfly is all beadwork, sewn directly onto the fabric. Underneath him, the jadeite Buddha bead, the 2 dangling heart beads, & the tassel weight the flap to keep it closed.

Even crocheted the strap, from cotton. Inside is heavy cotton canvas with 3 pockets (I need 'em!). I haven't carried this in a long time, just got it out of the closet for this thread....I think I'll start carrying it again! Got the idea for it from pix of a 17th-century workbag just full of embroidery. Should've embroidered my initials/year on it like they used to!


Here's the front with the top flap closed:



Here's the front with the flap open:



Here's the back:

Oh, that's beautiful!!

Reminds me of something I actually do have, can just go down and get it and scan it directly. A couple of years ago I made a skirt for my mom out of a couple of linen curtains from the Crate and Barrel outlet with a 4-inch sari border sewn on the hem. I made a matching skirt out of the sari border, she didn't like the strap (it wasn't great, made out of the same linen but kinda lumpy and uninteresting) and gave it back to me with a replacement, I haven't gotten to that yet so it's downstairs.

Just a sec!

OK here goes:



The neutral linen band is the color of the skirt. I sewed the strips of sari border on first (this one's rayon, I think), then sewed it into a purse shape. Looked much better before the straps. Old mother-of-pearl button and loop closure.

Love the embroidery, BorisKitten.

I have definite minimal effort/ maximum effect tendencies when it comes to sewing projects, which is part of why I like ornate fabrics/ borders so much -- the purse took maybe an hour, if that, all the effect is in the fabric.

Oh, cool! It's beautiful!

I go for more easy stuff too, usually....I just had to make an embroidered linen bag after seeing pix of the old ones.

The pale linen has faint stripes, so it was easy to make vertical patterns on it. I carried this purse for at least 2 years, and just hand-wash it when I need to. Always comes out great! I adore linen, I think it's my favorite fabric of all. Wears like iron and actually improves with washing.

I have some 6 yards of a fantastic silk sari fabric from India, which is so gorgeous I'm actually afraid of messing it up by sewing something with it! It's turquoise & purple, with gold decorations. I should make something small like that purse, just to start with it...or maybe some pillows...