Articles and Adverts

A few weeks back my friends at Black Knight Historical - http://www.blackknighthistorical.co.uk/ asked if I would like to put an article in a souvenir brochure for one of their upcoming events, Norfolk Living History Fayre. I wrote the article on the Katherine Howard blackwork cuffs I had made.

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[Layout was made by Kindra Jones @ Black Knight Historical]

As well as the article I also had a small advert in the magazine -

And finally, I had a small photobook of all my historical embroidery made up to go to markets where my embroidery is being sold -

Exciting times :)

Cloak Modification.

A friend of mine asked me a few weeks back if I would be able to modify his cloak for him. He wanted some rabbit fur attaching to the shoulders. I had never worked with rabbit fur before so thought it would make an interesting challenge.

I got my friend to put on the cloak then draped the fur over the shoulders and pined it into place. We did not want to cut he pelts so in order for the fur to lie flat it was folded over slightly at the neckline. Then the stitching began. I started working along the neckline, stitching from the front to back seam, and the down the back. After this was done the cloak was tried on again and fur re-pinned. Most of the pelts were actually very easy to sew, the fur was incredibly soft and it was easy to push the needle through the under side. So that no stitching could be seen on the fur, it attached by stitching entirely through the leather-y underside of the fur.

The only area I experienced any difficulty was with stitching down the last bit of the right side. The pelt here was incredibly tough, and ended up in me bringing in reinforcements to help pull the needle through the fabric with a pair of pliers!!

Was quite a fun change to embroidery :)

More Disney Stitchery

So, I am *very* annoyed that I couldn't get to London this weekend to see Rapunzel get officially recognized as a Disney Princess. Really wanted to watch the parade :D :D Instead, I spent my morning sorting through loads of pictures and found all my Disney related crafts!! I've been really busy with loads of commissions and the likes recently so thought I should finally get around to updated the blog!!

I've been working at the Disney store for over a year now and since I've been there a few good friends have left for other jobs. The other girl who started at the same time as I did is leaving this week, which I was actually pretty sad about!! So I wanted to make her a goodbye card. I know she loves Belle and Beauty and the Beast and I found this colouring page of her online. I traced the pattern onto some cotton fabric then stitched around it with two strands of thread using back stitch. There's a bit a of satin stitch on her eyes and lips as well. I crayon tinted certain parts for a bit more colour, and then added some ribbon roses to her bouquet :)

This was another leaving card I made a colleague. I found a silhouette picture of Mickey Mouse and turned it into a cross stitch pattern KG Stitch. Stitched on 14 count white aida and mounted on some red paper before being stuck onto the card.

I made this Minnie card when my manager moved stores. I found the design online and stitched it onto 14 count aida also. I added some beads, as well as a ribbon bow.

As well as the card I also made her a framed piece. I found images of the Disney logo and Mickey Mouse and turned them into cross stitch patterns by using KG Stitch. I love this program - so easy to use!! I them put both the images together to create this -

And the last bit of Disney stitching I found was this Nightmare Before Christmas keyring I made. My friend loves Jack Skellington so for her birthday I made her this keyring out of felt :)

I'm sure there will be many more Disney themed stitchings on here :D :D

Thanks for reading, V x

Hoop Extravaganza!!!

Soooo, I've been totally obsessing about hoop art recently and managed to purchase a large selection of hoops on ebay. I quickly started planning out what I wanted to do with them all.

I had a pretty bad day the other, one of those days where everything that could go wrong, went dramatically wrong. I decided that instead of being miserable I would stitch out the negativity in a bid to improve my mood!! Worked out pretty well to be honest lol :P Here is what I came up with:

Summed up my mood pretty well, and was a good way of using up loads of bits of left over thread that I had lying around. For the text I used the font generator on this website - http://www.stitchpoint.com/eng/tool/alph/cross-stitch-writing-tool.php

I've been wanting to stitch up something Emperor's New Groove related for a while now. I absolutely love this film. Most definitely one of my all time favourite Disney creations. Kuzco and Yzma totally crack me up throughout the entire film. Too funny. Anyways, I found some Emperor's New Groove colouring pages online, and thought that this one would make a good embroidery pattern.

I love him!!! Stitched up one of my favourite quotes from the film, using the colours of the text on the film cover.

Next I decided to add some Pagan themed hoops to my growing hoopla collection. I found a Goddess pattern I liked on Urban Threads (http://www.urbanthreads.com/) and stitched up using split stitch for the outline, and backstitch for the swirls in the centre. I then added a bit of crayon tinting around the edge of the hoop for more colour.

To go with the Goddess hoop I made a Green Man one. This pattern is from Aimee Ray's awesome awesome Doodle Stitching Motifs book (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doodle-Stitching-Collection-Aimee-Ray/dp/1600595812), which I am totally in love with at the moment. Done in two strands of different coloured green thread. Used some crayon tinting here too.

Thanks for looking, V x

Under the Sea.

So, I have wanted to make a mermaid/ocean themed bit of stitching for quite a while now and had never quite found any patterns I liked before. I stumbled across Sublime Stitching - http://www.sublimestitching.com/ and the mermaid pattern they had and loved it!!

I decided that I didn't want it to be just a mermaid though, and started thinking up a total under water scene. I recently discovered Aimee Ray's (http://dreamfollow.com/) wonderful Doodle Stitching books. I absolutely love the Motif Collection book, so many fabulous little designs!! All the other sea creatures and waves are images from that book.

So after I traced all those motifs onto the fabric (which was the remains of an old bed sheet that was cut up to make costume patterns) I added some freehand bits of seaweed. Then the stitching began!! Most is just back stitch using two strands of thread, with some satin stitch also. Wanted to try and improve some of my embroidery techniques and this was the perfect oppurtunity to practise my satin stitch. Naturally, working for Disney, the mermaid took on the colours of Ariel, and then the whole thing started to go down a Little Mermaid theme. Well why not?! Ariel is a pretty awesome Disney Princess after all!! So I added my interpretation of Flounder and Sebastian, and no Little Mermaid themed stitchery would be complete without a dinglehopper!!

After the stitching was complete I thought it lacked a bit of colour so decided to crayon tint certain parts to make it a bit brighter. I covered Ariel's tail in sequins and added some to the waves to add a bit of sparkle to the whole thing. I then framed it in the hoop, after wrapping some blue ribbon around it as the hoop was a boring pale pinkish colour. I've been admiring the many amazing hoops on Craftster (www.craftster.org) for a while now and thought this would make a good addition to the start of my own hoopla wall. Here be the finished article -

Can't wait for it to go up on the wall now!! Nice to work with lots of colour for a change :D :D Thanks for reading, V x

Lady GaGa inspired hoop!

So, I am totally in love with Lady GaGa at the moment. I find I have the new album on pretty much constant repeat. Yesterday, after watching far too many youtube videos of her on TV shows I decided some GaGa stitchery had to be made! It was watching this vid that I got the inspiration - http://youtu.be/Jh53Ykumt2o (Totally awesome video of GaGa on the Paul O'Grady show :) )

Aaaaanyway, her live performance of Hair is just fantastic on that clip so wanted to use lyrics from it on the hoop. "I just wanna be myself and I want you to know, I am my hair." I didn't have quite the right shade of turquoise felt in my stash so decided on using white for her hair. Stitched a square of blueish felt onto the black, then stitched the white hair and sunglasses on top.

I stitched some metallic silver thread to the shads to add a bit of blingyness. Then started on trying to make the hair look more like hair. I tried to make sure that the fringe was quite defined then added random lines wherever a felt to make it more hair like. Made a bow out of some left over white ribbon and stitched that on top :)

I then freehand stitched the song lyrics around the edge as I went along, and added some sequins for a bit of sparkle.

The excess material at the back was then trimmed down, and the remainder was stitched tightly together to pull the front of the hoop tight. It only took a few hours to complete :) i'm quite pleased with how it turned out. On quickly becoming addicted to hoopla craftiness after all the amazing ones on Craftster - http://www.craftster.org/

Thanks for reading, V x

Regency Reticule & Other Graduation Gifts

My lovely friend recently graduated from her History degree with a first, which was totally awesome!! In order to say a big congratulations I wanted to make her some gifts :)

I asked her if there was something she wanted for any of her historical costumes, and we decided on a regency reticule. The bag is made from silk and lined with linen, and all the embroidery has also been done using silk thread.

I traced the design lightly onto the silk with pencil, and have used 2 strands of thread for all the stitching. The design was one I found here - http://www.needlenthread.com/

The border is mostly done in backstitch, with some satin stitch for the centre of of the flower.

I then backstitched around the outline for the "K" and filled in the letter with satin stitch.

I bought a blue silk tassel and stitched that into the bottom lining of the bag,and then threaded blue silk ribbon through the top for the wrist straps. It's a big bigger than some reticules I have seen as I wanted it to be big enough for my friend to hide her phone in at events. Damn smart phones and their large screens :P

As well as making the reticule I wanted to make her something that actually celebrated her degree. I started looking at graduation samplers online but found nothing that I really liked, so I decided to combine aspects from several I had seen and came up with this -

I drew out the pattern I wanted on graph paper. It has a graduation cap and certificate with a bow. I stitched a "1st" into the certificate and then stitched up the details of her degree in the University's colours. Popped a border around the outside, which I made up as I went along and then popped it in a frame.

She also needed a card -

This was another pattern which I put together using a few designs. Stitched on the cap and certificate and then tinted them with wax crayon. I foolishly stitched the grey border in before doing the writing!! I wanted to write "congratulations" in the top but got fed up of trying to make the letters fit in, so in the end went for "YAAAY". Much more fun :P Cut a hole of a card and stuck the piece down, with some sticker peel on's to make it a bit more interesting.

And here they are all together -

Thanks for reading, V x