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The Damned Are Welcome Here

Tag: embroidery

  • GETTING STUFF DONE. OH MY!

    One of the Damned

    Welcome, Dear Damned Ones. Most appreciative of your taking time out of your lives of thrilling excitement to attend my most humble corner of the Internet. Apologies for the longwindedness of that sentence, but it greatly pleased me.

    Finally, at long last, I have commenced the slow stitching on the Dali jacket. Here’s what is done so far:

    Can’t say I actually like this, but it does herald further achievements. And this is under the left arm, so not the highest visibility. Those squares on the corners will be stitched next. And I think the lines of stitching should be further apart.

    You, know, a part of me, a very stupid part, wants the stiches to be perfectly even, perfectly aligned. Impeccable, truly. And that want is a load of poppycock. So far, I haven’t done that but part of me wants ever so much to do it perfectly. Must get over that nonsense.

    Fortunately, my typical slothfulness has made the decision to just freewheel it exceedingly simple. And, so, my stitching will continue in its untidiness.

    Now, the stitches are a bit tight so there’s some bubbling of the picture. Oh, and a warning about ironing glue-backed printable fabric onto other fabric. It can still come up at the edges. Anyway, for the other pictures, I’ll stitch the edges down before adding the fabric for slow stitching.

    For the lace, have made a few motifs of just the skull. Here’s one:

    Quite like it, actually. It will be even more splendid after adding the red rhinestones for eyes. Each motif measures about two by three inches and there will be eight to surround the opening at the neck edge. Like this:

    Mocked up Folkwear Patterns’ Croatian shirt pattern for this picture. Kind of shows what’s going on, just without the lace at the cuffs.

    Also making good progress on the spider coat. One sleeve is attached, with only a tiny error that I haven’t decided whether to fix, and the other sleeve is pinned on ready for sewing.

    Profoundly astonished with my achievements these last two weeks. Indeed, I am utterly flabbergasted. Managed to do something every single day. Hope to maintain that momentum. Although it will mean the spider coat (black velvet, if you recall) will be finished this summer, a rather inauspicious time to wear it. But, hey, I’ll take what I can get.

    Thank you for attending. I would like to express my deepest gratitude for your esteemed presence. I humbly beseech thee to return in two weeks.

  • SOME WORK DONE IN SPITE OF PAPER OBSESSIONS

    One of the Damned

    Welcome, Dear Damned Ones. Thank you for coming. I am most honoured by your presence.

    Did get a wee bit obsessive with a YouTuber I just found. It’s Book and Paper Art. Spent a little time down that rabbit hole. She has two hundred and some videos, almost three hundred, so I’ve been in danger of a very deep rabbit hole indeed. She has a wonderful technique for turning paper napkins into paper that you can use as, well, paper. By just adding a cornstarch paste to both sides of one sheet of the napkin (she separates the layers), it stiffens the napkin which makes it nice and sturdy. In another video, she shows how to stitch a little book together. I will definitely be watching more of those. She also has a website: bookandpaperarts.com which includes free stuff. There are lots of pretty pictures that have been scanned and you can just print them off. So glad I found her.

    Now, on to the work I’ve completed in the last two weeks. Almost finished the lace for the left sleeve. Couple more rows and it can be attached to the shirt. Wanted something to sparkle up the lace and found some red, just the right size, sew-in rhinestones for eyes. Didn’t buy enough, of course, so had to go back and get a couple more packages. Forgot about the skulls I want on the lace at the neckline. They need rhinestones, too. Wanted some small red beads for the crosses, but couldn’t find any I liked.  Will look online. Possibly Beadazzle.

    Here’s a couple of my usual terrible pictures of one of the skeletons:

    And:

    Started the spider webs for the spider coat. Being the clever person I am, was smart enough to check my other coats to see which side the buttonholes were and that was the side to make the spider webs. I’m a girl so buttonholes are on the right. Now, I was quite proud of myself for remembering to check this. Unfortunately, by the time I started embroidering a web, a whole three minutes later, I apparently forgot this and started stitching on the left side. Shouldn’t be surprised, should I. Short-term memory is the first to go. Okay, so had to take that stitching out. Fortunately, didn’t mess the fabric.

    Here’s another terrible picture:

    This one is particularly bad, even for me. Sorry. Don’t know why it’s so blurry.

    Now, as for the Dali jacket, well, again, sorry, have only done one little thing. I pinned one of the pictures to the jacket. Doing the actual slow stitching is next. I will have some of that done by the next post here. I promise. Really I do.

    So, thank you for coming, Dear Damned Ones. Hope the hijinks of your life are pleasing to you.

    One response to “SOME WORK DONE IN SPITE OF PAPER OBSESSIONS”

    1. Donnalee of Laughing Dakini Tarot Avatar
      Donnalee of Laughing Dakini Tarot

      Those are very clever and even look like what you are hoping they look like. Well done you. best wishes

      Like

  • PRETEND THIS IS AN ABSOLUTELY PITHY TITLE. PLEASE TRY.

    One of the Damned

    Welcome Dear Damned Ones. Hope you are well.

    Things have been going well. My sister has been visiting for two weeks now and it’s been wonderful. She’ll only be here for one more week, but she’s planning on moving in with me in June. I know that some of you might cringe at the thought of a sibling moving in with you, but things are okay here. No worries. And I can outrun her now.

    Work on the crocheted lace for my black linen shirt is progressing most enthusiastically. I’m delightfully pleased. The lace for the second sleeve is positively speeding along. Helps that I now know what I’m actually doing. That almost never happens.

    Did some practice embroidery for the spider coat. The spider webs that will go on the front of the coat. Probably four of them. I have eight spiders to attach so I can find four other places for webs. I suppose one on each sleeve and maybe two on the back.

    The white sample is done with DMC pearl cotton size five.

    It’s hard to see the spider, but that’s what that silvery thing in the middle of my terrible photo. And the reddish sample is with two strands of DMC cotton embroidery floss. Little easier to see the spider than on the white.

    Decided to do the webs in a darkish red pearl cotton. Need to make the webs bigger with more space between the cross bars, or whatever they’re called. The spider webs are surprisingly easy to do. Child’s play. Truly. The velvet with flannel backing is sturdy enough for embroidery without using a hoop. And they can be done kind of freestyle. I like being able to scatter rules to the four winds and just wing it.

    Going to Michaels tomorrow to see if they have a nice red pearl cotton in size five. Was going to match the colour of the webs to the lining, but realized that’s not paramount.

    Haven’t done anything on the Dali jacket. Today, I came within a hair’s breadth of actually doing something, but didn’t. Sigh. I think that now that I have the stuff I need and can finally get going, I’m realizing that this is quite a frightening project for me. I want it to be absolutely breathtaking, but don’t think I can do it. All my previous gargantuan-seeming plans have had much humbler endings. Hate that. Must find the gumption to just get on with things. I mean, how bad can they turn out, she asks as she shivers.

    And, lastly, did a few rows on the striped rug. Don’t really like it, but going to continue working on it just to have something simple to work on now and then. As a palette cleanser sort of thing. Here’s a picture.

    Only done twenty-five rows, so a plethora of rows to go. It’s single crochet with two rows of each black and white with the first three stitches of each row in just black. You can sort of see the black edge part in the terrible picture.

    So, Dear Damned Ones, thank you for coming. It’s been a pleasure having you here. Pleasant gothy dreams, or nightmares if that’s your preference, to all of you.

  • FANCY IDEAS ARE SPROUTING

    One of the Damned

    Will you look at that. A new blog post exactly two weeks after the last one. Third post this year, and all two weeks apart. Can’t quite believe it. So far, my New Year’s resolution is happening. Yay. I know saying yay isn’t very gothy of me, but too bad. I’m happy. Okay, later I’ll go listen to some sad music.

    Now, for the crocheted lace on the linen shirt, did figure out how this is going to work and I’m finally moving along on this. When that’s done, would also like to add some kind of beads. Just found a beading supply website that I hadn’t heard of before. It’s called Beadazzle. Has anyone heard of them? I’ve googled online beading places before and Beaddazle hasn’t come up. Although, short term memory is the first to go, so maybe I just forgot them. Anyway, they have quite a selection of black beads I wouldn’t mind using. They also have a store that’s kind of far away from me, but I could get there on public transit. It’s so much nicer to go to an actual store.

    Was also thinking I should find some little charms or something to attach to the lace. Maybe something like these:

    Picture is from the Beadazzle website.

    For the Dali jacket, bought some cotton Kona quilting fabric. It’s royal blue and very nice. Will use it to make bias tape 1/4 inch wide to frame the pictures and just add designs all over. Maybe I could get another colour blue, something a bit lighter, and do a stripey pattern. Also thought of getting beads to use along with the bias tape. Maybe from that aforementioned Beadazzle.

    I’m considering roughing up the piping in some way. The original inspiration for this jacket was this:

    Don’t really know right now. Something to let bubble in my brain for a while.

    Did actually print out four pages of Dali paintings on fabric. They came out beautifully. They’re drying now and I hope that by my next post, I’ll have come to some decision of where to place them on the jacket. Need to print out more, though. It is a longish coat, after all. Will need lots of pictures and various other sundry items..

    And, finally, started the embroidery on the pillow sham using the 18 count Aida. Think I mentioned last time that it was 16 count, but I was wrong. Sorry. The work will be tiny, tiny, tiny, but I do like the idea of more detail. But, this is going to be hard. Very hard. Tremendously hard and will take a very long time.

    Originally, I was going to do it all in cross stitch, but maybe not. Have done some work that isn’t cross stitch which seems to be working well. I’ve just done a bit of work on the base of the ground floor of the house. The floor will be four or five rows of something. The top row is cross stitch using two strands of floss, but the next row is just a big back stitch using six strands of floss. It does cover up quite a bit and I think it will work. Will make the whole thing much easier.

    And I’ve been thinking of including some beads here too. Am I getting overly bead-happy in my head? Probably. But I don’t care. I’m having fun thinking about all the ways I could fancy up what I make. It’s not possible to have too much decoration, is it? Minimalism is dead, I say. Long live maximalism. Would it sound more intellectual in French? Le minimalisme est mort, dis-je. Vive le maximalisme. Or maybe more mysterious in Ukrainian. Мінімалізм помер, кажу я. Хай живе максималізм.

    Well, that’s what google says they translate to. But they sound about right so I’m going with them.

    Thank you so much, dear Damned ones, for your attendance here. Hope to see you again in two weeks.

  • COMING UP WITH A NEW TITLE EACH POST IS HARD, VERY HARD

    One of the Damned

    Well, would you look at that, I managed to keep my New Year’s resolution. Here I am posting just two weeks after my last post. Miracles will never cease. My heart is getting quite flibbertigibbety about it. Is that a word? Flibbertigibbety? Well, it is now. Not sure what it means, exactly, but I like the sound of it.

    So, welcome, dear Damned ones. Glad to see you again. Hope the year is going well for you.

    And, what have I done in the last two weeks? Sorry, just had to mention two weeks again. Two weeks. Still can’t really believe I’m writing again so soon.

    Anyway, finally printed three of the Dali pictures. Only what would fit on one page. And, lo and behold, managed to print on the correct side. First try. That certainly doesn’t happen very often. Or ever. Now, I just have to let it dry, however long that takes.

    Have made one decision about where the pictures will go. This one:

    Will go on my bum. Cheeky of me, I know.

    Still need to get some trimmings for the Dali jacket. Don’t know what kind of trimmings, yet. Have to see what is out there.

    Gaining headway on the lace for the linen shirt. Think I figured out how this is going to work. Maybe next post I’ll be able to show the work in progress.

    Started working on the logistics of crocheting a wastepaper basket. Okay, it’s not actually for waste paper, but I don’t want to overshare and mention what it’s actually for. It will be holding stuff to get rid of. Enough said.

    Anyway, I’m thinking of making it look like a witch’s house, and the roof will be the lid of the basket. Found this online somewhere and gave me ideas.

    For the pillow sham, tried painting the Aida fabric to cover up the horrible beige, but I’m not sure that’s going to work. Only painted one coat so far, but I don’t think I like it. Maybe I should just use the original Aida cloth I bought. The darkish grey one that’s 16 stitches per inch. Will try cross-stitching another sample on it. When I find where I put it, that is.

    Lastly, the spider coat is coming along. Ever so slowly. Hope to have a picture of the embroidered spider web before long.

    Thank you for attending, dear Damned ones. Hope to see you again in two weeks.