New Trails in Embellishment

I had a design that I wanted to embroider, and I didn't feel like using white background cloth, so I found a Fat Quarter that I liked and stamped on that (tracing the printed design with the blue iron-on-transfer pen, which worked very well, indeed).

My only quibble is that the transferred line is very bold. I had to use 4 strands of floss to cover it. Otherwise, it stamped beautifully.

It took me awhile to figure out what the image actually was- I finally realized that it's a Steampunk Sun and Moon (it's not oriented properly above). I didn't actually care what it represented, I just liked it a lot (from Urban Threads, of course).

I was going to embellish the design the same way I did with the skulls, using assorted embroidery stitches and contrasting thread colors. And then I had a notion...

Beads!

 See? Moon and Sun

I am really happy with how this came out. I will probably use this as the front of a patchwork bag.

Cool, no?

P.S. I have a new phone with a kick-ass camera. Can you tell?

Cozy Day of the Dead

I got the sewing machine back out... I ended up not needing the FQs- so there may be another b/w project in my future. Woohoo!

Peace, Man

Hippie Shirt Progress

 (I changed my mind about the stars, and inner-moon motifs as I embroidered)

Left front yoke

The Evolution of a Hippie Moon

Did I  mention that I wanted to embroider a blue denim Hippie Shirt? Did I also mention that I've tried every single transfer pen and pencil color, and none show on dark denim? And did I mention that I accidentally ordered a white pencil (well, it wasn't accidental- the silly thing was labeled as a transfer pencil, but it's just a white pencil), which ended up being the only thing that actually shows on the dark fabric?

If I haven't mentioned any of that, consider it mentioned now.

Anyway, I started working on the Hippie Shirt this weekend. Since I can't use a transfer pen or pencil, I decided to wing the design (this made me sad, because I had a whole slew of Urban Threads motifs that I wanted to transfer and embroider). Here's how that went:

All of the featured work was done on a very windy, rainy, dreary afternoon as I watched The Hobbit (#1) and a bunch of favorite X-Files episodes. I stopped to take a picture after each step. This is about 5 hours of work, all done with ordinary 6-strand embroidery floss (2 strands at a time). Note that the above picture is a more accurate representation of the shirt color.

Cool, no?

I'm going to embroider the front yokes, cuffs, collar, and down either side of the button bands.

Side Note: If I ever do this again (hint: probably), I'll get a light denim shirt. ALL of the transfer pens and pencils will show on that fabric