Cross-stitch and Embroidery

You’d better watch out…

wittychild

…you’d better not cry.  Better not pout, I’m telling you why: this jolly fellow is currently gracing the bathroom door, spreading a little holiday cheer to everyone who pounds and demands when he or she will get his or her turn:

This is one of the many maybe two UFOs I’ve completed this year, which is still a strange feeling for me.  The kit is by Dimensions, and came complete with wire hanger (insert Mommie Dearest joke here) and custom threads that bled slightly (grrr) when I did the standard cold-water dunk upon finishing.  It’s only noticeable if you know where to look, though…whew.

Who knows?  Maybe by next Christmas, I’ll have the next Dimensions kit done…or maybe the Christmas after that…

General Sewing

Halloween ahoy!

wittychild

I do love Halloween – I think it may very well be my favourite holiday.  The stores stay open, no dopey special dinners required…and you get to wear a costume and consume unholy amounts of sugar!  More holidays should be like that.

Anyway, I’m showing up at work tomorrow as a somewhat contemporary (assuming this is somewhere in the late 1940s) Little Red Riding Hood.  I’ve had the pattern for the cape for a while, but only just got around to making it.  See, I found this sweet gingham square-dance dress (according to the tag) at a vintage store, and immediately fell in love with it as it reminded me of something that Vladimir Nabokov’s Dolores Haze might wear.  However, I had the sneaking suspicion that if I showed up wearing the dress and had to answer the inevitable “What are you?” with “Lolita”, I’d be subjecting myself to a barrage of “But what’s your costume?” and so on.  Just a hunch.  *sigh*  The cape was a very necessary addition, using a Simplicity pattern whose number escapes me at the moment, and made from (believe it or not) an old satin sheet.

So I decided to reinterpret Red Riding Hood as a slightly more modern girl.  She’s going to be a bobby-soxer, with saddle shoes and cuffed white socks, a nifty wicker lunchbox-cum-purse instead of that boring old basket, and hopefully a knowing gleam in her eye as she fends off the office wolves.  *snerk*

Modeling the requisite red satin cape, made with my own two hands, over the nymphettish dress, is my dress form Dolores (herself named after little Miss Haze).  Please ignore the blurry background, as I chose to smudge the clutter out rather than actually, you know, tidy up.

...you sure are looking good...

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

You must have been a boo-tiful baby…

wittychild

From the Just Cross Stitch Halloween ornament spectacular, may I present “R.I.P.’s Girl” by Charlette Dockens.  I immediately zeroed in on her as soon as I picked up the magazine, and knew I had to stitch her.

She was stitched on 14-count perforated paper using three strands for cross-stitch, one strand for backstitch and beading (yes, her jewelry is actually beaded).  I corded some floss myself for the hanger, and backed her with glittery purple felt.  Oh, and you can’t tell from the picture, but her eyes were stitched with DMC Light Effects glow-in-the-dark floss.  I love that stuff, and wish I had more applications for it.

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I think I’ll hang her up at work – make my coworkers jealous.  Heh.

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

Onesie, twosie…I love you-sie?

wittychild

I took a break from my many U.F.O.s (on which more at some later date, assuming I actually manage to finish one) to work up a couple of onesies for a girl in my bowling league who is very, very pregnant – due April 22, our last night of the season.

What else but Sublime Stitching’s Bowling Betties pattern sheet would fit the bill?

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And since I managed not to screw that one up, and had a spare one (get it?  Spare?) left over, I found a cute kitten pattern from the Sublime Stitching book, and made it as gender-neutral as possible.

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If nothing else, this experience has taught me that although they may meet the length/weight requirements outlined on the hang tag, cats are not crazy about being stuffed into onesies (this was before I washed them, before I got to the actual embroidering).  It does something to their balance, much like putting a harness on one for the first time, and will cause them to fall off the couch onto the floor, and they will not understand what they did to deserve that.  She’s okay, she was just a little surprised, I think.  🙂

Oh, but back to the subject at hand: I presented them to her on Wednesday, in case she decided to pop early, and she loved them!  Her teammates were cooing over them, and they couldn’t believe I had done the embroidery by hand.  I love it when a few stitches can wow an audience.

General Sewing

Up with Miniskirts!

wittychild

(“We meet again, MAD Magazine…”)

I actually finished this last weekend (“finished” being open to interpretation; I haven’t yet hemmed the bottom nor added the hook-and-eye at the top of the zipper, though it is wearable nonetheless), and have just gotten around to cutting my head out of the picture.  Heh.  The pattern is the apparently out-of-print Simplicity 2967, View C.  The fabric is some cheap-ass but surprisingly comfy knit I got for $1.97/metre ages ago.

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Now I just need the weather to warm up a l’il bit (okay, okay, a lot), and I’m set for spring!

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

Anthropomorphic Birthday Goodness

wittychild

So…immediately after the Christmas rush and all the presents therein were finished, and I had had a chance to repress spending time with relatives and all that good stuff, I started a new project which, though some sort of time-machine trickery, I managed to finish for my mom’s birthday at the end of January.

You’ll recall from my last post that she’s got a thing for hedgehogs, so I found this sweet Country Companions kit sent to me by my friend Rachael.  It’s called “Birthday Surprise”, and at approximately 5″ x 7″ (this from the package details), is just a row or two too large for the 5″ x 7″ frame bought to accommodate it, but I can live with a little missing balloon.  Ain’t he adorable?  There are few things more becoming on hedgehogs than bashfulness.

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craftmas, Cross-stitch and Embroidery

Christmas Presents Ahoy!

wittychild

Happy New Year!  I could offer the standard excuses for not updating sooner (I spent the entirety of November pounding out a novel!  I stitched my little fingers to the bone!  I got abducted by a herd of rogue Simmentals!), but instead, I think I’ll just show off all the stitchy Christmas presents I managed to finish.

For my friend Rachael in Eng-er-land, some easy-to-stitch, easy-to-ship Animated Kitchenware tea-towels:

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There they are, posing sweetly on my oven door.

Avon lady and dear soul Heather got a small Margaret Sherry design:

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I was so happy to have an excuse to use my opalescent aida cloth!

My parents each got a custom shirt from me.  My dad used to work for the railroad and is still very much into trains, so I made him a Chessie shirt using a pattern that I found online:

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It was stitched onto the pocket of a denim shirt using waste canvas…I do like the colours!

My mom collects all things hedgehog, so I used the Sublime Stitching Forest Friends pattern to come up with this:

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It’s just a plain blue t-shirt from Michael’s, but sufficiently jazzed up now.  Also, Sublime Stitching’s T-shirt Stabilizer is a godsend!

Last but not least, this Subversive Cross Stitch pattern (I tweaked the colours and omitted the border) seemed just too perfect for coworker and co-conspirator Sue.  It’s now sitting on her desk, spreading sunshine and lollipops to all who venture past.

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Thanks for looking; as always, if you have any further questions, please feel free to leave a comment!

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

A picture is worth a thousand words, I think…

wittychild

Really, there isn’t anything I could say about this piece that it’s not already saying itself.  Oh!  Except that it’s for the same lucky, lucky individual for whom I made the “Bite Me” trivet as seen in my maiden post.  He got such a kick out of the first piece that I brought my Subversive Cross Stitch book to work to show him, and he started laughing when he saw this one.  Knowing his birthday was coming up, I figured I could swing it, and make his day…..twice in just a couple of months.  Go me!  Without further ado, I present to you:

See what I mean about the picture saying it all?  😛

He comes back to work on Wednesday (from Vegas, the lucky bum…), and I think this is the perfect way to welcome him back!

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

“Trick or Kitty Treat”

wittychild

By Brittercup Designs, I found this gem in the Just Cross Stitch special Halloween ornament section.  Why Halloween deserves ornaments now, I’ll never know, but I thought it was cute anyway.  I stitched it for me mum; it’s currently on display in the living room.

It’s over one thread on 28-count fabric….so it’s actually quite tiny: 2 1/4 ” by 2 1/2″, I think.  The frame I put it in is only 3″ x 3″, so that should give you some idea.

The original design had a spider button attached, so it looked like the kitty was stalking its prey, but I think it looks just as cute without it….like he’s sleepy after a busy day guarding the pumpkin!

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

Naughty or Nice?

wittychild

I do apologize for the long-time-no-posts….I’m going to blame work for this one, but I’m hoping to be posting a lot more soon, what with the holidays rapidly approaching.  At any rate, on with the crafty goodness, yes?

I had purchased the Lisa Petrucci designs from www.sublimestitching.com some time ago, though I hadn’t yet committed them to fabric.  Then my friend Dan got her own place, and decided to go and have a birthday shortly thereafter (inasmuch as one’s birthday can be determined by free will, of course :P), and somehow, a set of hand-embroidered tea towels seemed like the perfect housewarming/b-day pressie.  Especially when they’re this cool.  I particularly like the devil – clearly, being bad is more fun than being good!

Hanging side-by-side on the oven door:

And close-ups:

And now, of course, I want to do the devil again…for myself!