Embroidered.

Remember me showing you the little owl I drew?  And then saying how I wanted to embroider it onto the front of a notebook?

I used a larger needle to prick the holes for the outline before I started sewing.  Though note to self - Next time, sew the details -before- the outline; the number of times my needle got caught in the thread of the outline while I was sewing the eyes and beak!  Grr!

It took a couple of sessions to get it finished, two afternoons away from work that were interspersed with lunches, cups of coffee and many, many kitcat snuggles.

I added the pupils using a black fine point pen and I've left his tummy bare...Though I might go back and add a chevron pattern in the same bright green thread ^_^

I'm really pleased with how it turned out!  I like that he's a little bit wonky and eternally surprised and just a little bit colourful ^_^  I've got a couple of other designs in mind that I'd like to have a go at embroidering onto card or paper.  I'd love to know what you think ^_^ Thank you for stopping by!

xoxo

Doll Post...FINALLY!

What's up, guys!

So, I finally got some time to sit down and write this doll post, which is just a little run-down of how I made this doll for my boy's sister (she went to an animé convention and wanted me to make her prop!)

I showed you this picture before, but here it is again - 

I used an old bed sheet for material.  I was going to go out and buy fabric in all the different colours I'd need but my awesome Mum found some dye we'd had in a cupboard for years and, as luck would have it, it was in the colours I needed!  So I got all my bits cut out and next, I needed to dye them!

I did exactly what it told me to do on the packet and it came out great (^_^) I used a cold water dye, for which I also needed a 'fixer' (to get the dye to stay on the fabric) and a whole heap of table salt!  I let the dye work it's magic for about an hour, moving the fabric around in the dye every fifteen minutes or so.

Here they are, drying on the line after being thoroughly rinsed in cold water!  As you can see, especially on the blue part, there was a little patchiness in the colouring.  I'm not sure why that happened, since I kept moving the fabric around in the dye but hey, it wasn't a massive disaster!  I can't believe that gorgeous, sunny, *warm* day was only a couple of weeks ago - it feels like an age!  Missing you, warm weather!

After my pieces were all dry, it was time to sew them together.  Now, I'm not a very proficient seamstress and what resulted was a lot of huffing, puffing, getting annoyed at my sewing machine, running out of thread and a couple of jams!  Finally, after about two hours of slow, steady stitching, this appeared - 

Using a piece of folded paper tucked in between the fabric (see top right!) I drew on all the features using a Sharpie marker.  Since I was shipping it to America I didn't want to stuff it here, so instead of stitching it closed I sewed velcro along the bottom of the doll, between it's teeny little legs - this meant it could be folded up nice and small for mailing and then stuffed when it got there, plus they didn't have to worry about sewing the doll together afterwards!

S *does* have a picture of his sister and the finished doll (which he has yet to send me) but when I get it, I'd like to post it up here so you can really see how big he is.  I'm *so* pleased with how he turned out, I never thought I'd be able to make something like this so I kinda surprised myself!  Yay for making dolls and trying new things!

So, in other news, I've had a hugely busy and pretty miserable week at work; instead of my regular hours, I ended up working two 12-hour shifts back to back (that's 6am-6pm two days in a row) and have spent most of my free time sleeping/dozing/napping and generally being a bit of a grump!  Hopefully now my manager is back from her holiday, things will start getting back to normal and I can take some time off!  S is still trying to figure things out on his end so we can push forward in our journey to be together.  It's really frustrating that I can't do anything here but I know he's doing his best and we'll make it work somehow (^_^) I hope you guys are all having an awesome weekend and you've got lots of amazing things planned for Halloween tomorrow!  Thanks for reading!

xoxo

♥Ắçĕ♥

His Sister's Bookmark

The symbols read 'love' and 'life'

I *finally* got it finished!  It only took me, like, a million hours *chuckles* Really, all in all it probably took me four hours to stitch the characters because I'm ridiculously slow at sewing still.  I backed the symbols onto a dark blue parchment for contrast (and because my boy's sister's favourite colour is blue - that's a bit of a mouthful) and I added a few cloisonné beads in matching colours as a 'placer' to hang from the top of the book.  I really hope she likes it (^_^) I showed it to my boy and he thinks she will.  I'm going to send it soon as a little surprise for her, when I send my boy the bookmark I make him too.  It was really fun to make and such good practice, I'm glad I could get stuck into it and just spend hours absorbed in sewing.  It's become one of my favourite things to do, I'm excited to get started on more projects!

So, I'm still not working at the moment (I paid work a little visit today and was told 'maybe next week' which kinda sucks for me) but I did apply for a job in a bakery today!  I'd be making sandwiches and cooking sausage rolls and all manner of delicious things.  Surrounded by yummy food...That's not going to be so good for my weight loss goal!  Ooh, speaking of which - weighed in this morning and there was no change (yay for not gaining!) My poor kitty cat Gizmo had to be put in a cone because she kept pulling at her stitches and is subsequently the most miserable cat in the world.  I'm giving her lots of snuggles but nothing cheers her up.  She just sits, looking at me, laying on my arms or on my keyboard like "Look at me and my misery.  You did this, human.  You."  Only until Thursday, Giz.  Then the stitches are out and you're free!

An incredibly morose cat

 Indie Business officially starts tomorrow, I'm *so* excited for it.  I've been looking on the group page and so many people have made ridiculously awesome binders for their work, I feel so lucky to be working amongst such amazingly talented and creative individuals.  It's going to be epic good (^_^) I can't wait to get started and see where this adventure takes me.  I hope you're all having a cracking good Monday - I get this feeling this week is going to be an awesome one!

A Needle And Thread

I have been sewing *so* much over the last two days.  Literally, constant sewing.  My fingers are sore, my eyes are sore, my back is sore...And I've got the biggest smile on my face (^_^) *WHY* didn't anyone introduce me to sewing before?!  I've really caught the sewing bug and I'm *loving* trying out new stitches and sewing different shapes.

I'm still working with parchment and card and am experimenting with different kinds of thread and lots of different colours.  I'm really pleased to say that my blanket stitch has improved *loads* since my last post.  I've been asking everyone if they need bookmarks (everyone needs a bookmark, right?) and have made two so far for myself as practice runs.  I'm sewing a bookmark for my boy's sister who loves everything about Japan (we have so much in common it's scary) so I'm stitching the Japanese symbols for 'love' and 'life' onto a blue and white background with purple thread.  It's coming along pretty nicely and I'm really thrilled that I can see myself progressing with every passing day.  I'm going to sew one for my boy and also one for another friend of mine who is up to his eyes in books at the moment and is using scrap paper to mark his pages!  I'm going to be a busy little bee!

Speaking of busy...

My binder for Indie Business!  Woo!

Indie Business starts on Tuesday!  I'm so excited!  We had our first project yesterday which was to print off our workbooks and decorate our binders.  I can't wait to start working through the book and building up my portfolio, every time I think about taking the course I know I made the right decision and I'm really investing in my future.  I loved spending time making my binder too, I can't remember the last time I spent a whole weekend getting stuck into my craft materials and being really creative and imaginative.  And to round it all off nicely, my boy and I have our date night tonight!  It was my turn to theme it up and I chose 'Inspire' as our theme.  And we're going to make delicious pepperoni sandwiches, which I will have to post one day as they are simply scrumptious (^_^)

I hope everyone had an awesome weekend!