First Attempts at Pattern Darning

This month’s Stitch Explorer Challenge is pattern darning. I had never tried it before. Once you establish a rhythm, it’s kind of fun to see designs emerge from simple running stitches.

Back to School...

Meet Gulli, my latest doll acquisition. I am positively overdosing on cute, here. He reminds me so much of my little cat, Briar. I don’t have any boy clothes for him, yet, so he had to borrow an outfit from one of my Madame Alexander girls (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). Anyway, he’s an eight inch tall resin BJD (ball jointed doll) - so he’s very pose-able.

Still Playing with Dolls...

I’m making a little tea length dress to try out a simple pattern I purchased from Morrisey Dolls. I used beaded buttonhole stitches for an easy, quick and secure way to add beading to the bodice. The dress isn’t finished – it still needs a hem and maybe some black lace or edging on the bottom. My 18” model is Tonner’s Miss America. Isn’t she beautimus? She was one of my eBay finds – and a steal at $27.00!

Another Stitch Explorer Example...

This is another example of a contemporary style stitchery done on an unconventional background. I started this piece awhile back and just finished the embroidery yesterday. The blue is lint (from a Snuggie Blanket’s initial washing) embellished onto a felt background with wool roving, novelty yarn and tulle on top. I just need to add a postcard backing and satin stitch around the edges.

Stitch Explorer Challenge WIP

This month's Stitch Explorer challenge was to incorporate something unconventional into an embroidery project, either in the background or in the surface stitching. For inspiration, I reviewed my notes from two excellent courses I had taken with Susan Sorrell: Personal Symbols and Fertile Earth.

For the background, I used a piece of painted cotton from a fabric printing project gone awry (why do I have a seemingly endless supply of those?). For a little texture, I added a few small pieces of fabric made using snippets of leftover thread from other projects. A plastic mesh onion bag from the grocery store was added on top followed by a piece of tulle. The sassafras leaf was made from wool felt embellished with wool roving. It was outlined with floss and then whipped with variegated rayon ribbon. The veins were stitched and whipped with variegated wool yarn. I think I will probably add some beads to the leaf and (possibly) some stitches to the background.

I have had so much fun with this and it has sparked some ideas for future exploration… I love when that happens!