Dress makeover

I have this dress that I really love... maybe because the first time I wore it was to a wine tasting shortly after I got divorced and a close colleague of mine exclaimed, "Girl! You look like you're 20 years old!" (and I hadn't been 20 for a while). And then I wore it to Acapulco on my honeymoon a few years later and I love the picture of the two of us having a perfect dinner overlooking Acapulco Bay while the sun is setting.

So when I got a stain on it at some mysterious time and place, and hadn't noticed, I was upset. Upset enough to go ahead and wear it to whatever event I got it out for the next time, with the plan to pretend that it just happened. But I knew I could only pull that off so many times.

I ran across this pattern online, fell in love with it, and decided the folk art peacock would be just the thing to embroider over the stain.

Fast forward about one year of "aging" the pattern in my stiching stash while I gained some more experience with stitching on stretchy fabric...

Although the pattern was an iron-on transfer, I wanted the peacock to face the opposite direction so it would face into the center of the dress. I traced the pattern with a micron pigma pen onto water soluable stabilizer. This turned out to be a stroke of genius become some of the lines in the pattern were too delicate for the thread and fabric I was using and the lines of the pattern would not have been perfectly covered. This way I had some leeway to adapt my stitches.

I actually ended up cutting out the piece of stabilzer twice because the first time around I didn't make sure it was big enought to be caught entirely in the hoop and the tension would have been way off. Luckily, I figured this out before I had it all traced.

Then I basted the stabilzer to the dress so it wouldn't shift as I was stitching.

I used mostly DMC stranded cotten, but also used some metallic silver thread to give it a little sparkle. I often wear silver sandals with the dress, so I thought that would be fun.

I wasn't sure how it would turn out positioned on the dress, but it really turned out great. I'm very happy that I did not give up on this dress and now it's ready to go with me on vacation!

Bonus Triangle Project Continued....

I used only a few of my bonus triangles to piece together a background for my new project and then tried to figure out how to transfer the heart pattern I made from tissue paper. First I traced around it with chalk, but that wasn't showing up well enough. Then I decided to quickly machine baste around it and that worked out great.

I took my prepped background to Wooley Bee and was able to attach all the leaves and begin embroidering the vine.

 I finished up the vine the next day and decided it was too pretty to get beat up in use as a project bag, so now I'm thinking I might make it into a pillow.

Stay tuned. This kind of edge-of-your-seat excitement never ends around here!

Bonus triangle project

I've got dozens and dozens of bonus triangles that resulted from making the quilt blocks for Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage. I'm planning on making an embroidered project bag that will have a lot of wool leaves. I've needed something new to work on at Wooley Bee.

Amazing embroidery inspiration can be found at www.facilececile.com. She has a new book out and I'm trying to decide if it matters that it's in French.

Hello March!

I have been away from blogging for awhile because my family needed every bit of extra time for the last couple of months, but I'm hoping to get back on the horse and rejoin the blogosphere! The next few posts will take care of some catching up.

 A while back one of my favorite catalogs was running a sale on light weight cardigans that I thought would be perfect for embellishing. So far*, I've only finished my daughter's. She picked out the pattern and the colors. I used a water soluable stabalizer to stitch through, and I think it turned out pretty cute.

 

 

I also wanted to show off this bracelet that Ellen made. She's been tearing out photos of jewelry from some of our favorite catalogs as inspiration and recently came up with this using new beads, old beads, bits of broken jewelry and even an earring. I absolutely love it and have put in an order for one soon!

 

 

*Note to Nicole: It's not to late to return your un-embellished cardigan for some decorating! :)

Jumping in with both feet

I’ve been an avid blog reader for years now, and am finally jumping in with my own. I have enjoyed all of the inspiration I’ve received through the online community and it has been wonderful for my own creative outlet.

I always have several projects going at the same time. No chance of getting bored then.

 I’m most currently working on a quilt designed by Bonnie Hunter,

a lace sampler by Tanja Berlin,

 various cross stitch designs and some tatting.

My mission right now is to make progress on a daisy afghan a la Attic24. My favorite spot to stitch is outside on the patio in what the kids call "the Tetanus chair." But the vintage rocker is always the first seat taken when we gather outside to listen to the parrots at dusk.