Drowned Geisha

  Goodness gracious! It's been a couple of weeks since I  posted last. It's okay though, because now I'm going to bombard you with progressing photos of the embroidery I've been working on! I *think* she's all done, but knowing me I'll probably go back and add even more later.  She ended up being  less creepy than I intended, and I added some creepiness by accident too! Her kimono is wrapped from left to right, which means she is diseased. I didn't realize this until a fellow Flickrian (it's a word, I just said it, so it's a word!) informed me, and my friend Ai confirmed that to be the case. I intended for her to be in the sea, but I don't think that's apparent yet. I will see what she looks like after I add the border.

She started with a little mouth and a nom. There are lines on the teeth here, and I may re-add them again.

My hope is that someday I can make my stitches look exactly as I draw them, but I have a tendency to make lots of changes as I go.

The color on this photo can out a little psychedelic.

Added some color with fabric ink.

Her hair ornament~ I made the flowers with colonial knots. I tried a French knot first, but I find the colonial easier. The leaves are made with bullion knots. I'm not sure what kind of stitch the tassels are, if there is a name for them at all. She has lines for her lids here, which I may add back.

Added a neck and kimono, and some more ink. The fabric ink can be tricky because the longer you leave it on, the darker it gets. The spots came out a bit darker than I wanted. I also started on flowers for the collar.

Finished flowers~ I used a fern stitch and more colonial and bullion knots. I think I'm going to end up outlining the suction cups in brown thread.

Little octopus~ I think I'm going to go back in and line the inside stitches with brown thread here too.

And here she is! All done (pretty much)!

I plan on adding some of this Heather Ross fabric for the border today.

Hopefully I'll have a true finished picture to post soon!

Betty Sue ~ Reworked

I gave this one a new face, and the monstery touch it needed. Hope you like it!

Before:

 

After:

 

 

 

My Little Red Riding Hood

For years now I have been increasingly fascinated by the tale of Little Red Riding Hood. I've loved the story since I was little, but this near obsession really took off after seeing Jin-Roh, one of my favorite Japanese animated films (another obsession of mine). The plot is a complex story about an elite soldier living in a city on the brink of anarchy. Jin-Roh is thick with symbolism paralleling the original tale of Little Red Riding Hood, Rotkappchen.  The art and depth of this film warrants it's own post, so I wont trail off too much about it here.

Maybe I fell in love with the fairy tale because of the anime, or maybe I fell in love with the anime because of the fairy tale, who knows? Either way it has inspired some crafty needlework. You wouldn't guess that my cute little creatures were born from such a dark tale. 

Here are a few of my Rotkappchen inspired softies.

Big Bad Wolf Lovey

 This one was a variation of the pattern by Nest Studio, "Polly".

Girly t-shirt (in my Etsy)

Ulf the Wolf. His new owner is the one who gave him his wonderful new name!

And finally, my newest softy, Little Red Herself! I'm keeping this one, but I'm making an even better one for my shop. I <3 her. 

I put lots of detail into this one. Even little panties! Haha

Each of these were made with my favorite kokka fabric. 

Such whimsy brings me joy.

End of Summer Hooplaws

It's mid-August now, and summer is drawing closer to it's end every day. I think that I was just as disappointed about Jonas going back to school as he was.  There's still so much that I want to do before I go back to school myself.  I've always hated school, but my participation in school is the one thing I would really change if I could go back in time. Oh well, it's spilled milk at this point. I have to put my big girl panties on and stop crying over it. It's time to clean up my mess. At least I'll have my memories to tide me over until next summer.

 

Geisha Kokeshi Reworked (Before and After)

Awhile back I made a geisha/kokeshi softy that I thought was cute enough, even if my sister did say she was creepy. There was something not quite right about her though... She was top heavy and wouldn't stand on her own, something that kokeshi should really be able to do by standard measure. 

So I decided to open her up and fix the problem. My solution: Beans!

Before: 

 

Ready to go.

Tied up nice and tight.

That took care of the standing issue, but then I noticed that some of the stitches on her kimono didn't line up right.

 So, out came the embroidery thread and curved needle. I never had a curved needle until recently. I knew that one would come in handy, but I had no idea just how much easier it would make things like this. After I had her lines looking better, I noticed her obi was starting to fray. *sigh*  

 I pulled out a thick satin ribbon, sat down at my sewing machine and sewed two strips of rick rack along each side of it. I used to dislike rick rack quite a bit. I found it to be tacky, but now I seem attracted to anything it adorns~ aprons, shirts, skirts, softies, everything! 

Anyway, after I got a new obi made...you guessed it, I found another imperfection that I couldn't live with. Her mouth was crooked.

Unfortunately for me, my oldest monster had lost my good seam ripper somewhere, so I had to use an old dull one. It took what felt like an eternity, but I finally got all of the thread out. I ended up removing her entire face and redoing it twice before I was happy with it. That curved needle saved me here too.

New face!

Now I'm done picking at her...hopefully. What do you think?

After:

Back to the drawing board...er, embroidery hoop.

Well, my dear Toshiro didn't turn out as great as I had hoped. I believe the problem was the size in which I tried to make him. The more detail I tried to add, the more detail was lost. His face was only about an inch tall, so every stitch made a huge impact.

Here's how he looked when I finally threw in the needle:

He was so tiny that I decided to turn him into a new pin back button for my cork board. Here he is with another fabric button I made for my friend, Kerri. She loved this material after she saw it on Driscall, so I thought I'd give her a bit she could wear.

Oh, and here's Driscall, the Precarious Pup.

 

Inspired by my favorite snack, Driscall's strawberries and my homemade whipped cream cheese, this lil guy was reworked several times before he looked exactly as I pictured him in my mind. The first time I finished him he looked like a deranged cartoon bunny! I had tried cat eyes from the doll making supplies at Hobby Lobby (my favorite place right now), but I prefer the old school buttons eyes. He also had thinner, pointier ears, and a flat nose. I really like the way he turned out. Hopefully someone else does to!

Patiently awaiting his forever home.<3

...Now I need to make a trip to my favorite place for a larger embroidery hoop. I  wont let you down again Mr. Mifune!