D is for Delicate » embroidery http://disfordelicate.com Crafts, Canning, and Lots of Cat Pictures Sat, 14 Jan 2012 21:07:53 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Day Four: Learning from my Mistakes http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/04/day-four-learning-from-my-mistakes/ http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/04/day-four-learning-from-my-mistakes/#comments Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:42:56 +0000 Danielle http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/04/day-four-learning-from-my-mistakes/ Continue reading →]]>

More and more these days I find myself embracing my cat-lady status.  Cat art all over my walls?  Check.  Consistently covered in cat hair?  Check.  Talking strangers’ ears off about Chowder and Maxine?  Check.  I’ve even written some cat poems, which I think is probably the worst offense of all.

So, after completing my first stuffed cat last night before bed (just in time for my niece’s party tomorrow!), I didn’t hesitate before starting on my second stuffed cat this afternoon.  I wasn’t really satistfied with how lumpy the finished product was, so this time I lined the entire pillow with muslin for a (hopefully) much sturdier stuffed animal.  (I’ll be using the terms pillow and stuffed animal interchangibly, since I can’t decide which one fits better.)  To make the lining, I sandwiched a gray striped tank top (right sides together) between two pieces of muslin and pinned everything in place so that I had a layer of muslin, two layers of gray jersey, and then another layer of muslin.  I then folded the whole thing in half (hot dog style), drew the outline of half a cat face, and then cut it all out in the same way I would a paper heart, leaving a 1/2″ seam allowance.  Then I unfolded it so that it actually looked like a cat face and sewed all the way around, stopping after each ear so that when turned right side out there’s a 6″ to 7″ gap at the top of the head.  This easily accomodates my embroidery hoop and leaves plenty of room for me to work on embroidering the sleepy and awake faces on the front and back.  I’m hoping that the top of the head will be a less conspicuous place to sew the whole thing up once stuffed, since I wasn’t happy with the way it looked on the chin of the previous cat.  So far, all I’ve completed are the sleepy eyes.  I’ll probably be working on this one at a much more leisurely pace since I’m not dealing with a deadline, and the next week of school promises to be busier than this one was (at least I’m not counting on two more sleet days, but who knows?).

Now that I’ve seen this photographed, I’ll admit I think I was subconsciously inspired, at least as far as the head shape and color palette are concerned, by these adorable Kitty-Cat paper dolls I saw on ModernCat yesterday.  So sweet!

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]]> http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/04/day-four-learning-from-my-mistakes/feed/ 0 Day Three: Completed Kitty! http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/03/day-three-completed-kitty/ http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/03/day-three-completed-kitty/#comments Fri, 04 Feb 2011 06:23:39 +0000 Danielle http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/03/day-three-completed-kitty/ Continue reading →]]>

Sleepy Kitty

Including the time it took to take pictures of this little guy, I think I barely squeaked by in time for this to count as day three.  Tonight I finished this cat pillow to give my niece at her fourth birthday party tomorrow!  Having never made a stuffed animal quite like this one (though I made a similar owl, also from a tank top, a while back), I’ll admit there are things I’ll definitely do differently next time.  And since I promised a cat like this to someone else almost a year ago and still haven’t managed to deliver, I’ll be making another one sooner than later!  All of the embroidery was freehanded, which explains why things aren’t quite symmetrical.  Still, I think it gives each animal a distinct personality I’ve found to be lacking in a lot of store-bought toys.  The reverse applique for the eyes on the “awake” side of the face was by far the most challenging aspect of this project–at least the first eye was challenging.  By the time I got to the second eye I had a better handle on what I was doing, which is why the right eye looks so much better than the left.

Awake Kitty

A special note: this pillow was modeled after a cat pillow that belongs to my dear friend Melody.  She’s had hers since she was small, but I’m not sure exactly what it looked like originally because it’s been thoroughly loved over the years and doesn’t have much of a face left.  I can only hope this one is lucky enough to suffer a similar fate!

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]]> http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/03/day-three-completed-kitty/feed/ 3 Day Two: Cross-Eyed Kitty http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/02/day-two-cross-eyed-kitty/ http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/02/day-two-cross-eyed-kitty/#comments Thu, 03 Feb 2011 04:14:14 +0000 Danielle http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/02/day-two-cross-eyed-kitty/ Continue reading →]]>

Still a work in progress!

My first attempt at a sort of reverse appliqué with a bit of muslin left over from a previous project.
It wasn’t my intention to make this kitty cross-eyed, but I kind of like how silly it’s turning out. I just hope it doesn’t scare my niece!

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]]> http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/02/day-two-cross-eyed-kitty/feed/ 1 Day One: Sleepy Kitty Pillow http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/01/day-one-sleepy-kitty-pillow/ http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/01/day-one-sleepy-kitty-pillow/#comments Wed, 02 Feb 2011 03:27:28 +0000 Danielle http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/01/day-one-sleepy-kitty-pillow/ Continue reading →]]>

Today I began working on this stuffed cat pillow (made from a gently-used tank top that no longer fits) for my niece’s birthday this weekend.  On the opposite side I plan to embroider a more awake-looking “day time” face, then sew it up and stuff it.

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]]> http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/01/day-one-sleepy-kitty-pillow/feed/ 3 Thing-a-Day http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/01/thing-a-day/ http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/01/thing-a-day/#comments Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:04:47 +0000 Danielle http://daniellegrimes.porchswingmedia.com/?p=1231 Continue reading →]]> I love deadlines.  Really, I am never more productive than when I know I have to turn something in.  That’s one reason I love this blog so much–it’s really easy for me to make to-do lists and dream up projects, but a lot of times my creative process stops there unless I let someone else in on it; that way I feel like I’m letting someone down if I get lazy and don’t do all the things I say I’m going to do.  That’s probably why I’m happily completing my fifth year of college.  It was also my logic behind participating in Dollar Store Crafts’s Stash Bust last April, and it’s my reason for participating in Thing-a-Day this month.  According to their blog:

Thing-a-day is a collective creative blog that lives for one month every February. Participants commit to create new things every day and share them with the rest of the group.

And I am stoked to be part of that group!  My Posterous site, the blogging platform for Thing-a-Day, is still pretty bare, but today is only the first day so don’t judge me too harshly.  I plan to link that page with this one so you guys will be able to see what I’m working on.  Additionally, I would love for you guys to join in as well.  Be warned: my stuff won’t always be awesome–in fact, a lot of the time it will probably be a big pot of soup or deodorant or something.  Nevertheless, I’m really excited to have a goal to work toward, and I can’t wait to see the beautiful things I know others have to contribute.  I hope to see you there!

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]]> http://disfordelicate.com/2011/02/01/thing-a-day/feed/ 0 Days of the Week Pillowcases for Dawn http://disfordelicate.com/2011/01/05/days-of-the-week-pillowcases-for-dawn/ http://disfordelicate.com/2011/01/05/days-of-the-week-pillowcases-for-dawn/#comments Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:00:28 +0000 Danielle http://daniellegrimes.porchswingmedia.com/?p=1116 Continue reading →]]> It makes sense this is the first DIY gift I’m going to show you because I definitely spent the most time on them. I decided to make Dawn a set of her very own days of the week pillowcases–like the underwear most of us wore as kids and I sort of want a set of as an adult.

Finally complete and ready to be given--and they're only five months late!

Maybe the fact that days of the week pillowcases seemed like a good gift deserves some explanation, but that is not what this post is about.  To sum things up, Dawn changes her pillowcase every night.  Anyway, I started on these at the end of July (Dawn’s birthday is mid-August), thinking I’d have plenty of time to finish them before her birthday.  Using another pillowcase as a point of reference, it only took me a couple of days to  sewed the pillowcases in a lightweight natural muslin.  I finished them over the summer during the last few days of our extended stay with my parents (as we waited to close on the house).  Once we got moved in, I pushed them aside for a week or so as we got unpacked and adjusted to life in a new city among strangers.  Around the time school started I bought some iron-on inkjet paper and used my (very) limited photoshop skills to make the seven templates for the embroidery I would do on the edge of each pillowcase.

Even after all that embroidery, I'm still not sick of odstemplik. What a beautiful font!

The font I used is odstemplik, which can be downloaded free at both fontspace and dafont.com, among other places.  If you decide to make these yourself, keep in mind you’ll need to print the mirror image of what you want to show up on your pillowcase.  After embroidery, you can peel the rest of the iron-on off pretty easily by picking at it with your needle.  The simpler your design is the better.  I’m sure there are better ways to do this, but I’m not familiar with them.  All you seasoned embroiderers feel free to enlighten me in the comments!  (A special note about this method: Make sure you follow the instructions for the iron-on paper very closely.  Exposure to too much heat can cause the iron-on to look dark and gross and become much harder to peel off, which, I can say from experience, is a real bummer.)  Anyway, once the days of the week were transfered to the pillowcases, I took them all to school and left them in my desk with the naive assurance that I could finish them during my office hours.  However, it seemed that all semester long there were papers to be graded, coffee to be gotten, and other sundry distractions that go along with sharing an office with so many of my friends.  Consequently, my progress has been excruciatingly slow, and Dawn is only now getting to enjoy her intended birthday gift.

I used satin and chain stitch for the entirety of the project, mostly because those are the only two stitches I know.

I’m really happy to be done with these!  Not only because I’ve been feeling like a real turd for giving Dawn’s gift so late, but also because I’m ready to start on something new.  I enjoyed working on these because, once I got the hang of it, embroidery became a really relaxing hobby.  I can’t wait to start on something new–maybe something that features some stitches other than satin and chain.

Happy Wednesday!

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]]> http://disfordelicate.com/2011/01/05/days-of-the-week-pillowcases-for-dawn/feed/ 0 1886 Vintage Ingalls Embroidery Patterns http://disfordelicate.com/2010/07/13/1886-vintage-ingalls-embroidery-patterns/ http://disfordelicate.com/2010/07/13/1886-vintage-ingalls-embroidery-patterns/#comments Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:23:21 +0000 Danielle http://daniellegrimes.porchswingmedia.com/?p=921 Continue reading →]]> I literally  jumped for joy when I saw that Feeling Stitchy had posted a link to these beautiful 1886 Ingalls vintage embroidery patterns, which have been cleaned up and made available by Flickr’s jeninemd.  There’s no way I could pick favorites, but here a few that really jumped out at me:

I love this sweet, simple daisy sprig.

I can think of a couple of girls who need something like this.

I believe I've made my love of ferns known.

Embroidery has become my lazy-summer-watching-television-everything-else-is-in-the-garage-or-too-expensive craft, and I can’t wait to stitch some of these beautiful vintage designs.

(all images courtesy of jeninemd via Flickr)

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]]> http://disfordelicate.com/2010/07/13/1886-vintage-ingalls-embroidery-patterns/feed/ 1 Embroidered Nesting Doll Pillow http://disfordelicate.com/2010/07/05/embroidered-nesting-doll-pillow/ http://disfordelicate.com/2010/07/05/embroidered-nesting-doll-pillow/#comments Mon, 05 Jul 2010 18:10:45 +0000 Danielle http://daniellegrimes.porchswingmedia.com/?p=888 Continue reading →]]> A few weeks ago I posted about OlioBoard, and in that post I shared some images I collected from around the internet as inspiration for a project I’d been planning. I haven’t done much embroidery, and I’ve never made an embroidery pattern, but I decided to give it a try. Up until this weekend my sewing machine was still packed up in the garage, and this whole home-buying thing is draining my bank account, so embroidery has presented itself as a very logical craft–it doesn’t take up much space, I can design patterns myself, and rather than spending money on fabric I can use old clothes and linens (of which there are plenty around here), and I already have a ton of embroidery floss.

dimensions are roughly 13" x 13"

After I finished the embroidery portion of the project, I sewed the fabric (an old thrift store table cloth) into a simple envelope pillowcase and then made a pillow out of more scrap fabric and some really plush stuffing my mom gave me.  For this pillow, I just placed the fabric on top of my original hand-drawn embroidery pattern and traced with a pencil.  I’ve scanned the hand drawn nesting doll and I’m working on turning it into a legit embroidery pattern in various sizes that I can post here for download.

mostly chain stitch with some satin stitch and a couple of french knots

Now I’m thinking about other color and pattern combinations.  I’m working right now on a creme, green, and brown floral with green embroidery floss.  I’m also considering applique possibilities.


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]]> http://disfordelicate.com/2010/07/05/embroidered-nesting-doll-pillow/feed/ 2 OlioBoard http://disfordelicate.com/2010/06/12/olioboard/ http://disfordelicate.com/2010/06/12/olioboard/#comments Sat, 12 Jun 2010 14:00:50 +0000 Danielle http://daniellegrimes.porchswingmedia.com/?p=796 Continue reading →]]>

click the photo to visit my olioboard for more information on the products pictured above

Earlier this week I read about OlioBoard over at Decor8.  I was drawn to the idea behind it because I frequently gather images for inspiration when I’m working on DIY or home design projects, but I’ve never had a very convenient way of organizing them. All these images were hanging out on my desktop as reference points for an embroidery project I’m currently working on, so I decided to open up an OlioBoard account and upload them.  So far I’ve found the website fairly easy to use, and I think I’m really going to appreciate having a simple, organized way of keeping track of some of my loftier project ideas.  My sole complaint so far is that (other than taking a screenshot and cropping all the other junk out) I can’t figure out a way to share pictures of the moodboards I create with people outside the OlioBoard community, though there’s probably a way to do this that I’ve yet to figure out.  Sharing olioboards within the website, however, seems pretty straightforward.

If you’re already an OlioBoard member or you plan on joining, add me as a friend!  I’m DisforDelicate.

As for the above moodboard and related project, you’ll have to hold your horses on that one.  I’ve gathered most of the supplies I need to make it happen, but I’m still working out the logistics of the whole thing.  I will say I’m pretty excited about it though!

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]]> http://disfordelicate.com/2010/06/12/olioboard/feed/ 2 Audrey’s Apron http://disfordelicate.com/2010/02/08/audreys-apron/ http://disfordelicate.com/2010/02/08/audreys-apron/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:07:48 +0000 Danielle http://daniellegrimes.porchswingmedia.com/?p=445 Continue reading →]]>

Not to reinforce gender stereotypes, but this apron is too cute.

I picked up this apron at Target last weekend for my niece’s third birthday. I can’t ever say enough about how much I love Target, and I’m so glad there isn’t one around here or I’d spend way too much money. Anyway, I brought it back and put her name on it late last week, and mailed it out on Saturday.  She should be getting it any day now!

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