Current Mood : Sleepy
Forgot to tell ya'll - the silk 50th Anniversary Barbie scarf I ordered arrived yesterday. It is gorgeous ! Honestly, I don't want to cut it up now - I wanna wear it ! Beloved Hubby agrees with me, and said I could order another later this month. Yaaaay !
I was playing around with the glittery rhinestone slide letters I got on the 50c strap bracelet at the Flea Market yesterday. It occurred to me that they'd work fine with larger dolls, and I could string them on either broken jewelry or silver thread. The ‘A' one would work for nearly any of the Ariel dolls, Aurora, or Alice in Wonderland, and the ‘T' would work for Tiana, Tuesday Taylor, or Timey Tell. I may still donate the ‘N', since I don't think any of my larger dolls have an ‘N' name.
Had some time tonight, so I stitched out the ‘left' side design for Joanne. I wanted to see how the lettering looked, and I wanted to try ‘floating' the Timtex and/or Peltex (rigid interfacing stuff, often used to make fabric bowls). So I pulled up the misprinted silhouette guide and used it as a pattern to make a cutout of the rigid stuff.
I also hooped up more side-taped cotton, using nearly the last of the ‘pillowcase' masking tape - there's just a few inches of it left. Kinda cheated on the Timtex, and used the adhesive spray to keep it in place, since it was a cutout. To truly be a ‘float', it'd be just a regular ole rectangle stuck under the design.
Well, one thing's for sure. I really do learn more from my failures than my successes. Actually, it went pretty well, but I learned there's a reason most stand-alone designs - like for magnets and frames - have die-line stitches as part of the design. You stitch out the die-line on the Timtex first, then cut it out, then hoop your other fabric and work the rest of the design, placing the cutout when/where it's called for. I always ignored them before. This one, of course, doesn't have that, so I didn't cut it well. Surprisingly, it still stitched nearly all the way around anyway, except at the front of the neck. I can probably still cut it out and use it anyway, but I wanted ya'll to see the whole thing before I cut it up. Especially since the ‘In The Pink' won't be a part of the cutout. I think next time, I really will ‘float' it, without trying a cutout, and skip the adhesive. I don't really like that stuff.
The fabric I used as the appliqué was a real mess. It frayed and I couldn't cut it close to the stitches for squat. But it's still really shiny and pretty. I bought it years ago in a fabric grab bag at the junk shop, and was dreaming of the cool doll clothes it'd make - before I got it home, opened the bag, and found that it was all tiny little three and four inch scraps. Size-wise, it's perfect for appliqué, but what a pain to work with ! The blue thread is some ancient stuff I'm trying to use up, so you'll probably see it fairly often on test stitch-outs.
I'm hoping to get the other side stitched out tomorrow - then I can compare lettering and make any final changes. So, while I'm itching to, I can't cut out tonight's effort until then. Oh, well. You know how having to wait makes me eager to finish !
