I’ve been itching to finish this little lady so that I can share pictures, but it was slow stitching because I’ve been worrying for a while about being unable to comment on most Blogger blogs, and trying to find out what had caused the problem! Thank you to those of you who helped me finding a way to comment!
Oh, the glitch has since disappeared, but because of my experience I have now changed to a Pop Up Window on my own blog ..... just in case what happened to me happens to you, and you are only able to comment on Pop Up Windows!
Hope this doesn't cause you any problems.
But back to my Polka Dot lady ..... who was yet another impulse make!
I’d been looking at Pinterest and spotted a pin for “Dolly Pincushion” by Magdalena Franco ..... you will find the tutorial HERE. (You will find Magdalena's dolly has a different face ..... I had to play the hard way and embroider proper eyes, although they are really far too far apart!)
As soon as I saw her I wanted to start stitching, and eagerly downloaded the pattern, chose my fabrics, and started cutting. In case you want to make one I would say be ultra careful about seams. If the seam isn't quite right ..... it will show, so stitch very slowly and carefully!
Of course I realised I'd made a mistake as I started embroidering ..... I should have cut a larger piece of fabric for her face, so that it would fit in an embroidery frame! Luckily I do have one teeny embroidery frame in which I managed to keep the fabric while I worked out how to embroider a face. Her eyes and lips were satin stitch ..... a sort of stem stitch for her eyebrows ..... and a couple of short stitches gave her the allusion of a nose!
She took quite a while to finish. I found the stuffing hard to do! I showed a photo of her on my last post, then afterwards I took out most of the stuffing ...... her face wasn't quite right! She was stuffed with polyester toy filling and rice. I found her hard to finish ..... trying to keep the stuffing in and stitch the base closed. I added a piece of plastic in the base to hold the rice in place. That helped quite a lot!
She was well worth the effort, and I'd definitely make her again in an instant, but I don't think DH would like another one around the house! Tee hee!
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While I was making the Polka Dot Lady I got slightly distracted with a DrEAMi moment! One of those moments when you just have to drop everything and make it! Oops, I missed the link up, but I wanted to let see any way!
You see the "cotton reel" in the picture? I know, its plastic! And all the time it had thread on it I just hated it, couldn't wait to finish it and throw it away! You know what? The minute I finished it I couldn't part with it! After all, it is a vintage reel, bought in the 80's, probably!
I found it was very good for popping my scissors in, then when I'm stitching my cross stitch ..... well any stitching really ..... it's easier to pick up the scissors!
Sooo, then I started thinking pockets and things, for the cotton reel ..... or a pincushion maybe!
And one thing lead to another! And using the same method as the Coffee Koozie, I made a "jacket" for my cotton reel, madness I know!!!
All it needed was a popper to complete my Well Dressed Cotton Reel!
The jacket will be handy for "resting" needles too.
And here are both my finishes, once again!
Oh, and have you had problems commenting lately?
Oops, late Linking to Amanda Jean's "Crazy Mom Quilts"
Hugs,
Barbara xxx
