Cool, eh? So y'all get to come with me on my journey from fabric and threads to finished piece. This is for the priest at the church I attend, and she totes adores the stole I made and gave to the church, and gave me the impetus to set my hands to doing this--actually, what she said was, "You could make a lot of money doing these, people are always looking for custom and One of a Kind stoles for friends and family members who are ordained." I'd say money wasn't a consideration, but I looked at the prices for stoles, and the polyester machine embroidered ones go for $150 and up. I mean, like, ChaChing! Uh...and the custom jobs out of silk and hand embroidered etc...CHA-CHING!!! One of the few areas in embroidery where you get paid a decent amount for the labor etc...
Day 1: I typed in and printed out the wording I am stitching on the stole. It is a piece for the Feast of St. Francis, and the Blessing of the Animals, something our priest does with great aplomb, including the time my Mother-in-law's cat (we took him in after she passed away, because he was a vicious rat bastard of a cat that hated all humans EXCEPT MIL, and no one really wanted him. So...ANYWAY) MIL's cat swatted her chin while she was blessing him. Uh, If you look back over previous entries, I have pics of him on here. Because I love stitching, and I love cats...
The main fabric is a Laurel Burch print of animals, from her Jungle line. It is black with colorful animals, and I love the print quite a lot. Oh, and I'm going to be making two of these, because I'll be attempting to sell some of my creations from my Etsy store...just look for the Deranged Magpie's shop in a couple of months I should have at least two pieces up, maybe even three.
Here is a picture of the print. I actually had this because I love Laurel Burch's quirky take on creatures, and also because when you have cats, you occasionally get clawed holes in your clothing. So I use the animals as little patches. Fun is good, fun and cute patches is very good.
So that is the base fabric for the stole. Then there is going to be a section with the phrase "All Creatures Great and Small" in bright overdyed embroidery floss, in this case Bravo from Rainbow Gallery, two strands, backstitched. Here is a picture of the front of the patch. I have a sandwich of two layers of cotton fabric, black on ecru. The reason is that I needed to be able to see the pattern of the words...
And here it is. I plan to embroider the cross with the colorful spirals that LB is so very fond of. And yes, I'm stitching from the back... Hey, sometimes you have to suffer for your art. Okay, not really.
And here is my cat Gandalf doing his impression of a Jack in the box. This is his absolute favorite toy of ALL TIME. He fits through the hole he has his head out of, but prefers trying to wedge his body into the other hole that he can fit his head out of. I do not know why... Probably because CAT.
The Magpie
Day 1: I typed in and printed out the wording I am stitching on the stole. It is a piece for the Feast of St. Francis, and the Blessing of the Animals, something our priest does with great aplomb, including the time my Mother-in-law's cat (we took him in after she passed away, because he was a vicious rat bastard of a cat that hated all humans EXCEPT MIL, and no one really wanted him. So...ANYWAY) MIL's cat swatted her chin while she was blessing him. Uh, If you look back over previous entries, I have pics of him on here. Because I love stitching, and I love cats...
The main fabric is a Laurel Burch print of animals, from her Jungle line. It is black with colorful animals, and I love the print quite a lot. Oh, and I'm going to be making two of these, because I'll be attempting to sell some of my creations from my Etsy store...just look for the Deranged Magpie's shop in a couple of months I should have at least two pieces up, maybe even three.
Here is a picture of the print. I actually had this because I love Laurel Burch's quirky take on creatures, and also because when you have cats, you occasionally get clawed holes in your clothing. So I use the animals as little patches. Fun is good, fun and cute patches is very good.
I used the Brushscript font on my Mac, but didn't bother doing the thick and thin lines, just a simple outline.
The Magpie
I was brought up Catholic (I got better), so the idea of a stole that's not white or green is essentially alien to me. :-)
ReplyDeleteDo you have an overall design sketch you're willing to share?
Even Catholics have red and purple, and at one time there was also black for funerals, although they have gone to white now. As to the design, it is basically a long strip of fabric, in this case the animal print, that has a slight curve at the back, although there are also stoles that are two straight pieces connected at a 45 degree angle at the back. The piece I am embroidering with the words will be at the bottom of one side. Or maybe up a bit from the bottom. I haven't quite gotten that far yet.
ReplyDeleteUh, this is information from my Mother in Law...womb to tomb Catholic, may she rest in peace. She loved my embroidery skills, she was thrilled to get a daughter in law who was as floss and fabric mad as she herself was.
ReplyDelete