First Beautiful Botanical Embroidery Bag-from-Jeans

I have lost 22 kg over the last 9 months. Mostly I am wearing the same clothes, in some cases modified. One pair of 3/4 length jeans reached a point where they fell down, and a belt didn't work well. I considered giving them to a charity, but decided I'd rather recycle them another way. 

I cut the legs off as tubes and then the body part along the side seams. Folding the back in half along the back seam will give me a bag with pockets, using the waist band as the bag top. The front is then cut into strips to form handles.

I am going to use adaptations of some of the motifs from this book on all three bags. For the first bag, I'm using a version of the design on the front cover.

Once I was sure I couldn't trace on to this weight of cloth, I tried a couple of different pens, settling in the end for an archive one. I drew them by hand, enlarging them to fit the shape I had. 

I chose my hoop size to fit the large motif on the bottom corner, and assembled a bundle of threads I thought might work.   

       

I used a  variegated perle 5 thread for the large bloom. I love the opportunity to use acquired specialty threads in projects like this. It used the whole skein.

Here is the finished side. I considered whether to leave the other side plain, but settled on a spray of leaves and blooms, still from the Botanical Embroidery book, in white on the other side. 

I'm using a No 3 Twilley's Stalite cotton, which gives a good coverage and texture.

It took three moves of the hoop and a few touch ups on the edges to finish. The denim has stretch in it which seemed to help in maintaining tension.

A single strap was enough and I lined it with some spotted cotton from my stash. It required a join - but no hassle (believe it or not, it has been ironed, though not with my steam iron. Never was much of an ironer!)

Here's the finished product, back and front. I am delighted with the result and am looking forward to making the next one - this time a night scene with owl.

My Crewel Work Chair is Finished!

 The Aesop frame is in the crewel chair, which is now finished.

I wasn't looking forward to attaching the Aesop panel as it involved removing the cover from the chair, stitching the panel on and replacing the cover. It's a tight fit, with no zip. It proved, however, easier than I had feared.

I finished the text  using Quaker stitch and blocked the piece for a second time. I was pleased with the text but it blocked a little spiky, I probably could have used a larger font, but it is quite readable.

My faithful little Janome sewing machine was probably not designed for stitching of this weight and shape, but rose to the occasion. The space left on the chair was exactly the size of the Aesop panel, so I folded the linen right to the border of the frame and stitched in the ditch.

I must have improved each time I've removed and returned the cover as it seemed to go on in record time (not easily, but easier). 

The following are photos from various angles to show the final result. 

The chair was originally in my sewing room but I moved it a couple of months ago into my living room where it can be viewed from all sides.

The back view.

There are 21 Crewel Work Company works on the chair (counting the Feathers as one work, although they are distributed separately around the chair), 

some large, 

some small.

I considered adding small pieces to those narrow front panels, but decided it would be overkill.  I like the contrast of the plain linen.

View from the top.

It isn't a large chair.  The one I worked years ago to accommodate Alison Snepp's Men of Skiros is larger and more supportive for longer sitting.

It is nevertheless comfortable and useful. I'm pleased to have done it. It has been a satisfying project to work on - and will remain a tribute to the beautiful historic works produced by Phillipa Turnbull and the Crewel Work Company.

And yes, of course it is for sitting in - it's crewel work after all!

Aesop Frame Finish - almost

 

I was very pleased with my finished fox and frog. The brown colour change shows up disappointingly in the photo but much less so on the linen. 

The end of daylight saving gave me an extra hour which I spent working on the owl (and finishing a book, and several other things. It's amazing how far that extra hour can stretch). The owl was fun - although the white Renaissance thread was a bit fluffy to work with and hard to tame. Strange how different colours in the same thread type react differently.

Here's the owl in context

and the bottom of the frame as I moved my hoop. It is quite exciting to see the whole piece coming together like this.

The pied woodpecker was a delicate exercise - all in the fine Renaissance threads.  My challenge is to fill in the tree trunks in ways that blend colour smoothly. I'll go over some of the trunks again at the end with a single thread touch-up.     I was fairly pleased with this result.

The peacock was a very interesting stitching exercise, with a variety of threads and stitches.  In general I stuck to the colours and threads suggested, but I played a bit within the parameters. It was a great place to finish.   

As this is the last piece of crewel work to go on my chair, I wanted to add text to the centre of the frame and had intended to do so before blocking. 

It was, however too crumpled when I took it out of the hoop so I blocked it overnight while I gave some thought to the lettering. In the end I printed a page on paper, then on Sulky. It is too long and exposed to risk scribing it by hand, even with ruled lines.  I will block it again when I've stitched the text.

I got the start date wrong (took a guess and, fortunately, checked later). I am now stitching it - practising my slow but effective Quaker stitch. I've fixed the date. My next post will show the finished text - and hopefully the piece in situ on the completed chair!