Friday, January 4, 2013

Biscornu Booty Segment 2

After finishing the lovely biscornu for the contest on Stitching Pirates, I thought it would be fun to share a little bit of the process with you.  Because I was using the linen, which is pretty see through, I decided to tea dye some white cotton fabric. 

This is a very light cotton fabric which I usually use for my sequins and beads work.  I did not want to use something heavier and bulky because of the dainty sewing needed on the sides of the biscornu.

After rinsing and squeezing out the extra liquid I ran to the ironing board and set my iron on dry no steam and ironed this out on top of a paper towel so I wouldn't stain my board cover any worse than it already is.  

At first I was disappointed in the color but when I placed one of the squares on top of this fabric my frown turned upside down!  The lighter shading on the cotton gives a more multi-tonal look.

I don't think this picture shows it very well, but it really looks awesome.  

So after ironing the fabric dry, I cut two squares and sewed them to the backsides of the biscornu squares.  When I started sewing I was forgetting this is just to attach fabric to fabric and began doing a back stitch.  when I realized that wasn't necessary I fixed it like you see in the picture.

Naturally I had to OOOO and AAAHHH over my finished squares but knew the time had come to finish this lovely gem.  Not the greatest of pictures, but you can see what I mean...SO CUTE!!

Like I said before, I prefer to "create" my own patterns on these biscornu.  I may use a little of something from one pattern and so forth, but for the most part I just wing it.  Usually the first side takes the longest since that is the side I create the pattern on.  The second side goes very quickly since I already have the pattern in my head.  The borders and center square are from "my mind" and the hearts are from a little booklet that came with an edition of World of Cross Stitching that had biscornu patterns in it.  I love that magazine, le sigh!

Now the big push to finish!!!!  STUFFING!!!!  Well, I had this great big bowl full of waste yarn from my BCA Chickie Bags, Evie's Baby Blanket, Peter Pumpkin, other cross stitch and crochet projects and thought I would use that. The greatest part was there was JUST ENOUGH to stuff and it was VERY workable when forming the biscornu.  Waste not, want not!!!  I know, I'm a dork, but I really don't like throwing those bits and pieces away!  Thankfully it really was the perfect amount of everything and really does make for very nice stuffing.  I used an opalescent glass bead to help hold the Swarovski Crystal flower in the middle of both sides.


I'm sure most of you have seen this on my dA page or FB, but I really had to include the pretty finished piece.  It really was a great idea to include that fabric.  Without it, it wouldn't matter what I had stuffed it with, you would see it clearly through the linen and that will not do!

Hope you enjoyed this.  This biscornu is headed to Russia <3 font="font">



One final note:  That shading I did on Project 1 Butterfly Vignette yesterday was done incorrectly.  Instead of spending my time stitching up a storm tonight, I spent that time ripping and cussing.  Well, ripping and thanking myself for pulling those DMC flosses WITH NUMBERS out to show myself the correct color to use (and maybe a tiny bit o'cussing).

Seriously, NEVER AGAIN will I do any kit that does not specifically state what brand and number so I can convert it immediately.  Grrrr.

It's later than I wanted it to be for today's insightful rantings, BUTTTTTT!! Tomorrow is Friday and with Friday I will not be on a daily time crunch and can stitch all weekend.




I know, it's wishful thinking.  If I pretend I'm not here maybe......nope, THEY always know.

Heavy sigh.  Until next time.....










6 comments:

  1. The squares alone do look lovely and the lady in Russia is *so* lucky!

    Just put a "Do Not Disturb" sign on your door and ignore all knocks that are not accompanied by "Mummy.. we need an ambulance!"

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    1. haha! Unfortunately it doesn't work, even if my head rotates round and that horrid screechie sound comes out....but for the most part I've been left alone today which is strange.

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    2. Perhaps they saw the "do not disturb" signs in your body language :)

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    3. I have a lock on the door, but they know how to knock on wood...it's not something I taught them....too much TV maybe?

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    4. yeah probably - darn tv teaching kids how to knock!

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