The Geisha's Kimono, and the Maid's Hairpins

As you can see above, I've tent stitched quite a bit of the Geisha's kimono. The design elements of the roses, the squares and the large collar will be stitched next. I am also considering what to do for the maid's blue robe but while I thought about it and how to stitch her hair ornaments and bows, I worked on the tent stitches for the kimono of the central figure, the geisha. When you can't decide what to do next, tent stitch something! [BG]

I had planned to stitch the lady's maid on the right before the Geisha, but Thanksgiving is a rushed time and I didn't really know what I would do about her yet, so the tent stitches on the purple robe seemed a good thing to do. By the way, I used four plies of a beautiful dark plum Splendor #S1037 and did as much basketweave as possible on the larger areas and used half cross stitch for the dark outlines.



I also stitched the hair pins in the maid's hair. This time I wanted a little shine, but not too much. I think these are lacquer, which has some shine, but not the shine of metallics. What to do? I dithered a lot, pulling out all the threads in my stash that were a similar medium blue, and finally settled on Frosty Rays. My card doesn't have a color number, but it looks like Pale Pastel Blue #Y030.

Here's a head shot of the maid, with her hairpins. Those of you familiar with Frosty Rays from Rainbow Gallery will know that it is a flat, tubular thread with a metallic thread run through the center of the panty hose-type tube. How on earth did I get it to look like THAT?!

It is actually easy. First, I pulled out the central metallic thread and discarded it. Then I tied a knot at the end of a 12 inch length of the outer tube. I came up at the base of a long straight stretch near the maid's head, then twisted the thread clockwise until I had a very thin line. I plunged it back down at the tip, then did a few straight or slanted stitches, depending on how the hairpin was painted (I can see it through the open background stitch that covers the blue hairpin paint) to indicate the little knobs and raised end. Then I tied off carefully on the back and repeated the process with the lower hairpin. It does take a bit of trial and error, but Frosty Rays and Flair both twist into a thin, slightly shiny perle type thread when treated this way. [NOTE: I should mention that I used Frosty Rays instead of Flair because I didn't have the right color in Flair. Otherwise I wouldn't have pulled out and tossed that metallic core! You've got to go with what you've got when you are not close to any store.]

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow