Joan Thomasson's Surfin Santa is all stitched, glued to his felt backing and ready to be made up. You can see the finished lei I talked about yesterday in the photo of the completed ornament. The small angel and small Santa kits that Joan sells are really fast stitches. I know this was a holiday week and I had more stitching time but still, he came to life in just over a week.
The kits come with felt backing, a long length of gold metallic thread to use as trim and to make a loop to hang this ornament, and finishing instructions. It is really easy to do.
Step one: Put your long hair up. This is essential unless you like glue in your hair.
Step two: Cover your work surface with waxed paper. This is essential unless you like glue on your dining room table.
Step three: Lay your felt good side down on the waxed paper and lay Surfin Santa, also good side down, on the paper next to the felt.
Step four: Put glue (I used Aileen's Tacky Fabric Glue which dries clear) all around the edge of the ornament's back side. You won't be able to get too close to the edge but that's ok.
Step five: Smear the glue line to the very edge and beyond a bit to the unstitched canvas with your finger. Note that I did not put glue on either hand as I plan to attach a loop of metallic to each hand to hang Surfin Santa. I'll have to sew the loop inside the needlepoint and felt and then add more glue with a toothpick to seal the hands tight. Then he will have to dry overnight again before I dare hang him anywhere.
Step six: CAREFULLY flip Surfin Santa over and lay him right on the felt's back side and mash hard. You have not trimmed the canvas at all, mind, but since Joan includes a piece of felt the size of the entire canvas, you can easily center Santa on the backing fabric.
Step seven: Wash your hands to get the wet glue off your fingers. Dry your hands and mash down on Santa again. Put waxed paper on top of him and weigh him down with a heavy book or something similar for at least 3-4 hours to dry. I left him overnight to dry myself.
Step eight: Cut out the glued ornament right to the edge of the stitching. Don't use your good scissors because cutting through NP canvas glued to felt will dull your good embroidery scissors right quick.
Step nine: Trim any little bits of bare canvas or not totally cut felt with your good scissors. I am going to do this today after having left Surfin Santa to sit overnight. The photo above shows him cut off but not carefully trimmed yet. Note that I did not cut out around his hands as there is no glue there. That will wait until I attach the two ends of the hanging loop.
Step ten: Attached the gold metallic cord all around the edge. Joan says to glue it but I prefer to hand stitch the cord on. I'll be working on this today.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
7 comments:
Is this some kind of a record for a fast finish? I'm sure it's the fastest since I've been following your stitching! Surfin' Santa's going to be a great gift for your brother!
Nancy
I love the dimensionality of him that you've created. :-)
Nancy, this is a small project. I've done small projects as fast (my mother's cameo ornament, for example) but large projects take 2-3 months.
All credit for a 3-D design goes to Joan Thomasson. I just stitched the thing, mostly as she said, too.
Happy dancing for you! He will love it!
Jane, Santa came out great, but I couldn't do it. There's something in me that would cringe, if I were to think about gluing and cutting the excess canvas off of a piece I'd stitched (regardless of it only being a week's work). I know that this isn't meant as an heirloom piece, but still...
Good for you that you were able to get past this!
(And this is from the girl who says "It's just string!")
Jeanne, it really wasn't bad. I've already learned that you can cut NP canvas pretty close to your stitching, especially if you reinforce it with Aileen's Tacky Glue since that dries to be invisible. My mother's Gay Ann Rogers cameo ornament was cut out this way without glue to expose the Nun stitch edging. The only thing to remember is to keep any knots in started or tied off threads away from the edges as you don't want loose ends showing or to accidentally scissor through a knot holding the thread on.
This is not my preferred way to finish but this isn't something that is a heirloom. My brother will hang it on his bulletin board and eventually it'll end up in a drawer somewhere. He's not careful with needlework, and has even used NP pillows as footballs. But NP stands up to this abuse rather well.
I'd encourage you to be brave in this as you are brave in trying other aspects of needlework. You may amaze yourself at how well it turns out.
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