Last night I finished the bits of violet on the Snowman's clothes and the packages on the ground, then decided to tackle the two remaining areas--the fur trim on his stocking cap and the stars in the sky.
Above you see my materials--Rainbow Gallery's Faux Fur and some metal bits I got at the bead store. I think the decorative metal bits are prefect for a little boy's stocking. If this stocking had been intended for a girl, I probably would have used tiny glass pearls or perhaps blue crystals, but this stocking is for a rowdy boy. Metal studs seemed to be something he'd like better. They make good snowflakes or stars, whichever you think the white dots on the blue sky are.
I attached them with the same Burmilana I used for the background of diagonal mosaic stitches, coming up in the center and going back down around the outside edge. Hopefully the edges don't abrade the thread and they all fall off before the kid graduates from high school!
If you want to look for similar metal bits online, I believe these are bead caps, intended to be used as the top/bottom of a large bead in jewelry. They may be spacers instead, which are metal bits that go between beads in jewelry. They were fifteen cents each, not too bad for bead stuff.
The Faux Fur is from my stash. It is 85% acrylic and 15% wool. It's a rather thick thread compared to many of the fake fur ones available. I'd say it is around the diameter of #8 perle or perhaps as fat as a full strand of DMC cotton floss. I used it to fill the center of the stocking cap brim with French knots, then along the edge where the original design had tendrils of white sticking up, I came up close to a French knot, rotated the thread and needle until I had a tightly twisted thread that started to double on itself, then went down at the tip of a tendril. This gives a twisted single stitch that looks similar to the French knots but is not round. In the photo above you can see the finished brim and how I started the furry ball at the top of the stocking cap with French knots clustered in the middle. I'll probably do more twisted tendrils around the edge of the ball than I did on the brim. But I am not sure about that yet.
Once the ball is done, I think this piece is finished. I'll need to carefully check it for missed stitches, then pull out my stocking finishing instructions and see if I can make this up into a real Christmas stocking.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
6 comments:
I like the stars! You're right, they're great for a boy's stocking. I also really like the eye. I couldn't see it that well before, but the close-up of this picture really shows it off. I had to go back and find out how you did it. Very interesting and effective technique.
Glad you like the eye, Sara Leigh. SharonG taught me to attach beads using Flair. It is a sturdy technique although it can mask what the bead looks like so it doesn't work in all situations. Plus some beads are too big or too little for it to work. But for the snowman, sturdy rules and it looks good.
Perfect stars and the tendril tip is a great one! Thanks!
Isn't SharonG a treasure? Great stocking, Jane. Love it.
Robon, SharonG is a genius! Glad you like the stocking. He's quite a bit of fun although now I (sigh) have to make him up into a stocking. Expect plenty of swear words over the next few days....
Hope the twisted thread tip comes in handy for you some time, Pat. You can't always predict what it will look like but most of mine turned out great and you can rip out the ones you don't like and try again.
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