Friday, January 29, 2010

Beaded Tap Pants


Here is a photo of the totally beaded tap pants.  Don't they look great?!  It's a unique look to have a canvas covered in bead "ice."  I've put this aside for a bit as I am working on the bra's background.  More on that tomorrow as hopefully I'll finish Step One of the background tonight.

I like to do backgrounds first but on this project I didn't have a frame yet so I beaded the tap pants while looking for frames.  I intend to frame these two canvases separately in identical frames.  Once I found frames, then I decided on a background for the pieces and started working it around the bra.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Bead and Stars Tidbits



Lots of folks who have stitched or who plan to stitch Tony Minieri's Stars for the New Millennium have emailed me, many with interesting tips.  Amanda, who has seen many versions of this design stitched, remarked that she thought darker colors showed up well.  In fact, she changed her planned colors slightly when she realized one of her originals was too light a shade.  My preference has been for darker versions of Stars also, particularly those that have a lot of contrast between colors.  I'd love to see an all -pastel version, though.  In fact, if you have finished Stars, send me a photo and I'll post as many as I can get here.

Amanda used Trio and Vineyards Silks on her Stars, and discovered that when she had to split these for stitching, the plied threads had lots of fuzzies.   It was frustrating for her, so you might want to be careful about choosing these new threads for your version.

I'd also like to direct your attention to the Needlepoint Study Hall blog which is intended to be a gathering place for stitchers working on Amy Bunger's new Halloweenies class which will start in a few weeks.  Right now, Amy's staff are posting about interesting products and their current stitching.  Beads and a SharonG lingerie set are among the blog entries.

Robin King is stitching her own SharonG bra and tap pants set there, the kitty one.  You'll want to see how she added beads to her tap pants. It's totally different than the two techniques I'm testing.
http://needlepointstudyhall.blogspot.com/2010/01/bead-lesson-with-geography.html

Peggy mentioned a new kit from Sundance that has a variety of beads and a project to stitch with them.  It's a great introduction for new beaders.
http://needlepointstudyhall.blogspot.com/2010/01/since-we-are-talking-about-beads.html



By the way, I've finished beading the silver dog tags on the bra canvas and using DMC memory thread, have shaped a long length into the black coat hanger.  I couched the coat hanger wire down with matching black DMC cotton floss.  The hardest part was enlarging the canvas holes enough to thread the memory thread through under the bra straps, but it looks quite nice.

I am going to wait to do the dog tag chain until I bead the rest of the canvas.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow