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| BEFORE |
I believe it is the little finishing touches that lift a project from "good" to "very good" or maybe even "fantastic." Above is a Before photo that shows the mermaid before I added a few touches to the design. At this point I had added a few straight horizontal stitches to her bra to connect the two breastplates. A bathing suit top just doesn't look right to me without them. I used the same red Elegance silk perle that makes up the straps to the top. Adding those few stitches completed the look for me. Without them that area bothered me and you know how it is--if something on your stitching bothers you now, you'll never be able to look at the piece without it still bothering you later. Much better to deal with the issue (whether it involves ripping out or not) now while you can and avoid the irritation later!
The second photo shows the backstitching around the mermaid's hands and along her chin (using one ply of the rose Splendor that makes up her cheeks) to define these areas. Added these few stitches really added a lot to this design. Without them, the chin and neck blended together and the fish and hands also were hard to tell apart. See what a difference a few threads make?
By the way, in the above photos I'm starting to add her hair, all in bullions using a great crewel-sized wool called EPiC. I don't know where I found this wool locally (I think Needlewoman East but I am not sure), but it is great stuff. My color is the overdyed "multitone" Apricot. It is light apricot to almost orange in color and makes great bullions. My own opinion is that a tightly twisted thread makes the best bullions although I have done them in one ply of silk.
http://www.allpointsyarn.com/APYYarnBiz/epic_yarns/epic_wool_yarns.htm
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
