Sunday, May 31, 2009

Birdies

embroidered bird

I was browsing through craft groups on flickr and came across some wonderful embroidered birds by Anita. It set me thinking about where I could use such motifs myself. I decided I would try to cover up some egregious coffee stains on a shirt I bought at the Bharatiya Dress Shoppe and only managed to wear once before the coffee dumping incident. Here are the results:

embroidered birds

embroidered bird

Sweet Tea liked it, so now I've been commissioned to put a jellyfish over the stain on her pleated skirt.

I looked at the Bantom Step-By-Step book of Needle Craft by Judy Brittain (1979) to figure out stitches to use. Mostly I just did back stitch, but I also found some handy stars called 'star filling stitch.' I also did french knots, which are actually easy, but impossible to read about. If you want to learn how to do them, watch one of the many instructional videos on youtube.

This project did earn me some bizarre and unhappy looks on the subway. At first I couldn't figure out why, since knitting doesn't phase anyone at all. One of my coworkers thinks it's the presence of the very sharp needle. I had no idea it was so easy to indimidate people. Watch out folks, I've also got a bottle opener on my key chain. Boo!

bird blouse

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