Creativity Journal - Day 17 (Eyes)

Make something inspired by and/or that goes over an eye (yours or someone else's).

Day 17 was another day of 'trials and errors'. This challenge inspired me to consider making sleep masks for sale. I wanted something a little different to that available online. Ebay had a couple of version that people make. I didn't simply want to be a copy cat. I thought what I could do is put the expensive embroidery machine to some use. I do use it, just not as much as its price tag warrants. Here is a record of my trials:

The lovely curly-cued and decorated 'S' I wanted to use was too big for a sleep mask. I shrunk it about half in my embroidery program. In theory, the density of stitches should adapt accordingly. In practice, they just get shorter.

I wanted to use a satin-like fabric. A, because I have some, and B, because it has a nice texture on the face. As you can see, I didn't even get part way through the first trial stitch-out. The thread breakages got to me and I realised it was going to pucker and pull the fabric dreadfully.

I tested it on calico (one of my tea stains from Day 13) to see whether it was just the fabric or not. Not. And then the fun began. I've done some really basic editing of embroidery files: merged letters to make monograms, deleted some sections I didn't want on an image. I ended up spending three days working on this one file. Embroidery files are a little like clipart. There's a 'dot' at every point where you want a stitch. It's not simply a matter of drawing a shape and colouring it in. Every single thread is drawn, aligned, and 'dotted'.

In this attempt, the three densest sections - the top curl, end curl, and lower curve - have been 'thinned out'. Each of these sections is a series of lines in one direction then back. I took out every second line, which meant I had a series of lines all running in the same direction. In a drawing this obviously is a non-issue, when you're stitching the end of one line has be the start of the next OR you have to be prepared to deal with 'jump stitches'. A jump stitch is a loose stitch, which you cut off when the stitching is finished. The less jump stitches the better. When I grasp the issue of the jump stitches, the answer was fairly straight forward. You simply reverse the stitch direction on every second line; reverting the entire section to 'one direction and back'.

Although this stitch-out is flatter, it's still got a fair bit of pull and pucker. The issue, of course, is all the curly-cues. They are all double-stitched - out to the end and back again. At full size the double stitching isn't a problem; at the half size they were too weighty. I thought it would be easy enough to set them all to single stitch and deal with some jump stitches.

Alas, as you can see if you compare the curly-cues on the above photo with the one before it, it didn't work. I think (although I'm not 100% sure) what happens is, if jump stitches are too short, they just become regular stitches. Hence, the loss of pretty, defined curly-cues and the addition of ... well ... mess.

After playing for hours and hours and hours with these darn curly-cues, I decided - smeg it. I don't need them. I deleted them. Eeek, aaak, disaster. The tails of the curly-cues link the three other sections; the two narrowest sections of the 'S' are curly-cue tails. More hours, and hours, and hours of grabbing and dragging little dots on my screen. Lots of false starts, lots of "smeg it, forget it, no I can't", finally:

Ah, yes. Certainly not as a pretty as the original, but it worked on calico at the reduced scale. Would it work on my satin-like fabric? I did some research into stitching onto slippery fabrics. One website, Crafty Stitcher, recommended two layers of Solvy (a dissolvable, plastic sort of stuff). I wasn't sure if that was two layers underneath, so I went with sandwiching the fabric between the two layers. I got as far as top-stitching my completed sleep mask when I noticed disaster:

The embroidery had 'cut' the fabric, and not just in one place. Sigh. Still, I hadn't spent three days editing the pattern and trialling a half dozen samples to quit now! Oh, no. I decided to try iron on interfacing on the back of my satin-like fabric. And it seems to have worked.

My first mask I sewed right-sides together and then turned in the right way. This one (I was pretty over the whole thing by this point), I sewed wrong-sides together, satin-stitched around the edge and trimmed away the excess. I didn't like it at first, but the satin-stitching is growing on me. The back is soft black polar fleece. The elastic should be black. I wasn't really thinking beyond the embroidery by this point.

I have learnt a lot about machine embroidery designing and that I probably don't want to make enough of these to sell them, but if you'd really like one just leave a comment with your preferred colours (fabric and thread) and I'll get back to you.

Creativity Journal - Day 14 (Small)

Make something microscopic. How small can you work? Can you make something that requires a magnifying glass or microscope to see?

The hardest thing about this challenge was getting a decent photo. The words came to me overnight. I Googled, but I can't find any specific reference, just a quarter of a million links.

No life is small.

My first attempt was in Paint, created at 800% magnification.

Original size

'Small' size; most of my blog photos are set to medium size
Letters are 5 pixels high, all verticals only 1 pixel wide

My next attempt was fabric based. Thought I might use up some of my tea-staining throw outs. Not very much of them, as it turns out. My first effort was done with the naked eye, well, the bespectacled eye. I got a little lost trying to get the 's' right in 'is small'.
For my second effort I found a magnification app for my phone. Once I worked out how to balance it and sew neatly, my letters improved ... well, slightly.

First effort, fine needle showing beneath the text

Second effort

Both efforts, my fingers

First effort above, second effort inside the small gold safety pin

Second effort, same small gold safety pin

Family heirloom linens

Some time ago my dad's sister gave me some embroidery 'blanks' (I'm sure they have a 'proper' name, but I don't know what that might be). They belonged to her mum or her aunt Hillary. It's difficult to date them, but there are some brand notations on the edges of a couple, and I've tracked down some similar pieces from the 1940s.

What is an 'embroidery blank' exactly? Cloth with a outline drawing, which you embroider over. Most are linen, edged ready for tatting or crochet finishes to make up doilies or tray clothes. I've got flowers, birds, butterflies, some girls playing tennis, and some lovely ladies in crinoline.

Some of them have been started and my goal is to eventually finish them all. I don't know how to do the edge stitching. Might have to get someone to teach me that skill. Once they're finished, I'll pass them back to the rest of dad's family. I'm not sure what use any of us have for embroidered doilies and tray clothes, but they're the sort of thing you hand on down through the generations.

I've been working on a particularly lovely basket of flowers for a couple of weeks now. I finished the last leaf tonight. I find stitching while watching TV stops me from wanting to nibble. I'm not hungry, just need to keep my hands busy.

Tray cloth. The basket and a few flowers were already stitched.

Close up of the flower basket

Two doilies. These were already stitched.

Not a lot to go on, but enough for Google to give a tentative date.

Creativity Journal - Day 1 (Start Small)

The first step is the hardest, so start small today and make something that fits in the palm of your hand using only the materials in your immediate environment.

Today I have gone out of my way to be creative with words, but I have also been creative with fabric (and scrap-booking). One advantage of not working for someone else at the moment is the time to complete projects. Even without the journal I have been reasonably creative.

My fabric creativity is an ongoing project. Some time ago my dad's sister gave me some embroidery panels that belonged to her mother or her aunt. Some are started, but none are finished. I rediscovered them just recently and currently keep one next to my armchair to work on while watching TV. I'm not really very good at embroidery, but I'm improving.

My creativity with words was inspired by a trip into the CBD today. I dislike the City. I always feel rushed and pressured. Visiting during Friday lunch time in the school holidays probably wasn't a great idea.

This was my initial idea. It is the palm of my hand (an outline, on paper, not my actual palm). The idea was for it to represent city blocks, but I kinda forgot to allow the streets to have any width.

As I was playing with this, lines from one of my favourite poems came to mind.

I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all.

And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the tramways and the 'buses making hurry down the street,
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet. 

And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.

"Clancy of the Overflow", by Banjo Patterson

My idea was to take a map of the CBD, create an outline of the blocks, superimpose the words over the city blocks, remove the lines. That is, have the words of the entire poem make up the city blocks. I hit a couple of snags:

• The map of the CBD is always shown on an angle. The streets run almost 45° to the edge of a page.
• The CBD is not actually a pure grid. There's lots of little bumps and alley ways.
• A map the size of my palm requires a very fine pen and steady writing hand .
• I figured the easiest way would be to print the map and then overlay a blank sheet to write on. I don't have a light box, and I can't find my handy-dandy piece of picture frame glass that I usually use.

I copied the CBD from Google; drew the blocks using the Draw facility in MS Word. I rotated my new very plain map and used MSWord to add the poem. It's not quite the end result I wanted. I think, ideally, this sort of image is best created with a larger map. After the words are added by hand, the whole image can be scaled down.

STILL, the purpose of the exercise is creativity. To do something creative, to think differently to the routine of humdrum daily life. This is not something I would have thought of doing of my own inspiration.

What fits in the palm of your hand?

Wedding Present

Forgot to add a new photo of the re-vamped wedding present. We had a discussion the other day about finishing. The receipients are Salvation Officers, so they move a fair bit. The general consensus was that it would look best in a frame with some light wadding, but a wall hanging would probably be more practical. I'm still not sure which way to go.

Sunday

More pictures. My plan today was to do some 'real' sewing while the The Toy did its thing. But I got sidetracked by this and that. I actually spent most of the day on the net looking for miniature rugs done with machine embroidery. I found some for sale, and very nice they were too, but I want to make them myself.

Eventually, I found some patterns I could work together into a rug. Not entirely what I wanted, but for the moment good enough. (Why did I want a rug anyway, you ask? We're supposed to take a small Secret Santa to The Girl's miniature's club Christmas dinner. I don't do miniatures, too fiddley, too much time for small results (hahaha); but I thought I'd see what I could produce on The Toy.)

(Cradle by The Girl).

I've only been able to do these things with the help of Embird. The centre roses had to be shrunk to 25% to fit the centre of the frame, which I think I shrunk to 50%. Most of what I've done has been 'tampered' with some how in Embird. I've shrunk things, joined things, changed colours, deleted bits I didn't want, tested layout options. It's really been invaluable.

Two that I forgot to take of photos of the other day. My stripy frog:
I used a variegated thread and it didn't work quite how I imagined. The thread changes colours too abruptly. I think, even if the cheaper threads work out okay for plain colours, it's probably worth the extra expense for variegateds, just to get a more subtle colour shift.
Hmmmm. Not entirely happy with the Maltese. There's a lot of long loose threads. While it gives it nice shading and texture, it's makes it 'dangerous' embroidery for anything other than probably a frame. But, hey, it's all a learning process. And until I've learnt, my family will just have to wear the product of my trials :-)

These are the two I couldn't take photos of last night.
My shirt. Again, using a variegated thread. It's okay. I wanted something subtle; but if I was to do it again, I'd use a plain grey/silver.

My angel. You can't see it in the photo, but she's still a little 'disconnected' in places. Another trip to Spotlight this week I think :-)

Branching Out

Someone, I believe me, left the camera turned on so it has a flat battery. No photos of my work tonight.

I've branched out :-) I've tried lots of normal embroidery patterns on stable fabrics, so it was time to move on.

I re-did the wedding present on a satiny sort of fabric. Probably a poly, not really sure, but lovely and shiny, and slippery and a bugger to sew (that much I do know). Looks very pretty though. I think I might have originally bought it for vest backs.

Today I tried my first t-shirt with sticky stabiliser. It turned out quite nicely. I used a grey/black variegated thread on a black shirt. The image I used is from cute embroidery. I rotated it so it runs down the neck line of the shirt.
My second branching out was a lace angel, also from Cute Embroidery.

I have some Solvy bought several years ago. The lady at the shop said it wasn't really very good for embroidery, and she's right. At least for this sort of heavy stitching. It tears too easily. I stopped one angel part way through 'cause tearing meant the stitches weren't catching on each other in some parts. I used a double layer and it was better, but not brilliant. I will have to 'invest' in some washable stabiliser better suited for this sort of work. I'd like to make some of these for a secret santa we have in a week or so.

I've also be investigating applique embroidery. Seems pretty simple; not sure if it's easy though. Applique embroidery has a fabric behind some or all of the stitches. Seems you stitch the outline of the fabric bits on to paper to create a template, sew the outline on your backing fabric, carefully place the fabric bits inside the outline, then keep stitching the rest of the pattern. One of my favourites on cute embroidery is this gorgeous heart. In the close ups on the website it looks like the inside fabric of the heart is a felt, which would allow this to be used as a brooch or similar.

One issue I've hit on already. The tutorial I watched on Embroidery Library Projects suggests creating the template by stitching on paper without thread. My machine knows when it has no thread - and it won't stitch. Normally that's a good thing, but in this case, it's annoying. Guess I might have to revisit the instruction book and see if there's a way around it.

Duck

I found the website I got the duck and the lettering from :-) http://www.bunnycup.com On the left hand side there's a link to "free retired sets". Lots of goodies to be found.

New Toy

I've been away a while, but I have still been creative in my absence. On Monday I got a new toy :-) For the past couple of years I've been saving my pennies towards a new sewing machine. I wanted a you-beaut does everything except make the bed type machine, but some wise ladies advised me I'd be better off with a stand alone embrodiery machine. The u-beaut machine would probably take another two years of saving, the embroidery only machine I could afford now. Never being a person of much patience, I took the advice, and I now have a new toy to play with. And play I have!

My very first effort. I only had a limited range of threads to play with the first night. The clovers are supposed to be four colours, but they look okay. And The Girl was impressed. In fact, she got herself kicked out of the sewing room 'cause I got sick of her flights of fancy and the list of all the things "she" could do with my new toy!

My next trial was a couple of little double hearts on the corners of a sheet set. Double hearts for double bed sheets :-) (No photo, sorry.)

Again, this little flower was supposed be four shades of blue. I only have two so the leaves and stem are green (shock!).
We have a basket of serviettes in the dining room and we never use them. I'm wondering if I monogram all of them, will they get used more?
I bought myself some cheaper threads. I know there are some who will smack my wrist for that, but I just can't afford $7 a pop for thread. Amongst those I bought were some variegated threads, 'cause I love variegateds in quilting. I really love the green vine in this, but I was disappointed with the lettering. I'm currently redoing this panel (thankfully I saved it, so I didn't have re-arrange it all).
I love this duck. So cute. The lettering is downloade from the net. The built in alphabets have the advantage of working as a "set". That is, if you enter a word it moves around the screen as a whole word. Downloaded alphabets are actually individual images for each letter, hence the slightly random placement of this lettering. Works well for this style, but others might need more effort to be "right".

I don't remember where I downloaded these two from. I have some book marks on the main puter and some on the sewing room puter.

I then got adventurous. I downloaded a trial of Embird. It's got expensive bits and pieces that attach to it, but the basic thing lets you resize design, take bits of them, join them all up (which you can do on the machine, but much easier on a full puter screen).


I downloaded a lovely curly font to make monograms for serviettes. The letters were too big and the "C" had too many curls. I shrunk them by 50% (not possible on the machine) and removed the extra curls. If you look closely at the top left hand of the "C" there's just a wee bit of extra curl that I didn't quite manage to remove. Still, my first attempt, so I was happy.

I downloaded a second beautiful curly font. Again it was too big, so I shrunk it by 50%. The program adjusted all those swirls and curls beautifully.

Both of these alphabets come from http://alphabets.cuteembroidery.com/. It's AU$34 to sign up for 6 months, but you then get free access to all the designs on the site, and there's a fair packet of them!