mark allen hand embroidery on linen

A rarity for me: some hand-embroidery. Piece a simple download from Sublime Stitching, by an artist named Mark Allen. The piece is fine work, using only two strands of cotton DMC. As per usual here are some EXTREME CLOSEUPS!

Mark Allen

 
I made most of this piece while resting. Hand-embroidery is a useful work to have around for the times one needs to sit and rest. It is different than knitting – and I don’t knit during hot months anyway. That said, hand-embroidery, like knitting, does require night. It isn’t necessarily a good night-time occupation.

Mark Allen

 
The whole piece:

Mark Allen

 
I have about six pieces of hand embroidery stored up, that so far do not have a destination. This is now one of them. All of the pieces would be wonderful on tiny decorative pillows but I kind of think tiny decorative pillows are bullshit!

hot medium-brown wool action!!!

Brown Wool Blazer

Yeah that’s right, you have entered BLAZER COUNTRY. Who knows how many damn blazers I’ve sewn. All I know is, after I made this one (since Nels had grown out of Nolan, although it was still going strong!) I decided to trace one of my most-used blazer patterns in every size (that’s seventeen pieces by eight sizes, so one hundred thirty six pieces) and then color-code and cut and punch and reinforce and hang them all. And then I decided once I finished this rather ambitious project, I would reward myself by sewing a blazer. So now I’m almost done with a new blazer different than this one.

SOMEONE SEND HELP

Brown Wool Blazer

OK so here’s a cool detail – elbow patches in a wool/silk blend. I hand-embroidered the concentric ovals, then cut the patches, fused them to the sleeve, black-zig-zagged them firmly to the coat, and then hand-embroidered the very outer oval. Adorable and I think they will look even cooler as they wear!

Brown Wool Blazer

Blustery day! … and, a few more details:

Brown Wool Blazer

Bound buttonholes. Here you can barely see the chalk marking the center-front of the blazer – the buttonhole extends 1/8″ in from that mark. You can also at top-left see the pink basting stitch I used to affix the underlining fabric to the wool.

Brown Wool Blazer

More elbow patches – and along the bottom of the picture you can see the purple triple-stitched topstitching line I used for most of this coat’s edges.

Brown Wool Blazer

The bone buttons, nine in all (I bought two extra of each size) cost more than the rest of the garment (in part due to how good I am at finding good fabrics on sale). I bought the buttons from M & J Trimming and they shipped quickly! You are also seeing the back side of the bound buttons here. I used a black silk organza for my facing’s buttonhole “windows”.

Brown Wool Blazer

My preferred pocket method – a fully-lined pocket, interfaced at the top, and then applied by fell-stitch. Here you are seeing the pocket before I turn it right-side out, then stitch the opening at lining and facing closed.

Brown Wool Blazer

Here’s that hand-stitch I just referred to – inside the pocket. When it comes to a simple coat my kids are going to wear the hell out of, and I am not looking for a print or texture, I use slipper satin from Fabric.com for coat linings. It is a nice weight for a medium or heavy coat, it wears well, and feels very nice.

Brown Wool Blazer

Echo-stitching on the collar. Basically free-handed. Echo stitching  here emulates the elbow patch detail – but it also gives a stiffer hand to whatever you are echo-stitching (in this case, the collar), and gives a great, rugged look and wear.

So there’s Nels’ newest jacket.

Now listen. I’m not going to go into why a blazer really is a killer garment. I’m not going to elaborate on how long and how well my versions hold up. Or even how awesome it is you can pull one off in so many fabrics –  lightweight linen, classic raw silk, homey corduroy, handsome waxed canvas, bad-ass melton wool – GAH!! Basically you, blog readers, are in for a blazer-fest this summer and you just need to settle in and DEAL. Will I be sewing other things? Why yes, of course.

Probably.

Oh – and here is the end result of my pattern-tracing efforts for blazers – all marked, color-coded, cut, punched, reinforced, and organized. At left is the pattern, yardage, and sizing information in a clear cover sleeve.

Pattern Tracing, Marking, Color-Coding, Cutting, & Hanging

But now I *SOLEMNLY SWEAR* not to sew with wool until the fall. I promise. No, really.

So who’s got some fabulous linens they can point me to?

Attack Of The Crab Monsters (1957)

“Once they were men. Now they are land crabs.”

Attack Of The Crab Monsters (1957)

I finished this a while back, but I’ve always had trouble getting good pictures of embroidery. Nevertheless, it is HIGH TIME I unleashed this on the world, perfect pictures or no. To wit: my embroidery sampler from the 1957 Corman classic, Attack of the Crab Monsters!

Attack Of The Crab Monsters (1957), Embroidery Sampler

I think in the lower-left figure you’ll agree I captured the essence of the film’s villain, a downright devilish decapod:

crab_monster

Now, if you don’t think Attack of the Crab Monsters is awesome, we will probably never be CLOSE friends. For one it has the Professor in it, potraying a character a little rogue, a little lonely – and a wee bit sleazy (but not as sleazy as he was in say, Space Children). For another there is this huge papier-mache crab. They paid for it, so they’re gonna show it. They seemed to have spent a bit more time and detail on a separate claw prop, which they also showcase more than once:

Crab Monster Claw

Then there’s the funny-looking old radio, which is plot-central to the point (so of course, said radio is included in my sampler!):

AotCM_radio

And of course – the creatures from the opening credit design – just beautiful. The film is in black and white, so I tried to imagine these critters in color:

Attack Of The Crab Monsters (1957), Embroidery Sampler

My favorite thing about the film, though, is one of the salient plot points: radiation-enlarged crabs have consumed scientists, absorbed the knowledge of these scientists, and can telepathically communicate at will the voices and personalities of their victims.

And finally – perhaps my favorite thing ever in the film, is just how cavalier “Jim” is before he is despatched by the crafty crustaceans:

[sc_embed_player fileurl=”https://kelly.hogaboom.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/crabmonsters1.mp3″]

 
That was my ringtone for quite a while and I would LOLOL every time I heard it.

***

The second bit of embroidery – finished just yesterday – is Phoenix’s “Two Dragons”. I plan to have this framed in a way complimentary to her previous embroidered piece, “Mutant Horse”.

"Two Dragons"

I haven’t figured what, if anything, to add to the piece; I want to keep the simplicity of her line drawings intact. I hope to embroider and frame her pieces now and then so she has a nice little collection, if she wants it, for posterity.

In somewhat, less-exciting craftivism, I made an ironing board cover from sale fabric purchased at Elma Variety. I am a huge fan of Elma Variety; and while they may not have the fabric for garments I need – favoring a very large selection of quiliting cottons instead – they have so much great stuff in the way of notions, yarn and knitting/crotchet supplies, and general craftiness.

Ironing Board Cover, Ala Elma Variety

Ironing Board Cover, Ala Elma Variety

Happy krafting!

Mysteries Of The Deep (Title Page)

crafty bitch!

Aw yeah. I have been crafting it up like a madwoman. With a lot of help from my spouse, who is my tech advisor.

So first: pre-orders for Tumblehome, which ships out August 5th:

Tumblehome, 2012 08 Cover

If you order before the 5th you get free gratis my first-ever embroidery pattern (including tips and stitching directions): Mysteries of The Deep! If you order the print version or donate more than $6, in addition to the pattern you will be entered in a drawing for a bit of handsewn goodness out of my studio!

My pattern’s title page:

Mysteries Of The Deep (Title Page)Second. CHECK THIS OUT, pincushion and custom pins all made today by Yours Truly. The pincushion (100% cotton flannel & wool, with polyfill stuffing) – AND the custom pins! A first effort, but I’m pleased with the results.

Pincushion + Custom Pins

The pincushion is reversible:

Pincushion + Custom Pins, Backside

A few broaches for a friend, who admired my deep sea creature work: About 1″ across.

"Mysteries Of The Deep" Pins

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"Mysteries Of The Deep" Pins

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"Mysteries Of The Deep" Pins

Super-super fun stuff!

not trying to impress anybody

Yesterday: a linen dress.

Linen Dress With Reverse-Applique

Linen Dress With Reverse-Applique

Today: Nels catches a bumblebee. She races around on the coffee table, before we let her free. It was hard to get a picture of her. She’s really booking, here:

Bee

Tonight: we went on a cross-town bike ride with a group.

BIKE GANG!

Ralph & Phee (Phee eats an apple.)

At the end some people wanted pictures and we all gathered up. Except one: our daughter Phoenix sat in the gravel and said, “I don’t need my picture taken, to prove I did something.”

She’s frakkin BALLS-awesome.

a funeral, sketchy tire shops

Tire Store Boy

I lie. The tire shop wasn’t sketchy. It was just a used tire shop, we’re bumped down from the days of Les Schwab and young handsome men running in slow motion out to the car.

I should say, our finances are, though. Sketchy. We’re scraping by to afford our little conference trip. And in the last couple days we’ve had to “emergency” surgery a cat, then “emergency” replace tires that were sprouting a crop of wire. I use the air dick quotes because, I guess it was all emergency stuff. If we didn’t surgery the cat she could have fallen gravely ill (and she was in pain), and if we didn’t fix the tires, we could have crashed on the road. So, damn, kind of non-negotiable expenses.

The kitty is fine. She’s all stitched up and hopped up on kitty drugs. I’m very grateful for her recovery. She is very dear to us.

Nels, a funeral for a bird. He voiced a lovely and earnest and powerful prayer before we buried her.

Bird, Elegy

In other news: cute husband, who has helped create cute daughter. They are dressed as nerds today, for some theme. It works.

Sexy Nerd-Spouse

Beauty/Hipster Glasses

I also gave blood (of course) and my daughter held my hand through it all. Later, Nels rode on the back of the bike and held the basket with my embroidery supplies, for the class I taught. It was fun stitching, and showing people how to do some simple things. One student was an eight year old girl and that was about a thousand percent awesome.

It was good stuff.

some bitchin’ stitchin’!

(or is it “sumbitchin’ stitchin'”? Depends on our mood I guess!)

Gray's General Store, Embroidery

I’m teaching a beginning embroidery class at Gray’s General Store!

“May 17 4:00pm to 6:00pm, $30. Learn the versatile skill of embroidery with Kelly. She will cover the basics of embroidery and the class will include a project kit of a tea towel, pattern and your color choice of embroidery floss.”

Skills taught: Selecting fabric, thread, needles, & notions; tracing patterns or making your own; stabilizers and hoops; knotless or knotted construction; 5 stitches: stem, running, backstitch, rice stitch, and French knots; pressing and washing.

For more questions call or text me! 360.500.3287

Gray's General Store, Hoquiam

call it free

My life could be a little sitcomish, if you squint. Not the sit-coms I watch – well, I kind of don’t watch any. But, kind of silly and down-homey and provincial. Like, this afternoon my kids came and woke me up and they were so kind. I was taking advantage of the kids’ stay-over with my mother – staying in bed until ten or so after a poor night’s sleep. The kids showed up after movies and breakfast of steak and eggs and suchlike their grandma cooks them. (Um, have I mentioned how much it totally works out to live next door to her? It is really, really working out.)

Anyway some time after I get up and shower and pull my shit together, Phoenix cleans her room and I look around for my son while I make tea. I’m not too serious about finding him, as every day I’m half-resigned to the half-private and independent lives the kids often lead during the day. My mom comes over. She’d put out an artificial white Christmas tree on the corner with a “FREE” sign, and looked out the window an hour later to find it gone. All-pleased like she struts over for coffee, to discover the tree on my porch. Delivered by a very satisfied young man in his little suit jacket, I should say. We’re deciding if we’re keeping it, or putting it back on the corner. Nels admits it’s a little early for Christmas, but perhaps we could store it in the garage.

Nels and Phoenix run about outside mostly, later with friends out of school. And by the way, Nels’ four front teeth were recently lost and the new ones are coming in and it’s about a thousand percent adorable. I’ll have to give him an interview on video, for posterity.

I’m sick today – a sore throat. I’ve been laying low and hand-embroidering while watching the kind of television program I do like to watch, mainly really really grim (well it’s either that, or grim but also slapstick). I took the advice of a friend online and rested, and I’m glad for it now that I’ve discovered I’m sick, and my sister is visiting later in the week. A little red meat for dinner, more tea, and back to handsewing and couch-time with family and friends.

 

Free

look what I can do!

A gift for my son, whose turns 8 this Saturday the 7th:

24 Beeswax Crayon Roll-Up

24 Beeswax Crayon Roll-Up

I made two crayon-rollups a while back – and it was well-received by the children. As in, they loved to take them to restaurants along with a notebook or coloring book. The previous versions were made for your typical 16-pack Crayola-style. Today I designed and stitched this up. This version uses 24 fat and (hopefully) high-quality beeswax crayons, as found at Gray’s General Store here in Hoquiam (speaking of which, check it – I’m going to be teaching classes!).

24 Beeswax Crayon Roll-Up

A crayon roll-up featuring not just robots, but also [ <–  (look left) ] cleavage. WHAT COULD BE BETTER?! Not much.

24 Beeswax Crayon Roll-Up

Embroidery … so my Little Guy knows it’s just for him.

Robots (I have a teeny tiny bit of fabric left from the Ready Set Robot shirt):

24 Beeswax Crayon Roll-Up

So what say ye, readers? Should I bust my hump putting together a tutorial? Eh…