Christmas Decorations from a Stitcher's Perspective

This year, as in many other years, I have been busy making things in the run up to Christmas. Things that are far from essential but for some reason I feel I have to make before the 'big day' and here are two of the things I have been making.

This is my Christmas mannequin which was inspired by one I saw in John Lewis. I had every intention of making a simple red top to go on it but with no red fabric and little time I had to resort to something I already had and the beaded top fit the bill, after all when did I last wear it? I enjoyed decorating her and I think she could become  an annual fixture at Christmas.

And sticking with the sewing theme, here is this year's stitcher's wreath. I've used pretty much all my bright shiny threads in the wreath and I'm hoping they will remain intact and usable when it comes down in January. It may have benefited from additional reels, maybe next year I'll either paint some of the wooden reels in bright sparkly colours or perhaps wrap them with bright ribbon or fabric and use more of them. Next year? Now I'm getting ahead of myself!

I'm also trying to finish making a dress to wear over Christmas! This will be my first attempt at making a lined dress and although the main part of the dress is almost complete, I've yet to buy the lining! I'm not sure if I had a brain storm when I bought the fabric or whether they gave me too much but there was a lot left over and so I  cut out a funky top that I have been wanting to try for some time and am sewing that too. Madness! Obviously I'm sewing these without my dressmakers dummy - she's otherwise engaged. 

But before I go back to my sewing, I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and creative new year. 

Printing with my 'Torn Paper' Thermofax

The two pieces of fabric I printed with my torn paper thermofax are now ready for stitching.  The photographs do not show them at their best, partly because it was a dismal day when I took the photos and partly because they are light in colour making it quite difficult to capture the detail. 

I printed two pieces and for both I cut the fabric in two, lightened the sky and roughly pinned some darker fabric along the horizon line. I have started to add some tacking stitches to mark the stitching areas in the piece below:

Although the overall effect is light, it is made up of layers of colours, which I hope adds interest to the piece.

I used some brighter colours in my second piece, as I knew I would overprint with white fabric paint, mimicking the processes I used on the paper and trying to link back to the whiteness of the salt flats.

This is a close up of the piece and hopefully you can see where I've added texture and the brighter colours underneath the white over printing.

I'm really looking forward to stitching into these as it seems ages since I've done any and hopefully I'll find some time over the Christmas break. I've had some valuable feedback on these pieces which in my heart I think I knew but tried to ignore so I could move onto the stitching phase and that was that these pieces of fabric don't begin to show the scale of the landscape I'm trying to convey. I think this is partly down to me working on a smaller scale in my kitchen but now I'm going to plan my next piece better and not let the space dictate the cloth to me and that will probably mean wearing several fleeces and working in the garage. Brrr..I'm just going to have to treat these as two very large samples!