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Saturday, January 16, 2016

More Acorns!


MORE ACORNS!


When I made my biscornu I also wanted to make a small bag to go with it.  So I have created a pair of small bags, one as a gift and one for myself, that use the acorn pattern. This time I used a couple of leaves and tossed in a wider interlace pattern for good measure. They measure 4 5/8" by 4 3/4" or 4 7/16". One has a seam down the center back, the other at the side. I may do more with the side seam. The openings for the ties are different and that is the only real reason for doing the seam down the back: the two buttonholes match. Minor detail there. Side seam makes a smoother uninterrupted back for more embroidery. I used the 18 count Aida cloth in oatmeal  (fabric color, not the breakfast) for a nice background color that would blend with the greens and browns. Lining is a cotton print of leaves in shades of green. Ties were made of a thin polyester lining fabric.



I added a tiny button to the center front of one. Haven't decided if I want to add one to the other bag.

The bags are personalized with cross-stitched initials and the names spelled out. In the one where the seam runs down the back it made it a little tricky when stitching in a line that happened to be centered in the design. I sometimes had to take two stitched to make it show up.

For the end of the ties I wanted to do something different. I wanted something that would go with the small size of the bags. I decided to try the Fimo clay that I had on hand. Bought it years ago, never got to use it. When baked at 265 degrees F for 30 minutes, it dries to a nice hardness that I think will be chip resistant and hold up pretty well. I poked deep holes into the acorns so the tie ends could be poked down into the acorns and glues in place.


Acorns!

Acorns!

I was watching "My Neighbor Totoro", a delightful Hayao Miyazaki film, when I came up with the idea for what might really finish off my  little Pikachu bag. I was pretty sure that I wanted some traditional Elizabethan Blackwork patters to set it off, in black, of course. I thought that it would go well with the bright yellow figure and blend with the black that was already in the cross stitch. I could have gone with red, but that would not have shown up the blackwork design well enough and would have been too bright a color and overpower the main motif. 

But what should I use? I thought of maybe some bug and leaf patterns like the illustrations that accompany the end credits of the film. Then the film answered the question for me. Mei, the young girl in the film, tries to lure out the totoros by setting out a trail of acorns for them. I figured that Pikachu was like a totoro in that he, too, is a mythical creature from Japan. Okay, not a strong connection, but it opened the door. Now I was on the search for some acorn patterns.

I blazed a trail over the wide expanses of the plains of examples till I found one that had possibilities. But now I had another problem: I needed an exact stitch count. I allowed a specific seam allowance. I wanted it centered and to be as high as the Pikachu. Pikachu was an uneven number of stitches high. For weeks I poured over graph paper, flipping, shortening, and rearranging the motifs. I modified, counted, then modified again. This was supposed to be a quick project done on just a scrap of 18 count white Aida cloth! But finally I got it right, and these are the results.


I wanted a wrap-around pattern which meant that I would have to consider the embroidery stitching up the back seam. It seems to have worked pretty well.


I used 7/16" red grosgrain ribbon for the ties. Still needed to get a little more red in there. The bag is lined with a bright yellow cotton that matches Pikachu.








For this pattern there was no consideration of how it would look as it moved over the sides. The pattern would get where it was going.








For the size of the bag, just 4"x4" when completed, I wanted something other than the longer tippets that I used for the other Pokemon dice bags. I visited several bead shops till I found something that was small enough but still had a large enough aperture through which the tie ends could be secured. To close off the open ends, I glues in a small garnet beads. Red against the gold? Perfect!


And here is the end result!

My Old Dice Bag

This is a quick follow-up to my last post. This is the dice back that I made for myself out of a scrap from a drover's coat that I made for Rob.



Finished size is about 6 3/4" x 8".



I have no idea how many dice or gaming pieces are in it. I never bothered to count. The collection keeps growing, though slowly these days. Still, I am on the outlook for an unusual or interesting item to go inside.