Butterick 5404 View A handbag

***Discontinued Pattern....whatever...****

Well, another project documented on subjects that roam free in the wild just outside my door!
(Well, a 20 to 40  minute drive away and we have spotted some of them no joke!).

But seriously, I have always wanted to embroider butterflies for awhile now and I started this project between semesters and didn't finish until...March...I think...of this year.

Now, usually, I get accurate colours of subjects in a variety of reference books that I own and one of them was the Lone Pine Published Butterflies of British Columbia, by John Acorn and Ian Sheldon  and the subjects I chose were:

1. Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)
2. Hydapse Fritillary (Speyeria hydapse)
3. Pale Swallowtail (Papilio eurymedon)
4. Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus)
5. Sweet violets (Viola odorata)
6. Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis)
7. English Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)

The thing is, you can't spot these all at the same time unfortunetely, but, butterflies are just so cute!

The other thing I would like to mention here is that when you decide to embroider insects and other animals, it is always best to put them as you would see them true-to-life by movement or appearances of scale or weight of the subject.  You can also give them emotion by choosing the right angle of eye coordination etc etc.
We all know that the work put into it isn't real and can't mimic real life subjects 100% but we sure can try as much as we can!

Okay, as for the nuts and bolts of the operation, putting together a bag by Butterick shouldn't cause anyone to pull their hair out, but what I will show is the alterations I made to the square shaped bag that can pretty well go with any damn outfit. 
Granted, this bag didn't have a huge area to work with and that is either a God-Send or a nightmare. Smaller areas mean I can finish up sooner but subjects then lose a lot of real life detail-major trade off)

Onto the progress pictures:

Mourning Cloak finished

Finishing up Lavander

Pale Swallowtail progress



Finished work on bag. The fritillary on the violets gives the impression that the butterfly is weighing down the flower.
The bend in the stem is the result of the weight of the fritillay.

So, as I was pointing out, the fritillary is bending the stem by its own weight because this butterfly is feeding on nectar and is probably travelling from flower to flower.  The Silvery Blue is angled in flight and facing downwards because the butterfly is coming down to feed as well.  It also looks as though the Pale Swallowtail is leaving the scene by its particular angle in flight. 
Anyway something to think about.  Of course all of that is up to each person's interpretation but that was my intention.

I did use cotton broadcloth for this bag so it turned out floppier than I wanted it to, but it still worked. And don't forget medium weight sew-in interfacing and buckram interfacing for the tab closure. 
I also used the pattern suggested magnetic snap tab for a closure.
I used a plum coloured plain weave silk shot with gold for the lining, which the pictures didn't turn out well because of continuous cloudy days here...sorry, I will try again.

Anyway, a simple project used on serious shopping rounds...when I can...

Thanks

Karin

McCalls 3830 Skirt

View E-shortest one!

Hey, since I am between classes, I might as well make another skirt for the going-out-to-dinner mini skirt (with fab boots or wedges) or perhaps the ideal look for the typical mall rat at any usual shopping centre. 

But here is where my imagination takes flight sometimes.  It usually happens when I have enough fabric left over in my storage for anything to come into existance, so, I go on an embroider bender and try and finish up any projects that I can do so that I can free up some valuable square footage in my apartment.

So, since my last black skirt was black with white lillies, I  used Trish Burr's Long and Short Stitch embroidery book template for my mini skirt and went with the arum lily project.  Now, keep in mind I do have my own pictures to create my own templates but it was just so much quicker. 

(Anyway, Trish does some good projects in her book, so thank you)

Now, I also must confess that this idea spawned even earlier than I realized.  When I bought the DVD to the 'Other Boelyn Girl', Anne Boelyn had a couple of arum lillies on one of her stomachers in a scene.  However, I didn't choose to do that particular arum lily but actually settled on Trish's lily.  This looks a lot like the species ' Spathiphyllum sp' but may be another of the type like 'Arum maculatum'.  Either way, this plant belongs to the Arum family (Araceae).(AIR-A-CEE-E)

Anyway, the size of the flower was right for the mini skirt.  It didn't take me 3 weeks, but less than one.  Yes, I guess this was a "quick and easy" project, but still finding myself back to the fabric store buying invisible zippers for the closures to dresses and skirts.( And you may well have guessed that I like making skirts, handbags and fancy dresses.)

So, after completing the hand work I always buy the prescribed colours for the project and end up using way less than required.  I don't get that.  So, here are my progess pictures:

Trace out and place drawing on fabric




 






Out line back split stitch and begin work









Near completion


As you can see my trace for the leaf of the arum lily is somewhat faded.  This is the part that gets me.  I usually have to keep redrawing the outline until I can do a split backstitch on it especially on black fabrics
In the picture below, work is completed but next step is to get rid of that nasty hoop crease left on the outside of the work.

Completed

As for the rest of the skirt, all the hard work is done and what is left is the construction-to-completion jobs.  So, as you may have guessed, I do put in 8" invisible zippers in matching colours, this one being black.  Easy to find anywhere.  So, I hemmed the bottom at 2 " or (5.08 cm) instead of the pattern prescribed 2-1/4 ".  I just needed it to be a bit longer.

2 " (5.08 cm) hem hand stitched

When adding optional belt carriers, a common rookie mistake of mine was to let the weight of the machine foot to keep it in place while sewing in the permanent stitch.  I must say, DO NOT do this!!!  Basting is the way to go. I don't want to say how crooked your carriers can look if you don't baste them in place.

I also don't like the companies instructions on how to construct and sew the carriers until finished.  I have another way that works better.  Until then, I won't do it their way.

Basting on belt carriers.

Okay, that is it for now.  The skirt looked  exactly like the finished picture from McCall's with a silly arum lily slapped on the left front.  More pictures updated soon.  But it's done!

Bye for now.