The top of my stumpwork trinket box isn’t to the (Thistle Thread stumpwork class) design – it’s my own. I’ve designed it to tie in with the front of the box, a grotto, which I was posted about at http://www.elmsleyrose.com/embroidery/tree-top-right/
The writing is unreadable, but never mind. It gives you the overall idea. I’ll explain as I go along.
Today I’m going to talk about the construction of Mr Fishie Himself. He’s based on http://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/es/original/DP158570.jpg, which shows the whole piece. The relevant bit is (from the centre bottom) :
Lesley U, my EGV (Embroidery Guild of Victoria) Guidance Group mentor, advised me to do a ‘slip in hand’. That is, the padding and linen top are all of one piece before it is attached to the ground rather than attaching the padding to the ground and the top over that. You can do tiny stitches to attach this 3 dimensional object, rather than having to use an outline (such as a gimp) to hide the attachment stitches. The original Mr Fishie doesn’t have an outline so I went for this technique.
Working from the paper design, I made the felt padding – 2 layers of wool felt backed by interfacing. The interfacing, I learnt from Mary Corbet, makes the wool much neater in the cutting. I also found that the extra strength was useful when making up the in hand slip. There is a second layer underneath the layer shown, smaller than the top layer.
Felt padding
Then I worked with calico (muslin) to find the right size for the actual fish while leaving enough unstitched linen on the borders to be able to be stitched around the felt.
Then I stitched Mr Fishie
and added an eye. The eye was from http://www.glasseyesonline.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=21_24_26&products_id=112 (thanks, Fran!)
…coloured the unstitched border with a felt pen, rather than having white edges show up against the ground Mr Fish was going to be attached to
I used a little fray check so the linen wouldn’t fray itself into oblivion and got a little colour run onto the silk stitches. Lord knows what is in Fray Check.
A quick check to make sure the stitching and felt were a good fit…..
Then I cut the shapes out and attached them to the felt
Yes, Mr Fishie already has a pool to swim in. More on that later.