My house doesn't have a real attic, it has these cubbyholes along the eaves. Like this.
And while rooting around in this one in the last few months, because it's where the holiday decorations are stored, I noticed the insulation was falling down alarmingly. It looked like this ....
Although I probably should have just replaced the insulation entirely, that was a project I wasn't up for. But I decided I did need to do something with it, so I resorted to Plan B - stapling plastic up over it to basically hold it in place (and keep any that wasn't already ripped up from getting ripped up).
So Saturday I went out to Big Lots and bought a couple inexpensive but relatively heavy clear plastic painter's drop cloths. Then I spent awhile in this cubby fixing the mess. The section I got done was the worst of it. I had a swirl of little tiny insulation fibers floating all over the place, and I'm sure a bunch of them got inhaled (because I didn't think about wearing any kind of mask for that, until it was too late and I was already in the middle of it). I had little itchy bits of annoyance stuck on me all day. And I only got this one section done.
But ... at least I got that done, and could (finally) put the Christmas decorations away. There's quite a lot more of it left to do, but I kind of figured that was enough for one day.
Then I worked on the pirate coat!
I had initially started the embroidery in rayon floss, because I thought it would look a wee bit fancier - it has a bit of shine to it, almost like a satin or silk. But even practicing and trying to be careful, it was turning out like this.
Messy. I wasn't terribly happy with it, so last night on a whim I decided to try regular embroidery floss. Wow - what a difference.
I'm definitely glad I tried this, because I'm definitely sticking with this now. It's so much easier to work with, and it looks much better.
I'm still working on a practice piece for the cuff, because I want to experiment with different stitches and how the whole thing will look, before I just start on the actual cuff. I'm really debating on adding a little bit of color, or at least shading, to help the different elements of this particular motif stand out. If I don't do that, I think I'll have to simplify it somewhat, because as it is now, it's a pretty complex motif, and if I do it all in black satin stitch, I think it's just kind of going to be a big blurry blob.
I've been waffling about the color issue steadily, because I'm afraid even a little color will sway it over into the realm of just looking tacky. I want to first try some 'shades of black' - like adding a bit of charcoal gray.
But I don't have any of that color. I considered running out to Joann Fabrics again today to pick some up, but ... we're in one of those arctic freezes, with wind chills near - 15 and a high wind warning, and I'm just not entirely sure I want to go out today. I mean, who wants to go out in this to buy embroidery floss ...
... especially when there's plenty of other stuff to do.
I could shift my focus to another part of the coat, and begin planning the embroidery for the neck band and button band. Of course, there's always knitting. Or I could just curl up under the log cabin blanket and read and drink tea all day.
While I'm on the topic, I have to brag about this ...
... this is the transfer paper I found for transferring my designs onto the pirate coat for embroidery. Okay, so everyone else in the world probably already knew about this stuff, and I'm just out of the loop. But no matter - I've found it now, and it's going to save my life on this project. It is so incredibly easy to use ... I just placed it on the fabric, placed my pencil-drawn design on top of it, and traced over it with the point of a knitting needle. It easily transferred crisp, clear lines even onto this black twill fabric. And, the coating on the transfer side didn't seem to 'disappear' - the package says you can use it over and over, and it seems to be true (well, to a point, I'm sure). This was a sampler pack with a variety of colors, but the yellow and white are probably going to be most useful for me on this project. I am so impressed with this stuff! The only thing I noticed was that as I worked with the piece, it did begin to rub off the fabric a bit. But that was easily dealt with - every so often I removed the embroidery hoop and re-drew any faded places with a white pencil. It's not coming off so fast that I can't keep up with it, so I don't think it'll be any major trauma. And the advantages of it far outweigh this little bit of necessary maintenance. So ... great stuff, highly recommended.
And while rooting around in this one in the last few months, because it's where the holiday decorations are stored, I noticed the insulation was falling down alarmingly. It looked like this ....
Although I probably should have just replaced the insulation entirely, that was a project I wasn't up for. But I decided I did need to do something with it, so I resorted to Plan B - stapling plastic up over it to basically hold it in place (and keep any that wasn't already ripped up from getting ripped up).
So Saturday I went out to Big Lots and bought a couple inexpensive but relatively heavy clear plastic painter's drop cloths. Then I spent awhile in this cubby fixing the mess. The section I got done was the worst of it. I had a swirl of little tiny insulation fibers floating all over the place, and I'm sure a bunch of them got inhaled (because I didn't think about wearing any kind of mask for that, until it was too late and I was already in the middle of it). I had little itchy bits of annoyance stuck on me all day. And I only got this one section done.
But ... at least I got that done, and could (finally) put the Christmas decorations away. There's quite a lot more of it left to do, but I kind of figured that was enough for one day.
Then I worked on the pirate coat!
I had initially started the embroidery in rayon floss, because I thought it would look a wee bit fancier - it has a bit of shine to it, almost like a satin or silk. But even practicing and trying to be careful, it was turning out like this.
Messy. I wasn't terribly happy with it, so last night on a whim I decided to try regular embroidery floss. Wow - what a difference.
I'm definitely glad I tried this, because I'm definitely sticking with this now. It's so much easier to work with, and it looks much better.
I'm still working on a practice piece for the cuff, because I want to experiment with different stitches and how the whole thing will look, before I just start on the actual cuff. I'm really debating on adding a little bit of color, or at least shading, to help the different elements of this particular motif stand out. If I don't do that, I think I'll have to simplify it somewhat, because as it is now, it's a pretty complex motif, and if I do it all in black satin stitch, I think it's just kind of going to be a big blurry blob.
I've been waffling about the color issue steadily, because I'm afraid even a little color will sway it over into the realm of just looking tacky. I want to first try some 'shades of black' - like adding a bit of charcoal gray.
But I don't have any of that color. I considered running out to Joann Fabrics again today to pick some up, but ... we're in one of those arctic freezes, with wind chills near - 15 and a high wind warning, and I'm just not entirely sure I want to go out today. I mean, who wants to go out in this to buy embroidery floss ...
... especially when there's plenty of other stuff to do.
I could shift my focus to another part of the coat, and begin planning the embroidery for the neck band and button band. Of course, there's always knitting. Or I could just curl up under the log cabin blanket and read and drink tea all day.
While I'm on the topic, I have to brag about this ...
... this is the transfer paper I found for transferring my designs onto the pirate coat for embroidery. Okay, so everyone else in the world probably already knew about this stuff, and I'm just out of the loop. But no matter - I've found it now, and it's going to save my life on this project. It is so incredibly easy to use ... I just placed it on the fabric, placed my pencil-drawn design on top of it, and traced over it with the point of a knitting needle. It easily transferred crisp, clear lines even onto this black twill fabric. And, the coating on the transfer side didn't seem to 'disappear' - the package says you can use it over and over, and it seems to be true (well, to a point, I'm sure). This was a sampler pack with a variety of colors, but the yellow and white are probably going to be most useful for me on this project. I am so impressed with this stuff! The only thing I noticed was that as I worked with the piece, it did begin to rub off the fabric a bit. But that was easily dealt with - every so often I removed the embroidery hoop and re-drew any faded places with a white pencil. It's not coming off so fast that I can't keep up with it, so I don't think it'll be any major trauma. And the advantages of it far outweigh this little bit of necessary maintenance. So ... great stuff, highly recommended.
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