Slow Going...

Oh my goodness what a crazy few weeks the last couple have been.  A new job with lots of new things to learn has left me I guess mentally tired and I've not even felt like stitching.   My rabbits have horrible teeth so they've just cost me a fortune in vet bills (thank goodness I'm now working) and my new ducks are trying at every opportunity to make babies with my existing disabled ducks so I've been playing 'love police' every five minutes.  And now the 'old' ducks need vet attention as well.  Flipping heck!  Anyone want some randy ducks?? 😜

So yeah, if you've stopped by hoping for great progress I'm afraid you're not going to get it.  I have learnt however why a lot of blogs fail (maybe).  You feel pressure to write something (and hope its interesting) and sometimes life just gets in the way.  So I am still here just not getting much done.

So how much progress have I made?  One wing, yep just one.  There are plenty of tutorials out there.. but I've taken a few 'starting off' photos in case anyones curious.

With wings and petals etc that stick up from an embroidery you need to use wire.  "Wired shapes' is what they're usually called if you're googling for info.  You need the wire to provide some stiffness when you cut the petal out of the fabric after its all stitched and pretty.  The wire also helps you push the wing into the required shape or at the required angle.  I've read a few 'how-to's suggesting you use florist wire,  I found some of that at the local craft store but found it too thick and there was only the 1 option.  A week later I found some jewellery wire which is much thinner and much nicer.

So in a nutshell you need to then couch the wire down to your fabric.  I have found the easiest way to do this is to bend it into a rough loop and then as you couch you pull the wire until its sitting on the outline of your wing.  Some people use tweezers apparently but I would've thought that could end up putting kinks in your wire which you don't really want.  Not for a wing anyway.  It is a bit fiddly this bit and an extra hand would come in handy but its do-able and once its couched down its plain sailing.  Oh! they recommend at least 2 inches of wire hanging out (so 4 inches in total) for attaching the wing to another piece of fabric and then securing.  And you want them really secure when you get to the attaching bit because people are apparently quite keen to touch them simply because they stand up off the fabric - who knew?!? haha

One tip I've learnt along the way is for the ends of the wire, use some tape to stick them down.  Otherwise you'll end up getting your thread caught in them time and time again.  I've found that Micropore works really well, you know the paper tape they use for medical dressings and the like.  What I find good about it is that you can actually lift it and shift it.  Because you want to get as many wings (or whatever) out of the one piece of fabric I squished them all in without even thinking about all the extra wire hanging off.

So once you're all couched down you need to run a buttonhole stitch around the wire to probably secure it and make sure you fabric doesn't fray when you cut out the wing.  I have seen some suggest that you actually do the buttonhole stitch AFTER you've filled in the wing.  I haven't tried this, but I might with the next one.  Anyway, you want those stitches really close, you're trying to completely cover the wire.  I've seen another suggestion of using a permanent, acid free, etc felt pen to actually colour the wire the same colour as your thread before you do the buttonhole stitch just in case you can see a wee peek of the wire showing through.  Another good tip I think.  When I did my poppies, I managed to find some red jewellery wire which I used instead.

So here is my solitary little wing.  I found a tutorial for wings that suggested actually putting the 'veins' in first, which I did in this case.  Not sure I like it, but its about the journey not the destination, right?  haha

Sometimes I do wonder if I have learnt anything at all about embroidery over the last couple of years.  What made me think that stitching white thread on white fabric when I can only stitch at night was a good idea??  Headshake.  I think the key word here is thinking... I didn't think I just wanted to get at it!  And it shows.  Oh well.

Anyway I'm afraid thats all I have for now.  Take care!