Mr Bear

Well I've made a start on the bear.  I've done a rough attempt to trace out the darker and lighter sections onto my fabric (calico again).  That in itself was a bit of a mission as even using a lightbox trying to figure out where the area changes are wasn't that easy.  But I was only after a rough idea and hopefully what I've marked out will be enough.

I had a quick play on a scrap of fabric and decided that the lighter stitches will be done with 1 thread and the darker 2 threads.  And I'll just change the size and closeness of the stitches to get the diff 'textures' of the pen strokes  That and try and follow the direction of the pen from the original image.  And if that doesn't work then I'll just make it up as I go 😀

I've already discovered that when you're sewing in just one colour its very hard to see the picture appearing.  And I guess with this type of image the close up view is not what you're actually aiming for.  You need to step back from it to really see the image.  Its funny how much better it looks in photo form than it does sitting on my lap.  I guess thats just down to that extra distance.

I'm still pondering the nose and eyes area.  I'm thinking of a black felt to get that really dark colour.  But then the debate will be whether I just stitch them down or I cover them with stitches.  Hmmm something to ponder over.

One thing I have found since I took this photo is that running stitch is too orderly for this image.  The strokes of the pen I believe are done in rows across an area not up and down.  I discovered this the hard way of course.  So I unpicked it and am now back doing straight stitches.  I'm not sure if that makes sense so I've tried to illustrate it below.  Not that my running stitch is any where NEAR that precise.  But it does illustrate the columns of running stitch versus the rows that I mean.  

Anyway I better go and get my day started. Until next time!