Julie's Venetian Courtesan

Who doesn't want to be a Dangerous Beauty?

Sunday, March 27, 2005

Blackwork

Pre-Easter at the in-laws provided much time for blackworking. Mostly cuz hubby and his brother were engrossed in video games. This was fine by me, however, as I got to listen to the game narrative and background music, which was conveniently somewhat period luting. The game was Bard's Tale, and I found it fitting to work on dress details during. ;-) I also got to stitch while my MIL knitted and we watched home decorating shows and ate chocolate. Oh, the decadence....

I am almost finished one of my wrist cuffs. I ended up picking a rusty brown embroidery? thread (I used 3 strands of the 6-strand stuff you usually use for cross-stitch). I cut a strip of iron-on interfacing for the cuff stability ( my camica fabric is really flimsy, and I think I needed more structure). The wrist bands are 1.5 inches wide. I drew the blackwork design on them with wash off fabric marker. Luckily, 1 layer of camica fabric and 1 of interfacing were fairly transparent, so this was simply a matter of tracing. Here's my progress so far. Its most certainly got that hand done look. But thats the point, right?

blackwork

As you can see, I decided to get "fancy". I filled in the diamonds with some yellow thread I had in my bag which happens to be the same yellow thread I used to do the edging on my camica neckline and sleeve bottoms. Why? Mostly cuz I only brought one wrist cuff for the weekend and I finished it more quickly than expected and wanted more busy work. I also thought the yellow would tie in with the edging and look nice. Period? I dunno. But I like it.

Then I finished the yellow and still had time to kill, so I decided to go back and add the middle lines in the x/flower bits. Luckily, we're back from in-laws and I've prepared my next cuff, so I won't be tempted to add more embellishment on it. I think its borderline "busy" already. hehe. The only thing they will get besides what you see above will be two straight lines on either side for a border. This will be conveniently placed over the sewing machine lines I'll get when I attach the cuffs to the sleeves...

1 Comments:

Blogger Beth said...

I love it. Gorgeous.

10:17 AM  

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