Super Busy.... here's some embroidery!

So I've been super busy at work changing over casts and revamping shows.... I'll tell you more about that soon. But for now, here's some embroidery for you...

My Peacock shirt was inspired by the decorations around my current ship. The stage curtain in the theatre has a huge peacock appliquéd on to it and there are many paintings of peacocks dotted around the ship. There is one outside on the promenade deck that has it’s feathers shaped like hearts, which I really liked and decided to incorporate into my own design.

The blue shirt that I hand embroidered on to was given to me by one of my dancers, so I have given it a new lease of life with my design. I hand drew the design first, then marked the outline on the shirt using dressmakers carbon paper. I chose my colour scheme based on the colours you see on peacocks and that I thought brought out the blue of the shirt. Once I had finished the embroidery I added a few sequins to bring a little sparkle to the piece.

I think this is a simple but elegant piece that could be worn during the day with jeans, or dressed up with some accessories.

Ooh, That's Sublime!

Jenny Hart’s website, Sublime Stitching is having a contest called the Combo Contest. The object is to combine three of her patterns in an interesting way and produce an embroidered piece.

I have always liked Jenny’s designs and have both of her books, but have not had an opportunity to use them. This was the perfect time! Now, my embroidered piece may not be the most innovative, but it will be the springboard for something much bigger.

I chose to use the patterns Country Cool, Pinups by Gil Elvgrin and the book Embroidered Effects. I chose a cowgirl, a sailor pinup and the feather girl from the book (which I have wanted to stitch for a long time). I put them together on a 20" by 20" square with the quote ‘Well-behaved women rarely make history’. Each woman represents an aspect of myself.

The sailor pinup represents my love of nature and water and that I have been working on the sea for almost 4 years.

The feather girl represents my showgirl side, the entertainment industry that I work in and love, and the extrovert in me.

Finally, the cowgirl represents my hardworking side and my confidence.

I have decided to use this piece as the central square of an embroidered quilt that I plan to make. I need to create 20 more 10” by 10” squares all around the theme ‘Feminist Statement’. I want it to show the women and words that have influenced me throughout my life… so keep an eye out for the squares as I make them!

Beer Adventures...

Until about two years ago I didn't drink beer. I didn't like the stuff, you couldn't make me! Then, as with many things in life, I met a guy and that changed! He refused to buy me fruity drinks in the crew bar of our ship and introduced me to San Adams... and my love affair with beer began!

On my travels I have had the chance to try a lit of good and not so good beers. The New England/Canada run is the best for this, having been dubbed the Beer Adventure Run by my friends and I. To commemorate my achievements in beer drinking I wanted to make something that showed off all the beers I had tried.... and so the Beer Cap Belt was born!

I've been collecting beer caps since last October and I think I still need some more. This is going to be a continual work in progress as I find more beers that I like and want to show off the caps!

I started by laying out the caps in the order that I wanted to sew them. I cut out a strip of black denim, rescued from a pair of jeans I had used for another project.

Once I had an order I liked I used pliers to fold out the edges of the caps so I had something to Shisha around to attach them to the belt... yes, I shisha stitched every one!

Shisha stitching however pulled the fabric in more than I had planned so I may have to add another section... but that just means I have room for more caps!

The fastening is a button and a piece of chain currently, but I'm on the look out for something different... I just haven't found what I like yet...

And so, here it is! My beer cap belt! I love it!!!

Ashamed to Kiss

Oh dear.... Well, things have been a bit busy around here so my blogging has fallen behind... sorry!

But to make up for it here is a little preview of what I have been working on.

I was asked to design the costumes for a production by the English Theatre Company Theatre Nomad. They are doing a 30 minute version of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew called Ashamed to Kiss with three actors. I was given a burlesque/pantomime style brief and got going on ideas:



After the mood boards helped to to solidify my ideas I drew out some designs and sent them to Luke the Artistic Director for approval:



Luke loved them and I got to work on making them. Petruchio (the male character) and Katarina were already cast, Bianca hadn't been found yet so I just worked on the two costumes. As with theatre, Bianca has currently been cut from the production, so only two costumes were eventually produced:



I am very happy with the way the costumes have turned out. I think they look exactly like my designs! Luke is very happy with them as are the actors.

There will be three performances of Ashamed to Kiss in London in February so go take a look if you're in the area... more details soon!

More Naked Cycling!

After my feature the other day I was contacted by some lovely people!

Sara from SewCreativeBySara send me a lovely message and would like to offer my readers 15% discount on a seat cover if you mention the A Crafter At Sea blog when you order!

So go get yourself one here!

Also, Melanie aka mellovelo of Bike Bums deserves a second mention as she is sending me a pirate seat cover! How awesome is she?! Go check out her stuff too!

Naked Cycling!!

I got into an interesting Twitter conversation with GoingPlacesToo this week. She had seen naked bicyclists in Seattle celebrating the beginning of summer and it reminded me of some naked bicyclists I'd seen in Vancouver a few years ago. It turned out we had had the same thought - What kind of bike seats are they using?! GoingPlacesToo kindly looked up bike seats on Etsy as our conversation escalated and I just had to share some with you:


Left to right, top to bottom:

Florida Theme Bicycle Seat by mellowvelo
Frankenstein Bike Seat Cover by kalleen
Fleur des Lis bicycle Seat by madebyjulianne
Bicycle Saddle Cover by SewCreativeBySara
Vintage Upholstery Bike Seat Cover by BeatriceHoliday
Blue Wool Bike Seat Cover by EmilyCrochetsPants

Let's get those bikes out and be green people!

Shisha Mirror Work

Section of a traditional wall hanging with shisha mirror work

As I mentioned before I am very interested in Shisha embroidery. I was going to write a blog post on it, but as I searched I found that many people have already gone over the subject and done a better job than I! So instead, here is a few links and artists I think you should check out if you are also interested in this subject.

Shisha means little glass and is the process of attaching round mirrors to fabric. The mirrors were placed in significant positions on clothing to ward off evil spirits and the evil eye. They were also used on decorative textiles to place over doorways etc to keep out evil spirits and on sacred textiles.

My own shisha experiments with bottle caps

Penny Nickles

Penny's work was what first lead me to Shisha. She has produced some beautiful pieces like her invisibility mask here and my fave experiment here

She also wrote an amazing article on Shisha for Mr X Stitch which you should read here

Detail of my shisha work

How to Shisha

There are several tutorials online about the process of Shisha. I learned the technique from Joyful Abode here. It uses lots of photos and is really helpful.

Stitch Magazine posted this diagram on their site to show you how to Shisha with instructions here

An alternative shisha stitch

Design

On the Pakistani Embroidery Blog there is a different version of the stitch (pictures above)which you can learn to do here
I really like the shape of this version, but it hides more of the item being attached.

Sonie from Sonie's Embroidery World offers free square Shisha patterns on her blog here, which I might have to have a go at!

Beer Cap Belt WIP

My Own Shisha Work

I have been experimenting with Shisha myself as you have seen from the photos throughout this blog. My main reason for the experiments was for a belt I am working on.... so above is a sneak preview of the work in progress... keep your eyes peeled for the finished product!

Shisha mirror work at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London