A bit late with my blog post this week as I have been working really hard to get everything finished. I have now completed 6 hours of fraying and finished my Pylon Sky machine-stitch piece. I am really pleased with it. I think it will look even better hanging up as I have metal rods to go through channels on the back to give it rigidity and weight. I just have to finish the written supporting information to go with it.
I am really excited because it will be possible to hang it in a window in the final exhibition next week.
My other project with a fast-approaching deadline has been to make my daughter's prom dress. This looks better on her than on this mannequin as she is really tall and so the style makes her legs look like they go on forever - it just touches the floor on her. Although this is a really simple pattern for a prom dress, it has been a real fiddle to make as the material she wanted was not wide enough to make the dress as per the pattern (meaning I had to piece the skirt to get the length) and the plunging front felt too exposed to her so I have had to alter the pattern to extend around the sides and put in a lace insert.
She is really pleased with the result - I hope it can stay clean and crease free until she actually gets to the prom next week - fingers crossed it is not raining.
Finally we went on the ferry to France at the weekend so I took the embroidery that I started earlier in the year to carry on with. I am pleased with how it is turning out. The silver birch stems in the background are stitched with variegated black and white embroidery thread so not every stitch shows up white - quite good effect I think.
The dark band across the middle is a piece of brown/black sari silk, with the frayed edges sticking out randomly. Finally the foreground is all in embroidery cotton - multiple colours in the needle to give random shading and variation.
The green at the front is gorse so lots of spiky texture to have a go at next!
