The LOTR Symphony: A Costume Extravaganza Weekend!

We interrupt your regular stream of SHB Sew-along posts with a special newsflash about the Lord of the Rings Symphony! (Actually, can it really be called a newsflash if my report is a week late? Ah well, I blame the upcoming AP exams and SHB. Always convenient for an excuse, the latter.)

I've seen the LOTR Symphony twice before, but that was 1) several years ago, 2) before I knew how to sew/make costumes, and 3) just select pieces played from the soundtrack in a standard three hour-ish long concert. When I first found out about the Symphony Silicon Valley's three concert, play-along-live-to-the-movies extravaganza, I knew right away that I had to go to all three and dress up. After all my sadness about the movies being over and done with, it was one last chance to be immersed in the world of Middle Earth with other equally enthusiastic fans. Well, the concert series took place last weekend and it was everything I ever wanted. The music itself was incredible, of course; Howard Shore's score is a masterpiece and the musicians deserve all the props for learning that much music and performing it so perfectly over the course of three very long concerts. But this is not a music reviewing blog, it's a record of my creative output, so let's recap the costumes instead!

For Saturday's FOTR concert, since the focus is on introducing hobbits, I pulled out my hobbit maiden costume again, but added a dark green apron for another layer over the skirt. It's a small thing, but I think it really helps to pull it all together. Fashion bloggers (and San Francisco tour books) are always harping on the importance of layering and apparently that applies to hobbits, too.

So excited about the series of concerts I'm about to attend! I love that the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts looks so Rivendell-y in architecture. Okay, they were probably just aiming for Art Nouveau, but then elves are very Art Nouveau. 

My companions (only two, alas, not eight, and I am not so fortunate in my friends as to have elves and dwarves in my company) were my sister Emily and her boyfriend; they went a decidedly more offbeat route with their costumes:

Can you tell what they are? Travis is the black hole down which Pippin (Fool of a Took!) dropped the bucket and skull in Moria, and Emily is an assortment food from the seven hobbit meals!

A hobbit and her breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper. 

A shortcut to mushrooms! Also non-broken carrots, ashless-tomatoes, and some nice crispy bacon! I don't think hobbits had lobster or farfalle pasta, but then IKEA wasn't really aiming for making hobbit meal plush toys, I don't think. 

For Sunday, I decided that if I was going to do this, I would do it right, so I brought two costumes (and a breast pump and freezer bag!) with me so that I could have different outfits for TTT and ROTK. Since we were sitting by the same people, by the time ROTK rolled around, they had definitely noticed that I was crazy enthusiastic with my different outfits for each movie.

I had originally planned to make Arwen's mourning gown for TTT (I even had fabric stashed for it!), but time and SHB got the better of me and it never happened. This just means that there has to be another LOTR event in my future, right? Anyway, I settled for an easier elven look and just added the stereotypical long elven sleeves to an existing floor-length white gown. Drafting the sleeves was easy enough, and I cut them out of white rayon jersey from the stash so that it would be sufficiently flowy without needing a hem. The most difficult part was actually unpicking the old sleeves, which I originally sewed on with a stitch length setting of 1, for reasons unknown to current-day me. Totally worth it, though, because something about those sleeves reads instant elf!

Ideally this would all be silk chiffon instead of polyester and rayon stretch knits, but hey, I'm a low-budget elf. Besides, my elven princess doesn't need to destroy Middle-Earth with dry cleaning chemicals. Also I don't get unsightly wrinkles even after sitting through a three-hour concert. 

Here's what the top part of the sleeve pattern looked like. They ended up being 45" long from the top of the sleeve cap to the bottom and floated beautifully behind me when I walked. 

So swooshy and fun when I'm moving!

I got carried away with flapping my sleeves and realized I could use them the way Zhang Ziyi does in House of Flying Daggers. 

Of course, the whole elven princess look was also helped along tremendously by a lovely delicate wire circlet made by my friend Kristy (Etsy store here, should you wish to order something similar for yourself; she does custom orders). She only had a week to make it (on top of her day job) so I'd say it was pretty great for a rush job!

A close-up of the circlet. The best thing was that it stayed on by itself; no need for bobby pins!

If you thought the stand I had it on was weird, it's because it's a plush octopus (not me-made, though). Even octopi deserve to feel like pretty pretty (elven) princesses?

I loved how swooshily elegant I felt in my Galadriel-esque gown, but I must confess that I was most excited about my ROTK costume. I decided to reprise my very first costume, the Eye of Sauron, which I originally wore for the ROTK midnight showing as a college student. Has it really been that long since these movies came out?! I find it incredible that Emily is older now than I was when these movies came out. She went offbeat again, dressing as the web-bound Frodo, complete with a giant stuffed spider.

Emily made the spider and pinned the white blanket around herself and penguin-waddled up the walkway of the theater...now that's dedication!

"Looks like old Shelob has been having a bit of fun!"

Don't worry, I took the eye off before the concert started so that people behind me could see! 

Impromptu shot with other dressed up fans after the show!

The first time I dressed as the eye as an enthusiastic but clueless college student, I was surprised that people kept stopping me for pictures; that was my first experience with the fun of cosplaying and in retrospect that was what got me hooked. This time, things were no different and I could barely get two feet during intermission without being stopped. In fact, many people said it was the best LOTR costume they'd ever seen, which was gratifying, of course, but probably not entirely fair to people who spend hours upon hours making elven armor or hand-embroidering trims. After all, my costume cost less than $10; I merely used Sharpies on a balloon again and used fishing wire to suspend it between two papier-mache horns. Tape and junk mail, that's all I ever use for my costumes!

I used red, orange, gold, and black sharpies to create the flaming eye look.
Nothing says all-seeing evil like a latex sack full of my breath... 

It turns out that plush red sea creatures are just perfect for displaying costume headpieces. I used hair ties to secure the horns to a headband, meaning that I can just reuse it again as a normal headband at a later point if I wish.  

My super low-tech rig for getting the eye to look like it's floating between the horns. 

"The eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat's, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened to a pit, a window into nothing." And an adorable red lobster. 

I am so grateful for Mr. Cation being willing to be on duty for so long so that I could enjoy myself.It was hard to be away from SHB for so long but it was so worth it!

I know, I know, I should've dressed him in his hobbit costume (and moved the Duraflame log)...

Guest Post: Tina of Down the Retro Rabbit Hole!

I'm drinking tea in England, but that doesn't mean things are going to be quiet over here at Cation Designs! I've got some spectacular guest bloggers filling in for me over the next two weeks. If you enjoyed yesterday's geek out over a professional costumer's kit, then today you'll have a chance for a totally different kind of geeking out, courtesy of Tina. She blogs over at Down the Retro Rabbit Hole, and has sewn up some lovely things for the Sew Weekly challenges that I occasionally also participate in. Oh, and she has two adorable cats! That in itself is enough to endear her to all of us, right? But it gets even better than just cats -- there's Star Wars, too! Read on:

Hello friends!

I am so very honored to be posting at Cation Designs today! Cindy's blog is one of my favorite blogs of all time--she's a classy geek girl after my own heart. Star Wars snowflakes? Lord of the Rings Valentines? Not one, but TWO super hero dresses?!! And who can forget her Hunger Games Girl on Fire dress?  *Sigh* Color this girl envious!

After my initial squee of delight and bout of Snoopy dancing, I immediately settled on a project. I was going to use Simplicity 3503 to make a maxi-length dress out of this delicious white organic cotton jersey I'd purchased for a song ($2 a yard!) and, once the dress was completed, I was going to ombre dye it using this dark purple Dylon dye I'd won in an online giveaway.

Secretly, I was already calling this my Miami Beach Dress--I pictured myself walking barefoot down the beach with this dress flowing breezily behind me as the warm ocean water occasionally lapped at my feet:

Like this... only in purple. 

Or like this in my sexier moments!
(But, you know, in purple! )

It was a GLORIOUS dream, friends, that was clearly never meant to be.

I totally had enough time to finish this dress, friends, DESPITE lollygagging. Friday (August 17) I traced the pattern and cut out the pieces with plenty of time to sew the bodice portion together. I had grand plans to attach the skirt portion Saturday morning and then dye the thing. Sunday was reserved for picture taking and post writing.

And then, as I was winding my bobbin, my machine -- my beautiful little darling of a machine -- went KA-CHUNK. I panicked for a moment, but felt some-what better when the bobbin continued to wind in a *seemingly* normal manner. Yet... the machine wouldn't thread.  The short version: the hook thing on my bobbin casing fails to meet with the needle so the bobbin thread and needle thread aren't making a loop. I suspect this has something to do with the bobbin casing (which was missing a piece of thing metal on the side) or the small nut I found when I used my magnificent muscles Mr. Retro used his magnificent muscles to unscrew the bottom of my machine (as I sat to the side uselessly flapping my hands and practically sobbing). I harbored brief delusions using the serger but ultimately decided against it.

And I regrouped.

One of the things Cindy suggested for a post was me-mades while on vacation. Which got me thinking about how to take my/our little hobby with us while on vacation. Flight/airplane regulations make it impossible to take things like knitting needles (though I've had great success accidentally "sneaking" wood needles) and pins and needles on the plane. And I imagine that taking a sewing machine presents it's own sort of logistical nightmare. But there's nothing that says one cannot CHECK a project, right?

Summer is definitely too hot to knit, so I tend to embroider a lot (okay, some). There are a plethora of really awesome ideas on how to incorporate embroidery into clothing sewing projects --I personally love Casey of Casey's Elegant Musings Bumble Bee Circle Skirt and Lauren at Lladybird Colette Ceylon:

Take a look at the rest of Casey's photos here

See more of Lauren's beautiful work here

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention, as well, Cindy's BEAUTIFUL "I Carry Your Heart with Me" dress. I absolutely love the idea of embroidered words on a garment!

Now, as my machine has taken ill, I sadly won't be whipping up a dress to embroider. However, friends, I thought I could share some tricks and tips for getting started on your own embroidery project!

The Supplies

• Fabric. You can embroider on any sort of fabric, really. All it requires is the right kind of needle and thread. However, I find it easier to use a thinner fabric like cotton, cotton broadcloth, or maybe a fine muslin fabric. 
• Hoop. There are pretty much two hoop options: wood or plastic. I highly recommend wood over plastic. My experience with plastic is that the screw portion--necessary to tighten the hoop--through multiple uses ends up stripped; once it's stripped you can't tighten the hoop. I prefer a smaller hoop to a larger hoop, but really the size of your project should dictate hoop size.
• Floss/Embroidery Thread. There's a whole section of this in the stores in a ridiculous Crayola Crayon array of rainbow colors (some sparkly! OOOO!). Usually, before I start a project, I take a moment to print out, copy, or sketch my design and tap into my inner grade schooler and have some fun coloring! This helps me plan my color scheme. 
• Needle. Needles depend on the fabric. You're not going to use a fine needle on say, burlap, and you definitely wouldn't use a yarn needle on silk. Just make sure the needle is sharp!

Still with me friends?

Good. This next part is my probably my favorite step in the whole process...

Selecting an Image 

When I select and image I look for something that doesn't have a lot of really tiny details and has a decent amount of empty space UNLESS I'm specifically making something that's a bit more "artsy"--as in will be framed so that sharp little kitty claws don't snag and pull threads that were lovingly sewn over many many (manymanymany) months and may or may not have resulted in more than a little loss of blood, sweat, and tears. I typically look in the following places for inspiration:

• The internet. Lets be real, friends. I totally acknowledge that I rip off borrow a lot of stuff from the webnets. Google search is my best friend. And don't even get me started on Pinterest.
• Sublime Stitching. Jenny Hart runs this little phenom of a business out of Austin, TX. Her designs are funky, fabulous, and easy to replicate. She provides both PDF versions as well as iron-on transfers. Also, she provides a number of tutorials to get one started.  I <3 her.="her." li="li" nbsp="nbsp">
  
• Urban Threads. They're kinda the same deal as Sublime Stitching.
• Hoop Love on flckr. This is a vintage(ish) collection of embroidery images. Some of them would look cute on things like circle skirts, others look like things you might find on pillows at Grandma's house (which is not a bad thing!). 

I'm really obsessed with mermaids right now so, for this project (a tea towel that'll probably be converted into a pillow), I chose this image:

Transferring the Image

Make sure to wash and iron your fabric prior to transferring your image! When the prepwork is done, there are a number of ways to transfer an image onto the fabric. If you've got mad drawing skills, I recommend using a disappearing ink or water soluable pen to draw your image onto your fabric. I do not have mad drawing skills so I do one of the following when transferring an image that I printed from my computer:

• Use a tracing wheel and dressmakers transfer paper
• Heat transfer pens act as a sort of one-shot deal to create your own iron-on transfer. Trace the image using one of these pens on the BACKSIDE of the image you printed out and then iron onto your fabric. PRESS the image, not back-and forth it with your iron as it *just might* cause the pattern to smear all over your fabric and, as a result *just might* cause one to swear like a sailor. 
• Print out the image on t-shirt transfer paper, iron to fabric, and embroider. This isn't my favorite method as you then have to deal with the iron transfer itself (it leave behind a plastic-y surface) which requires some extra steps to get rid of. (Mostly washing and ironing until it's gone). Therefore, friends, I only really use this if I'm embroidering something large on something that doesn't get a lot daily use. 
• Pouncing is the old fashioned way of transferring. After you print out your image, poke holes at regular intervals along the pattern. Secure the paper to your fabric and using a soft cloth or paintbrush work some sort of powder (chalk or special powder found in the needle craft section of your sewing store) into the holes. Et voila! 

The method I use the most, however, is the good old light-source tracing trick. I tape the printed out image to a window (I suggest doing this at a height that is comfortable), tape my fabric over top, trace with a fabric pencil!

Final Thoughts Before You Begin

• Keep your scissors handy. I always end up with frayed ends of thread that need clipping. I hate having to search for my scissors. 
• Keep the fabric INSIDE the hoop taught and the work will go much more quickly. Saggy fabric leads to yucky stitches. 
• I wrap the ends of my thread around their little bundles and put everything--scissors, project, thread--into a large sized Ziplock plastic bag for travelling. It fits nicely into my bag and doesn't get all mucked up. 
• Use a variety of stitches to achieve the look you want! In addition to the Sublime Stitching link above, there's this one, this one, and this one. I also suggest using a combination of thread thickness. Most floss comes in six strands. Sometimes, such as when I'm doing features on a face or outlines, I use only two or three threads instead of all six. 
• Embellish! I love using beads, sequins, and sometimes ribbon or lace to add a little pizzazz to my projects.

Now the fun begins! 

Unfortunately, my mermaid design isn't done in time for publication. However here are some shots of the embroidered Valentine's Day valentine I made for Mr. Retro. We don't really *do* Valentine's Day -- the commercialism really bugs me as does the concept in general -- so we give each other cheesy/funny little gifts instead. It works for us and some how ends up being more meaningful. This year I made him a "Yoda One for Me" pillow for his office chair. It's not done (as in I have not yet made the tea towel into a pillow case, but whatev... I'll have it done by next Valentine's Day. What? Stop looking at me like that! I SWEAR.). He's a HUGE Star Wars fan--like ridonkulously huge Star Wars fan. He can quote all the movies forwards and backwards and kicks my butt every. single. time. we play Star Wars Trivial Pursuit. Seriously, he can answer the "Who was the best boy key grip in The Empire Strikes Back?" type of questions.  I was worried that it was *too* cheesy but he LOVED it (or at least was very good at pretending he did...). Gives me hope for next year's valentine surprise! 

So there you go, friends. So sorry this is so...word heavy! Regardless, some tips and tricks to get you started with embroidery! What will YOU embroider first? Something for these last days of summer or something fall/winter-ish?

Tina, I could not love that pillowcase any more -- that Mr. Retro is a lucky guy to have you! And I do hope your machine recovers soon from its temporary incapacitation. Readers, I've done some geeky embroidery myself, but nothing so ambitious as this pillowcase! Thanks for sharing your work with us, Tina!

Happy Bacon Day, the Reprise

Three years ago, I gave my husband a set of plush bacon (along with a list of reasons why he was better than bacon) for Valentine's Day.

Excuse the three year old blurry webcam picture.

I know, loving bacon is the most overdone thing on teh interwebs, but it was quite meaningful, I promise, since we looooove bacon in this house. We get pounds of it from Costco, and we love our candied bacon, bacon cookies, bacon with brussel sprouts, and just plain bacon for the heck of it. Mind, we are aware of how cured meats can increase one's risk of cancer, so we only eat it sparingly. But when we do, gosh darn it, we enjoy it! Anyway, this year I decided that we didn't need anymore breakfast food plushies (does one ever need breakfast food plushies? To be honest, though, I just couldn''t think of any new ones), so I decided to immortalize bacon love in a more practical, wearable every day way. Enter the embroidered bacon polo shirt:

Making this was incredibly easy. If you should fancy a bacon shirt (or dress, or clutch, or anything else, really!) of your own, here's what to do:

1) Cut out a little piece of white fabric, preferably of of less-fraytastic material, and a similarly sized fusible web piece. Using embroidery scissors, cut out a vaguely wavy bacon-shaped piece. Iron it onto your polo shirt, about even with the bottom of the button placket, about halfway between the middle of the shirt and the side seam.

Like so. I used a piece of muslin, which I wouldn't actually recommend since it frayed quite a bit.

2) Cut out a piece of lightweight fusible interfacing bigger than your bacon piece. Iron it onto the underside of the shirt, directly behind the bacon.

3) Thread your machine with red thread, set it to a satin stitch or very small, tight zigzags, and go to town on that little piece of bacon! There's no set way to do this, but I would aim for an outline and at least one "meaty" strip down the middle. Make sure to leave some white showing for the fat. I also added a couple lines of straight topstitching for more of an organic, actual bacon feel.

Looks just like one o' them Lacoste polos with the little embroidered crocodile, right?

4) Trim your threads, iron, and you're done!

 Here's what the back looks like, if you're interested:

I was stupid about cutting out interfacing, and didn't think to add it until I'd already started stitching. And obviously I am a terrible judge of the correct size. Don't do what I did.

And the best thing about this project is...

It cost $2! While it may make me seem like a stingy wife, let's remember that we're contending with business school tuition here. I think I made a smart economic move in not going overboard for V-Day, yes? And just in case you want a more valentine-y picture to end this madness, have a picture of Walnut:

The box claims "Nature Sweet Cherubs: Heavenly Sweet Tomatoes" as its contents. Instead, have a most non-cherubic cat sticking out his tongue. "Take that, Cupid! That's what you get for having me neutered!"

Giveaway Winner and Gollum Embroidery

Thank you to all of you who participated in my little Sew Grateful week giveaway! The winner of the fab Simplicity 9333 pattern is The Seek Speak, so I'll be emailing you shortly for mailing information. Also, let's have a round of applause for the intrepid Debi, who was such a gracious hostess of the whole Sew Grateful week!

Something like this?

Nothing sewing-related to show here, though, as I've been suffering from what-to-sew-next ADHD. I originally wanted to make something for the next Sew Weekly challenge, which is use any movie that's ever won an Oscar for inspiration. I had in mind a grand The Duchess-inspired gown made out of a vaguely chintzy bedsheet I found at Goodwill, but after some research I've concluded that one does not simply whip up such a costume in two weeks. At least not if you want to do it some justice. Especially since I don't actually know anything about historical fashion, and I haven't any proper stays, and my pattern is this sadly inaccurate Simplicity 4092 costume pattern. I know anything I make won't be anywhere near accurate, as my fabric is much too brightly colored, has polyester in it, and I'm not interested in hand-sewing, but I want it to at least look somewhat respectable. So here's to more research, and possibly dipping my foot into making a corset. Although what I really want to do is make a Victorian-era corset, not a  conical one.

Love this dress. From here.

So since that's obviously not happening anytime soon, I need to decide if I want to churn out something red, or pick a different film to be inspired by. There's the obvious Lord of the Rings trilogy, but that almost definitely involves slinky fabric and an untested pattern. I fell in love with all the blue dresses in both Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and (500) Days of Summer, but the former is embroidery-heavy and the latter didn't win anything. And then there's all the great yardage sitting in my fabric stash that could turn into something, but nothing concrete yet. Goodness, I am all over the place.

I still don't have pictures of my UFO dress, as it's been too gloomy and gray for pictures. But! Just to show that it can be done, here's my embroidered version of my Gollum+The One Ring valentine. Gollum is in dark gray, the ring is in the same gold as my Rohan horse, and the hearts are red, obviously. I wasn't particularly careful with my stitches, but I can report that I have gotten much, much better at the split stitch. I haven't done the words yet, and I'm not sure if I want to. I'm afraid anything I stitch won't look as good as the actual calligraphed version. But hey, it actually works as an embroidery pattern!

So creepy, all stitched up he is, yessss, he is, precioussss...

The mess on the back. Also, I didn't tie off the last thread.

Close-up of the horrible heart-stitching.

It took me all of watching Wall-E with my brother, plus the latest episode of Downton Abbey (without my brother) to finish this. Admittedly, it was pretty sketchy-looking at the end of Wall-E, before his face was filled in...my brother eyed it dubiously and asked, "You're not planning to actually give that to anyone, right?" Well, no, not anymore I'm not...

More Embroidery Projects: Totoro and Rohan Banner

I wasn't just shopping and being goofy with Emily while I was at home in SF; I was somewhat productive as well! My husband and I decided (well, I announced and he resignedly agreed) that our new family Christmas tradition would be to watch all the extended edition LOTR movies in the days leading up to Christmas, culminating with ROTK on Christmas night, because, you know, Christmas is about the coming of the King. And when the two Hobbit movies finally come out on DVD, it can be the five days leading up to Christmas! My siblings and cousin joined us, and my dad wandered in every once in a while to ask "What's so bad about that Froodoo guy's ring? Why isn't he wearing shoes?" or "What's wrong with that crazy guy on the top of the tower? And why does he keep being switched with a giant eyeball?" or "Why is that old man so ugly?" Once again, in trying to explain the whole story to him, I realized that a) I'm really bad at explaining stories I love, because I focus in on the little parts that move me instead of the whole arc, and b) all fantasy sounds crazy when you try to explain it to someone who doesn't read fiction. Even worse if your dad is a very rational scientist.

But I digress. Anyway, besides scaring my husband by saying all the lines before the actors got around to them, I also embroidered. Simple line-art pieces that only involve one color are the best thing to do for someone who can't just sit and watch a movie without feeling the need to multi-task.

Not yet ironed, obviously.

I love those little dust bunny guys!

Tonari no Totoro is an absolutely adorable Hayao Miyazaki film. I highly recommend any of his movies. Working at a leisurely pace, this took me all of FOTR.

I then worked on the horse from the banner of the Rohirrim for all of TTT and ROTK. I mean, it's only appropriate. I have to say, I can see my stitches getting tighter and neater as I practice more. The only thing bugging me about it is that the two skeins of floss I used for this, despite having the same number, are slightly different colors, so the mane and one leg are slightly more brown, less gold. Too bad I don't have a Handmade Ryan Gosling to look out for different dye lots.

Cue Darth Vader "Noooooooo!!!!"

In love with back stitches, stem stitches, and satin stitches. Still not a fan of split stitches.

The different colors are more or less obvious depending on the lighting. Can I pretend it's a design element? Pleeease???

[Disclaimer: obviously I didn't draw any of these original designs; they belong to Hayao Miyazaki and Alan Lee? John Howe? the Tolkien estate? respectively, and no copyright infringement is intended.]

Next in the lineup: some kind of practice with a piece involving multiple colors. Then maybe I can start thinking about my grand Hobbit masterpiece.

The Hobbit Embroidered Map of the Lonely Mountain

I do go on kicks, don't I? Every time I discover a new technique or hobby, I go crazy with it. Whether it's using knits  or princess seams or making zippered pouches or snowflakes, I am all about overdoing it. So I present to you yet another embroidery piece, and that's not even counting the one I did in between Simon's Cat and this one. But that one is for my sister's Christmas present, so I won't show it here yet.

Since Peter Jackson's movie version of The Hobbit is coming out in a year, I have grand plans for a spectacular Hobbit-themed embroidery piece (because once I get into something new, it's always go big or go home, regardless of my actual skill level) based on this original painting by Tolkien, so this was my practice piece.

I started with this picture of the Lonely Mountain, which is part of the original map that appears in The Hobbit. [Sidenote: In case you're wondering, because I was confused at first too, dwarven maps tend to put east up top, where we would normally put north.] I scaled it up, printed it out, and then taped it onto a piece of linen with a piece of carbon transfer paper in between. I took some liberties with the size of the letters while tracing, just because I wasn't sure how small I could stitch and still have the shapes be recognizable. Also, I (correctly) guessed that by the end, I wouldn't have the patience to stitch the entire sentence about the Iron Hills and Dain, so I just left that bit out.

Carbon paper sandwich.

The faint carbon lines leftover after tracing.

After that, it was just a matter of slowly stitching in the lines. I used a full six strands for the mountain and dragon and trees, but switched to two strands for the lettering. In hindsight, I should've done fewer stitches for the dragon and trees too, as they look pretty blobby. That's why this is a practice piece, I guess. I mostly used stem stitches and back stitches for the lines of the mountain, and filled in the shaded portions with satin stitches. The letters are all back stitched.

The mess on the back. I have no idea what actual real embroidery pieces are supposed to look like, since no one ever shows the backs of them.

Things I've learned: 

• Don't be afraid to use different numbers of strands
• Inserting your needle even one thread over can make a difference (and the corollary, when in doubt about placement, don't just shove it in anyway and assume it'll be okay)
• Make sure to have perfectly smooth nails and fingers or else any rough patches can catch on the floss and pull it out of the needle
• Tiny details need to be exaggerated a little to make them show up clearly in the final piece
• It's a lot easier to hang out with people while embroidering, rather than sewing!
• Don't watch documentaries about architecture while embroidering, since both require visual attention; podcasts are a lot better.
• I really, really, really like how methodical and meditative this art is! 
• Old maps are the best candidates for embroidery, since they're supposed to be all wiggly and weird. That's my justification for the imperfections in this. Still, I'm pretty chuffed with the final piece!

Next to a Macbook Air for an idea of scale.

Close-up!

I'm going to take a break from embroidery for a little bit so that I can make my Sew Weekly "Anything Goes" dress, but this will be a good craft to take home to San Francisco where I won't have access to my sewing machine.

Linked to Skip to My Lou, The Girl Creative, and Sew Can Do link parties.