Let’s do the time warp again

Man, I resisted the Rocky Horror Picture Show for years. It was ridiculously popular in my high school, and the local movie theatre did special performances monthly. I couldn't stand it. I hated the entire atmosphere surrounding it. People acting like watching a cult classic somehow keyed them into a higher reality. Arguing over who would play Rocky, who would make a good Frank N. Furter, and who would get to play Janet. Ugh. I avoided the movie like the plague.

And then I took a trip home from Japan and was guilt-tripped into watching it. And you know what? I enjoyed it. I'm still glad I didn't get into it as a kid, though. I'll take my cult movies more like The Warriors, thanks.

Anyway, this is a big long wind-up towards talking about my project before Mr. Fish: the Fleur de Lys patterned bag.

This is the second thing I embroidered and the third bag I sewed. I had sewed a simple design using chain stitch onto another bag, but this pattern involved quite a bit more challenge. All of the stitches are relatively simple, but considering I was starting from complete zero I was quite nervous.

 

The lines are doing with outline stitch and stem stitch, depending on which direction I was sewing it. In retrospect I probably could have gotten away with always doing outline stitch, but I was afraid that it would be really obvious if the thread switched directions. In reality, I don't think you can tell. The challenges of the lines were to keep them straight and in perspective and to change the colors around. Time consuming, but not particularly difficult. But then… the satin stitch.

Looking at Needle N' Thread, the website I've been looking at for stitches and patterns, I really liked the way the satin stitch looked. Simple yet elegant. Unfortunately, especially considering I was switching colors so often, doing the satin stitch took forever. First every area had to be outlined using backstitching. Then filled for padding. And then painstakingly stitched over with one thread to give it the final satin appearance. It was completely worth it, but It's going to be awhile before I take on such a large satin stitch-based project again. That's largely due to the thread available on my island. It frays and separates ridiculously easily, which can be quite frustrating when working a stitch that depends on a smooth, continuous look. The outline stitch was done using multiple threads, so the thread never separated.

I had originally planned on sewing the design on both the front and back of the bag, but I realized that if I did that I would never finish. Also, the whole bag was making me a little crazy. You see, I had started dreaming about it.

When I was about two-thirds of the way done embroidering I had a nightmare. I was in a car, and one of my coworkers was driving. We were crossing the bridge between Ohio and Pennsylvania over the Pymatuning Reservoir, and for some reason my coworker turned right off of the road into the water. Now, in the dream I was quite calm as the car slowly sank. My coworker climbed out and got back onto the bridge. My only thought? How to throw my sewing onto the bridge so it didn't go down with the car.



…



Yeah, it was definitely time to move on from that project.