I listen to the radio when I’m sewing.
I don’t listen to music though. I prefer the gentle burble of voices as an accompaniment to stitching, whether it be a play, factual programme or current affairs.
It’s not that I don’t like or listen to music – I do. But I don’t stitch to music and I don’t really like strangers choosing music for me. I prefer to choose for myself, rather than hearing some spod on the radio’s arbitrary (or commercially-motivated) selection of “choons”.
This week I’ve listened to a lot of radio.
I had a parcel of fabrics, including some luxurious velvets, for which my brief was to make some cats similar to this one:
Rather than black cats, they were to be gingery velvet cats. “No problem!” I thought. “Ginger velvet is no match for my sewing skills!”
But as it happens, I was wrong. Ginger velvet proved to be, not to put too fine a point on it, a bit of a bugger.
In my original blasé enthusiasm I hadn’t realised how much thicker the ginger stuff was than my original black velvet.
My pattern, designed for a lighter weight fabric, just didn’t work because I couldn’t turn the arms and legs, or get the proportions to look right when I scaled them up.
And then there was the matter of the face…
What works on a black background turns out not to look anywhere near as nice on a ginger one. The features sort of disappeared into the thicker pile of the ginger velvet. Instead of feline, the resulting face looked a bit myopic and weird.
So I tried adding different fabrics as a background. I tried different designs. But ginger ears being a good bit bigger (again due to the thickness of the fabric) things went a bit…well, foxy…
Eventually I managed to crank out a solitary ginger cat-creature.
I hesitate to describe it as a cat. It is a cat hybrid (possibly a Felinae); a not-unpleasant creature, but not what I originally had in mind.
My fingers weren’t happy either, after hand-stitching the limbs – the only way to get them to look right (I’m not good with thimbles. Trying to push a needle repeatedly through thick furnishing velvet means I now wish I were.)
Eventually I admitted defeat – and reverted to black velvet.
And after some solid radio-listening (no music involved) I had a clutter of bohemian gypsy cats to show for it.
There’s nothing quite like the joy that follows the completion of a commission. Especially when it’s a tricky one.
Let’s just say that if I had to sum it up in a song title, I would now be whistling Bohemian Rhapsody.
Or should that be – Bohemian Cats-ody? ♥
Lovely to see our vintage fabrics having such a merry new use – after the struggle with that printed velvet! Thanks – and they’ll be in our online shop soon…
Glad you like them Sarah – makes the struggle all worthwhile!
If the fabric’s pushing you in a foxy direction, could there perhaps be foxes on purpose? Perhaps a bit bigger so turning the arms and legs isn’t such a pain in the fingers? I think gypsy foxes could be gorgeous…
They were a commission Kate, so I was working to a brief. I have a foxy prototype (the one pictured) that I can finish off when I get chance, but my fingers need a rest from velvet first!
I am a huge fan of your beautiful work. Makes my heart sing. I cannot use a thimble either. When I embroidered on thick denim, I used hemostats. They are like scissors, but used in medical procedures for stitching. The tips can be straight or curved. The hemostats clamp together on the needle, lock in place. The inside of the tips are grooved, and grip the needle. Try them. I prefered the curved tip.
I have haemostats and use them all the time for stuffing and turning, and also use them when the needle gets stuck to pull the thread through. But I was rushing to get the cats finished and swapping from holding the sewing to picking up and positioning the haemostats was too much faff. I probably could do with a smaller pair of haemostats so that I can just sew with them more easily. Anyway more than once I ended up pushing the back end of the needle into my finger-end – ouch!