Deerskin Update

-

Lately, I feel as if I'm having to rethink more craft projects than I'm completing.

Several months ago, I started beadwork on deerskin, a first for me. I had read that some crafters will do the beadwork on felt first, then transfer it to the deerskin while others work on the deerskin only. Thinking working directly on the deerskin would look less bulky, I skipped the felt.

Now I know I should've started with the felt. I had never stitched beads onto a surface like this, and I'm not very experienced at hand sewing at all. I was having to stick the deerskin with the needle so often to re-position stitches I had misjudged that ultimately the deerskin was getting very weak in places. Eventually, I just set it aside.

Well, I'm about ready to have another go at this -- just as soon as I get the bead crochet thing figured out. This time, I'm going to do a few things differently:
  • I will start with felt. If one day, I think I can handle doing all of the beadwork on the deerskin, I'll try it again. But for now, I know my technique needs lots and lots and lots of polish.
  • I'm going to make a traditional paper pattern. My experience (and lack thereof) so far on this project has taught me that mapping out what I want to do on the deerskin itself makes revision tough. I made a rough guess on how much seam I would need, and I really don't think I left enough room. In other words, even if I didn't have trouble with the beadwork, I probably wouldn't have been able to finish the project.
  • I'm going to use better scissors. Using dull scissors makes cutting a straight line on deerskin very difficult, and deerskin is way too pricey to be repeatedly starting over.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Contemporary Loom Beading"

-
My mother-in-law gave my husband and me a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble a while back, and we just got around to spending it last week. With my share, I purchased a beading book that had been on my Amazon wish list for quite a while, " Contemporary Loom Beading: A New Look at a Traditional Stitch ," by Sharon Bateman. Because I've been in the middle of a freelance project I work on twice a year, I haven't been able to do much more than thumb through the book, but I have to say, the  projects within have really piqued my interest. All of the loom work I have done has been basic, flat pieces that I learned to make years ago from my great-aunt . This book, however, features projects that have a little more dimension. For the most part, the loom work is done the same, but the book puts a new spin on what to do with what you create. It also features types of looms I didn't know existed, including one the author created herself . I look forward to putting so...
Read more

Beading Days

-
I've assigned myself beading days, three days a week in which I focus my at-home time creating beaded pieces and striving to develop my creativity. For three other days each week, I plan to work on DIY home projects such as decluttering, painting and redoing my kitchen cabinets. I'm tired of my house being incomplete, but at the same time, I want to stay on track with my beading goals.  For at least the first year or so after my husband and I bought our house, I worked on my home at least once a week. After a schedule change at work, though, that changed. It's not unusual for months to pass between DIY days.  And it's even harder to find the time now that we have a 3-year-old. So I've decided the only way it's going to get done is if I do it. But I don't want to lose sight of my beading goals in the process. I know myself well enough to know that I'll have a tough time sticking with my 3-days-of-beading, 3-days-of-DIY-plan, though. It will take more disc...
Read more

I've got a notion to sew a Halloween costume

-
Image
Now that I'm a mother , I find myself enjoying Halloween more than I ever did as a child. Case in point: Halloween 2015 was less than a week past when I began wondering what my daughter will wear next year. On a trip to Walmart, I sought out the Halloween leftovers and sifted through the costumes hoping to get an awesome costume — one that normally costs out of my price range — at half off. But I know two things about my daughter that made looking through those costumes a waste of time: She has growth spurts every few months. I could buy the next size up, but by next Halloween, she might be two sizes taller — or three even. (She's very tall for her age.) Her tastes come and go quickly. In the week since Halloween, she's already told me that next year she wants to be Wonder Woman, then changed her mind and said, "I think I want to be Sofia the First. " Once I realized the perfect 2016 costume wasn't on the rack, I got ambitious. Despite knowing l...
Read more