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12
Aug
2011

Featured Project – Stumpwork Green Man

Today’s featured project is really a stunner, but once you find out a little about our stitcher Rebecca Ray, you’ll see why.

Rebecca stitched up this amazing stumpwork green man based on this Urban Threads design in all his dimensional glory. What is stumpwork? Well, basically it’s a kind of embroidery where the stitched figures are raised from the surface of the work to form a 3D effect. Often stitches are worked around wire to create the shapes. Sometimes machine embroidery tries its hand at this effect using foam to “puff up” areas, but Rebecca went old school and the effort really shows!

Rebecca’s kindly offered to talk a little about her stitchy background and some of the effort that went into this wild guy…

Stumpwork is a medium we haven’t seen much of on UT designs, and I’m smitten! How did you get into this particular type of embroidery?

I was introduced to stumpwork while I was an apprentice with The Royal School of Needlework, a few years back.

Holy cow! No wonder your stitches are so mesmerizing! That’s really the sort of thing you can’t say without going into a little more detail. Tell us a bit about your experience with the school?

I’d always loved embroidery but I wanted to learn more than the basics I knew, so I applied to the RSN back in early 2005 and started in September of that year.

Out of loads of applicants they only took on 7 that year. It was very hard work because you learnt each technique on your final piece, no practise runs, so much of my apprentice work you can see on flickr was the first time I had tried that subject! Because of that you really learn stamina for stitching, and you can become quite fast at it too.

How long did you study?

The school year was broken into 3 terms, and there are 3 years in total. You learn around 6 to 8 subjects each term, with a term being around 100 hours each. Between terms you worked in their commercial studio learning how to repair and restore embroidered textiles, taking on new commissions and preparing things for exhibition. It was very very interesting, and although it took a lot of blood and sweat and tears I enjoyed every minute of it.

Plus, I now have a rather snazzy certificate signed by the queen!

Wow!

What made you choose the design you did? Did anything in particular about the Green Man make you decide to take him on in 3D?

I originally chose this design because I was looking for something to give to a dear friend of mine who had just moved house. As it turned out she recieved something else and now someone else wants to buy it from me! But it was the leaf elements of the Green Man that I thought were perfect for stumpwork, even if I nearly poked my eyes out with the cake wire a few times!

What kinds of stitches did you use? Any favorites?

I used trailing to cover the edges of the 3D leaves (and cake wire), and couched threads over the edges of the flat leaves in the background. The gold curls are done in chain stitch and the eyes and mouth were done in satin stitch.

In progress...looking a little naked!

How long does one of your creations take you? Any interesting challenges along the way?

For the most part my creations take a fair bit of time, because there is usually quite a lot of stitched detail in them, but I have learnt to have both speed and stamina thanks to my appenticeship and time spent in a commercial embroidery studio. When i can sit down and dedicate time to a project I can usually get it done faster than if I’m constantly stopping and starting.

Any advice for people looking to tackle a similar project? Other than perhaps to study at the Royal School of Needlework?

Spend a little time planning what has to happen before you start. Sometimes a problem arises and you have to make allowences for that, but a project like stumpwork will run much smoother if you plan out what needs to be done and in what order, before you start.

And when it comes to cutting out the leaves, take your time! It is so easy to cut through the stitched edge while your trying to trim back the excess fabric. Oh, and try to be carefull not to poke your eye out with the wire while your shaping it!

Thanks so much for sharing, Rebecca! I know your stumpwork style is certainly going to inspire someone else to take their work into a whole new dimension. I myself am pretty tempted to travel over yonder to England and try and get into the Royal School of Needlework, which I imagine to be in a large, medieval castle with Harry Potter-esque classes that may or may not involve magic.

I might be wrong in this assumption. Only one way to find out!

Do you want to be a featured project on StitchPunk? Drop us a line at blog@urbanthreads.com or upload your Urban Threads stuff to our flickr group!

Tags: green man, hand embroidery, stumpwork
Posted in Featured Project

29
Jul
2011

Featured Project – The Indelible Mr. Gear

21 Comments

When people outside of this industry come across machine embroidery, they might be forgiven for making some assumptions about the kinds of crafters that participate. If you’ve come across the industry as a whole, you might believe it is populated by nothing but 71-year-old midwestern ladies who really really like paisley. And bears. And paisley bears. Perhaps ones wearing bows.

Or, on the other side, one might make the mistaken assumption that all Urban Threads customers are all thirtysomething urban mums with names like Brittney who cook vegan and whittle their own knitting needles from reclaimed sustainable barn wood. You might be right on both counts. The truth is we have midwestern grannies and hipster parents. And hipster midwestern grannies. Yup, this is the embroidery your grandmother stitches. Your grandmother is just that cool.

What you may not realize is all the people in between. The guys, the teens, the young, the old, the hip, the crafty, the vampires.

Wait, what?

Yup, our crafty customers are as varied as your fabric stash, and if Brittney is your all-natural hand-dyed hemp-cotton-blend, then THIS guy is your black velvet embossed skull brocade. Possibly with sparkles.

And his name is Marty Gear.

I am so digging those glasses.

Marty is here with us this Friday to help us celebrate Halloween in July, and as a special treat he’s going to share some of his amazing embroidered costumes he’s made over the years! His most recent creation, above, is the long-awaited combination of fangs and gears … a steampunk vampire!

Marty explains how this creation came together…

For the last ten years I have been playing various vampire characters at a haunted attraction in western Pennsylvania called Castle Blood. When Master Tuxedos went out of business I went to their warehouse sale looking for “oddball” tux coats that I could use and found the one in the picture (without all the Urban Threads designs of course). I hung it in my sewing room and stared at it for several months, then replaced the black cloth buttons with pewter skull buttons. That started the theme. Since I do vampires, I had to have a bat and did the pocket flaps using the bat from Embroidery Library’s “Damask Bat” (sorry about that but I keep telling you that you don’t do enough bats) but then everything else was from Urban Threads.

Sorry about that, Marty. We do promise we’ll keep up on the bats from now on…

The Cameo Mori was next, and now the coat was starting to come together, but it needed something else to shine and that’s when I got the idea of using your Damask Skull on black velvet sleeve cuffs. (OK, it took me six tries to get it right. The velvet kept “eating” the pattern until I got bright enough to use soluble topping.)

I was now happy with the coat, but it needed something red around the top, and since I wasn’t willing to tear apart the lapels, embroidering the Skulls Nouveau in metallic threads on red finished the outfit.

Though this appears to be Marty’s first foray into the steampunk-vampire combination, he’s no stranger to either. You might have seen these photos of him before floating around our flickr group, showing off his gear-tastic (har har) style with some of our favorite steampunk designs.

And here he is in his full vampire makeup, scaring the bejeezus out of everyone who dares enter Castle Blood.

Marty is a longtime costumer and embroiderer, as well as a longtime customer of Urban Threads, for the three years or so we’ve been around. His favorite pastimes, it seems, are making awesome costumes and berating us for not having enough bat designs.

He’s also an enterprising digitizer himself, and faced with a dire shortage of bat designs, set about creating his own for the costume above. The right was his first attempt, and the left, his second after he lost the original file.

Pictured: what we don't do enough of.

Though he has recently been dabbling in the dark arts of digitizing, he has been costuming with embroidery for many years, long before Urban Threads came around. This costume, for example, was originally designed in 1984, but was up-cycled by Marty years later into this incarnation of a character from a book called “The Dragon Rises.”

You don't mess with a man with a sewing machine.

This wizard costume has been, as he describes it, “embroidered to within an inch of its life,” with impressive results. These designs are not ours, but awesome all the same.

The first thing my brain thought when it saw this was: Dumbledore! You're allivvee!

Being a wizard with the sewing machine means he’s certainly got more than one outfit. Here’s another fantastic example of one of his wizard costumes, complete, of course, with more embroidery.

It just goes to show you that a love of costumes can go hand in hand with a love of embroidery, and that any time of year is a great time to stitch up something fantastic. Personally, if I could I’d go around in costume all the time, I love dressing up so much. As far as Mr. Gear is concerned, he looks so at home in those outfits I picture him going around in his day-to-day activities with at least an eye patch or a pair of goggles at all times. Possibly with some embroidery about his person.

I’m so inspired by Marty’s work and creativity on all these costumes, it certainly raises the bar for what I hope to cook up for this Halloween. I hope it inspires you to try a little embroidery on your costume this year… you’ve got 3 months to try and top this.

Think you can take on the indelible Mr. Gear?

Tags: costume, inspiration, interview, machine embroidery, steampunk, vampire, wizard
Posted in Featured Project

01
Jul
2011

Featured Project – Steampunk Corset

9 Comments

Today’s featured project is keeping with our theme of everything steampunk, and I’m so excited to share this one with you!

Hand embroiderer Annie Maura (that’s right, this is hand embroidered) made this truly amazing steampunk corset to complete her geartastic costume, and she’s here to tell us a little about what went into this project, how crazy she is for trying this as a newbie, and how much she rocks at steampunk style!

Tell us a bit how you got into steampunk, and what inspired this project?

I guess I mostly got into steampunk through books and looking at pictures online of other people’s creations. It seems like a natural progression from growing up in a household where three airships chase each other around the top of the Christmas tree every year.

I’ve been costuming for a few years now and I realized that steampunk was a serious gap in my wardrobe. I think finding the boots was probably the final thing that inspired me to get to work.

Since you mention it, you might as well let us know where you got those boots, since I know people are going to ask! Like for instance, myself…

The boots! My husband and I were in Las Vegas for Thanksgiving last fall when we walked by the windows at ALDO and I saw them. I immediately went inside to investigate and found that they were rather outside my price range, but oh, so beautiful. After dinner, my husband, who had been struggling to find me a present for our fast approaching anniversary, decided that I had just picked out my gift. He liked the boots because they reminded him of WWII US Army Tanker Boots. He bought me the boots and I bounced up and down like a small child for the next two days. I found that you can still buy them on Amazon here.

What amazing embroidery! Talk us through what it was like embroidering this by hand. Do you love or hate satin stitches now?

Believe it or not, this was actually my first embroidery project. I did a test square on a swatch of fabric to see if embroidering the corset was an option or if I should find another way of embellishing it. I pieced the facing of the corset together and started work, one side at a time.

First, I combined the embroidery patterns on transfer paper and attached it to the facing. I outlined the design with back stiches, one side at a time, then ripped the paper away. This was the first chance I got to see how the colors I picked out worked together on the fabric. Even as I was filling in the design, I experimented a lot with how to fill some of the larger sections with satin stitches. Some of the gears have stitches that run rather differently from the others. I don’t really love or hate satin stitch, but I’ll be avoiding it for a while. I used buttonhole stitch for the last set of eyelets I did.

What made you choose the designs you did?

I had already established that I wanted gears of varying sizes to travel diagonally around the corset. I was experimenting with creating my own pattern when I found Urban Threads.

On the first side I used “Clockwork Magic – Cogs Border” with the omission of one cog, and the larger cogs from the bottom of “Clockwork Magic – Cogs in the Corner.” On the other side I subtracted two cogs from “Cogs in the Machine” and added the second flourish from “Cogs in the Corner” to tie it in with the other design. I played around a little bit before I found this combination. I considered including “Steam Octopus” as a reference to Gail Carriger’s “Parasol Protectorate” series, but I’m sure I’ll find some other place to put that little guy.

I can’t believe this was your first embroidery project! How long did it take you?

It took me about a month of embroidering 8-10 hours a day. How on earth was that possible? At the time I was working in a position where there were many hours spent waiting around for something to break and very little time actually spent working. To cope with this, I had previously been studying Latin and Old English at my desk. When I started this project, I switched to embroidery. It took my coworkers a few days to ask me what I was doing.

Was the corset made from a pattern, or did you design it yourself? What about the rest of the costume?

The corset was made using the Silverado pattern from Laughing Moon Mercantile, which is accurate from 1837-1899. This was my second corset made using this pattern, so I knew that if i didn’t screw anything up it would fit me perfectly. The facing is pieced from brown and red faux suede – completely not period, but I like how they look. The structure and boning are contained in the layer of white coutil underneath.

The skirt is from a Truly Victorian pattern for an 1878 Long Draped Overskirt (TV234) and is constructed in a brown pinstripe linen. I decided to go with something from the Natural Form bustle era because it doesn’t require wearing an actual bustle! I All that volume gathers in the back, but there’s no undergarment getting in the way as you explore the borders of the Empire in your airship. It was a very easy pattern to follow and it went together perfectly. The shirt is just something that I picked up at H&M years ago. I haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to replace it with something else. The goggles are a fairly recent acquisition, which I ordered from BrazenDevice’s Etsy shop. Setting them apart from many of the affordable goggles on the market, the strap is real leather and the lens frames are brass. This entire outfit is a work in progress, which I hope to continue accessorizing. I think at the very least, a hat is required.

Any interesting challenges along the way? What if anything would you try differently next time?

For some reason I inserted the busk in the center front panels before I started the embroidery. This meant that I couldn’t hoop the most central parts of the design. So, yes, I would have waited to start the real construction of the corset until after the embroidery was complete. Also, my fingertips were completely destroyed. I only use a thimble when the needle is being especially difficult.I kept thinking that they would callus, but I think I lost the top layer of skin on my thumb and forefinger at least three times. Of course, now they have some very respectable calluses.

Any advice for people looking to tackle a similar project?

An abundance of spare time doesn’t hurt, and patience. This isn’t the kind of project that can be finished quickly by pulling an all-nighter (as I am often tempted to do), so just take your time with it. And if you’re working with a new corset pattern, definitely don’t skip making a muslin. It would be incredibly depressing to finish the embroidery only to find that the corset needs to be let out or taken in.

Thanks so much for sharing Annie! I know we can’t wait to see what you add to it in the future, and I seriously can’t wait to see what amazing hand embroidery project you take on next. Something equally simple, like oh I don’t know, embroidering that steampunk octopus. Life size.

Do you want to be a featured project on StitchPunk? Drop us a line at blog@urbanthreads.com or upload your Urban Threads stuff to our flickr group!

Tags: boots, hand embroidery, steampunk
Posted in Featured Project

10
Jun
2011

Featured Project – Steampunk Airship Pirate

9 Comments

Steampunk is undoubtedly a huge deal these days, and even though it’s mainstream enough now that you can start picking up steampunk-y things in shops, the best stuff is always handmade. Take, for example, Exhibit A above.

You’re not going to find a sweet outfit like that in stores. Nope, that could only be the work of of a stitchy Urban Threadster, like Wickedstepmother1969.

What inspired this project, and what was it for?

We help run a youth “safe trick-or-treat” event with our county 4-H clubs. Everyone dresses up, and Annie wanted to be something unique this year.

We had recently started listening to Abney Park and The Cog is Dead, so decided to go with an Airship pirate theme. I approved heartily of any costume that had nothing to do with Lady Gaga, or in general nakedness unbecoming to a barely teenager. My girls know I am a soft touch for anything new and interesting, so the Steampunk Halloween was conceived!

What made you choose the designs you did?

Annie has adored Da Vinci since she was about 6 yrs. old (she is 13 now) and she is a self- admitted science nerd, so that would explain the design on the back. We both love your skull designs and a captain has to have their wings- so the queen of the air was perfect on the sleeve. Had to add the compass design to the skirt pickup bands, because an airship captain needs a compass, right?

How long did the coat take you? Any interesting challenges along the way?

I probably spent about 4 full days on the outfit, but I sew very fast. My biggest challenge is usually getting the designs on my memory card with my new computer (sewing machine hates Windows 7 so I have to operate in the Windows XP mode to get them to load.)

The minky fur was a challenge- being so stretchy it had to be basted onto a stabilizer before we could put the collar together. Picking the little final details was fun too — the chain epaulets hung better when pinned on while on my dressmaker form.

How did your steampunk captain pirate like it?

She loved it- won most original at the costume contest she entered.

…of course they thought she was Amelia Earhart. She was disgruntled no one had a “Jules Verne” bent like she does. She also loved getting to wear my hunting boots with it. She did say it was warm (but Halloween was unseasonably warm this year).

Any advice for people looking to tackle a similar project?

Sew your designs out before you put the outfit together! I used a McCalls’s pattern 5759 for the jacket base; the fabric was from my stash of stuff I keep for making Victorian clothing.

I am lucky my Pfaff 2134 has a basting stitch function that will let you hoop a nice heavy stabilizer and then baste the pre-cut pattern piece onto it, otherwise I might want to sew the design before I cut it out, to keep from stretching it out of shape. Also, on the back of the jacket, the center seam was sewn and pressed out first before it was prepared for the embroidery.

Awesomely steampunky stuff, madame. I think the best part of all this is that you threasters took to steampunk like a duck to water, and if you want to be extra hipster about it, you can say… I was embroidering steampunk before it was cool. I’m sure our stitchers will keep leading the pack in new and innovate ways to show off alternative embroidery.

Do you want to be a featured project on StitchPunk? Drop us a line at blog@urbanthreads.com or upload your Urban Threads stuff to our flickr group!

Tags: machine embroidery, pirate, steampunk
Posted in Featured Project

27
May
2011

Featured Project – Enchanted Fairy Wings

2 Comments

We love it at Urban Threads when you guys find ways of using our designs that we never even thought of. Your ingenuity always keeps us inspired, and this week’s featured project is just about as enchanting as it is inspiring!

Krista Lueders of MaeFlowers & JuneBugs took our fairy wings design, and upgraded it to full on freestanding awesomeness. Krista explains a little about her project and what went into creating this adorable costume.

I love the use of the fairy wings design! What inspired you to try it out in a new way?

I’ve always loved fairies, but hate the cheap wire and nylon wings that tend to fall apart quickly. I know my daughter has torn up a few pairs of those and wanted to do something that would last a whole day on her back. She’s almost 4, so that’s a big issue. I had found a costume pattern that had instructions on how to make the net and wire wings that velcro onto the back of a bodice. I ran with that idea and combined it with the fairy wing embroidery.

How long did the design take you? What challenges did you run into along the way?

Overall, the whole costume took about 3-4 days. The wings didn’t take long to stitch out, but constructing them is another story! I also had to enlarge the embroidery design a few times to get the right size.

Any tips for other people looking to try it out themselves?

Don’t skimp on your felt or velcro! And just be creative with the colors! Use your felt as another color in the design, since quite a bit of the felt will show through the embroidery. Also be mindful of the color felt used for the back piece, since that will show, too.

What went into making the costume? Did you use a pattern or make it up yourself?

I modified an existing pattern for the crop top and bodice, the tutu is strips of tulle sewn into a ribbon band with elastic and a hook and eye closure. I had to play with the velcro placement on the wings and bodice to make sure that they lined up just right to give the proper look.

How did the little one like it? Any plans for any more costumes?

She loved it!!!

So did everyone who saw her at the Texas Renaissance Festival onHalloween! Plus I loved how at the end of the day, her wings were still ready to take flight!

I have started making and selling these little fairies in my etsy shoppe and I’m currently working on a few Patriotic Fairies, just in time for the 4th of July! I’m also starting a line of “Build-A-Fairy” costumes to be sold both online and (hopefully soon) at Renaissance Festivals.

What an adorable costume, and what fabulous pictures! That’s a little girl who knows how much she rocks at being a fairy. Plus, I can see freestanding wings being a hit with fairies of all ages.

What? I still go to the ren fest. I may or may not have a costume. You can’t prove anything…

If you’re looking for some more enchantment, you can also check out her lovely blog. That’s for sharing Krista! I hope I spot some wings at my local ren fair!

Tags: fairy, machine embroidery, wings
Posted in Featured Project