Wednesday 21 November 2018

A Shower - finished and fully-finished!

Hello all!

I didn't think it would be long before this little cutie became a finish instead of a WIP, and I was right (although it's taken me a few weeks to post about it due to taking a long time to fully-finish it off). Over the half-term school holiday (last week of October) I was able to put in some long stints and stitch later into the night (read early mornings) than I would normally. Half-term couldn't have been more appropriately timed for completing this piece!

Here's how I left A Shower after ten hours:


And finished:


A Shower by Soda Stitch
Stitched on 16ct Margarita over-dyed aida by sewitall.com 2 over 1
Stitch count 60 wide by 53 high
Started - 28th September 2018
Finished - 27th October 2018
Total stitching time - 19 hours 30 minutes


I don't usually take any photos before adding backstitching but thought I would with this piece just to remind myself what a difference it can make.

Instead of making it into my usual ornie I had a few different ideas about how I would like to finish-finish it. But bearing in mind I will probably want to finish all my Soda Stitch designs the same, when it came down to it, the ornie won. However, there are differences to my usual finishing style; it's been given a heavy helping of cuteness, perhaps even sickliness if you don't like fancy things!


How's this for starters:




But there's more - the final finishing touch...



... complete with a tiny bow:



I told you it had been given a heavy dose of cuteness!

The fabric is from a Hobbycraft green-toned FQ bundle, and the ribbon is plain 10mm lime organza.

[For those of you in the UK who need backing fabric, might I suggest you check out the FQ bundles at Hobbycraft (in store and on line). I've picked up quite a few in various colour tones and themes. They're very reasonably priced and not bad quality either.]

I think having the fabric showing on the front to give the design a border really works. And as for the ribbon, well, I will totally understand and not be offended at all if you say you don't like it, but I think it works in adding that finishing touch.

All of the fabric borders were stitched on by hand and took three attempts before I was happy. And as for the ribbon, that also took two failed attempts to work out how to gather and attach it before I came up with what I considered to be an easy, but time-consuming, solution. It took a lot of ribbon though - almost 5m for a 72cm perimeter! Not that it needed to be gathered so much, but less didn't quite look right.

If I do finish an ornie like this again I would definitely create a bigger fabric border but that's about the only thing I'd change.

If you're interested I took step-by-step photos along the way which I would be willing to share as a sort of tutorial. I didn't want to bore you with them here but let me know if you'd like to see them and I'll do a separate post at some point to let you in on my secrets. ;)

Take care,
Rachel x

10 comments:

Linda said...

Congrats on the outstanding finish Rachel. I absolutely love everything about it. Green is my favorite color. I would love to see the tutorial.

Linda

Cathy said...

Cute ornament with the perfect finish! Yes, I would like to see the tutorial.

Unknown said...

Love your finished pillow and that backstitch just makes the picture pop. So cute. What's next on your list to stitch I wonder! Happy stitching!!

Quilting Tangent said...

So cute and the prefect fabric and ribbon.

Faith... said...

IT turned out beautiful Rachel! I just LOVE it and the extras you added it make it perfect!!

I think the tutorial would be a great addition to your blog. Maybe you can put it on another page here on your blog if you don't want it on your main page?

Enjoy your day, I am planning a sewing day this weekend ;)

Katie said...

Oh I love this! Please please post. I want to finish things like this sooo bad. I just love how it turned out. The ribbon around it is perfect if you ask me.

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

That is a supercute finish and I love the ruched ribbon too. You're not the only one saying how much ribbon it uses! I think it was RJ and Mary who said the same this week.
I can't shop at Hobbycraft for the same reasons I can't shop at Amazon LOL.
But I do have a lovely little haberdashery shop nearby.

Babs said...

It looks so Nice. Live yout idea

Babs said...

Love your idea.

Lynette said...

I love this finish and the fabric and ribbon are great. I’d like to see a tutorial, especially because you did the finishing by hand and that’s how I do all my finishing.