Introduction

So, I got a little SCA'ed out from the laurel cloak, and needed to do something less... important? I had 2 projects I wanted to do that were crafty, but not completely SCA related, and figured they would be good simple projects to do, especially since one of them was slightly pride themed, and June is pride month. Both projects are based on things I saw online, and wanted to make myself someday.

Stumpwork Embroidery

I saw an adorable little embroidery project online, that had a little pride flag with a cat and a plant, and you could lift the flag to find a "secret" message, and honestly this project was so perfectly me. However, like all things, I can't just do it the easy way, I wanted to make it a little more complicated and do it in stumpwork, which is a type of embroidery I learned in the SCA. Its essentially 3D embroidery. It can be padded, or just come off the fabric, and has more structure than normal embroidery. I think its fun looking, but have little practice with it.

For this project, I started with the pot. I cut out 3 small pieces of felt, each slightly smaller than the one below it. I then did a quick stitch to hold it to the fabric. From there I put a large satin stitch over the whole thing. I then added a tacked down lattice stich to secure the large stitches in place so they wouldn't pull. For the leaves, I did a woven stitch. Essentially you make two long loops and hold with a pin. Then you weave another thread over and under the loop threads to create fabric essentially. I played with the shades of green here to try and make it look more realistic?

The cat is sewn with 3 colors of thread twisted together, pretty much done with very small split stitches. I tried to follow the direction fur would go to give it texture. For the whiskers, I made a few loops of thread, secured them, and cut the loops. For the tail, I did a vertical herringbone stitch, with another set slightly wider and over the top, followed by a third wider set. I then cut up the middle with shears and fluffed the threads to give it a fluffy tail.

For the flag, I simply looped various colors of thread around a q tip with the cotton cut off. Once I had a full set, I sewed the stick to the fabric, added a "hanger", and that was it. The heart that is in the middle is padded work over one layer of felt done with satin stitch, with a split stitch outline. Finally, the amusing part of the project... Fuck Off is embroidered under the flag using a stem stitch. It can only be seen when you lift the flag. My hands really hurt that day so it kind of looks like crap, but honestly, a messy scrawl is fitting for the message.

At the end, I put the embroidery into a fancy display hoop, and proudly hang this on my wall at work :-)

Leather Net Bag

As mentioned previously, this is part of the "make what I saw online files". A cute, easily collapsible net leather bag was a nice easy project that I did over 3 days. I started with a piece of 6-7oz leather that I cut a 14x15 inch rectangle out of. I honestly wasnt sure if this would be a good weight... I think ultimately it was a bit stiffer than I needed, but it still turned out functional.

From there, it was just a lot of measuring and drawing, followed by cutting with a swivel knife. I traced out a 4"x6" rectangle in the center of the leather, and curved the corners. From here, I made lines at every 1cm around the center shape, so that I had a total of 12 lines including the center shape. I had 4cm left on the long sides where the handles would go, so I went in 1 cm, left a 2cm gap for where the fingers would go, and then had a 1cm part to actually grab for the handles. I added round ends to the cut out shapes. (the handles were the first part I actually cut out)

Finally I just cut in the "splits" on the lines I made, in 2 patterns. One set was full corner, middle of the side, the other set was part of the corner to the middle of the side. While making this, it was clear that the leather was very dry, so once everything was cut out, I heavily oiled the leather and let it dry. After that, I made sure the bag was functional, and I was done! It isn't something that I have SCA proof for, but I think this bag wouldn't seem out of place at an event, and it doesn't take up much room. Overall, Im happy with it. Its fairly sturdy, and is even strong enough to hold a helmet!