The Guilt grew to the point that I just couldn't complete the stocking I had started. I don't want to run out of time for the family stockings all because I did a stocking I wanted too rather than needed too. So I neatly packed it away and pulled out my second family stocking of the year. This one is a Janlynn kit titled Over the Rooftops. I've only ever done Bucilla kits so I am looking forward to the comparison. Although this one is much larger, 23" rather than the normal 18", I don't think it will take me much time at all to finish. The pattern is really simple when compared to Bucilla kits. I have already decided on at least one change, the reindeer's eyes. I don't like how they look in the picture so I will be embroidering them slightly differently. Not a major change and probably wouldn't even be noticed by anyone else but it will please me. If you have done these kits before you may notice that my floss isn't quite as long as they come in the kit. I cut those really long strands in half so that they aren't as stressed by the time you get the the end of the floss and there is less tangling. On a side note I misplaced the thread that came with the kit immediately after opening. I haven't a clue where they ended up so I raided my floss stash and was very happy that I had decided to keep left over floss from completed kits as that allowed me to replace all of the threads with matching colors.
I store my kit pieces in a large sewing box to keep the pieces from cat fur and cat theft, my cats are inquisitive and they looovveee those sequins. I had tried to find a 2 1/2 gallon Ziploc bag for storage but they aren't sold in my area. This box is the largest I have been able to find in my area. Since the box isn't quite large enough to store some of the felt sheets without folding, I cut them to fit. As you can see with the brown felt below, I make sure that I don't separate the numbers identifying the parts from the parts themselves and then I cut them to fit flat in the bottom of my box. Otherwise all the time I took to iron out the wrinkles would be for naught. My sewing box came from Walmart, we don't have a large craft store in the area like Michael s or Joann's, in fact the closest of those are 2 hours away. I really like this one though for the tray that comes with it. In the past the trays have been made in very thin acetate plastic, prone to distortion and breakage. This tray is made from hard plastic and the little dividers are nice. One such divider is the perfect size for my pin box. I use thin, rust free pins to hold some of large felt pieces in place while I stitch so they don't get skewed as I go.
Finally, there is a picture of what the stocking will look like when completed. As of last night I had everything organized and ironed and I had started working on the front. The second photo shows the progress I had made. Not much but then again I didn't work for long.
Till next time ~
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| getting ready to iron and cut out |
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| pieces all organized |
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| interesting instructions, very different appearance than Bucilla |
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| cut to fit in my sewing basket |
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| very wonderful sewing box |
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| finished product to be... |
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