Making a start on the stumpwork rabbit

Do you remember the cute rabbit from my 'forthcoming attractions' post?  This little guy?  Lovely, isn't he?

This is the trace-off pattern from the back of the book, ('A-Z of Stumpwork')

Here's the main outline transferred to a piece of hand-dyed poly-cotton that I still have from the old City & Guilds classes about 3 years ago.  I like to use it if I possibly can and it seemed to suit the theme quite well.  I don't stretch to any fancy transfer methods, I just trace the pattern onto the fabric with a sharp mechanical pencil.

And here you can see the fabric mounted into an 8inch Q-snap plastic frame.  It seemed that it would be easier to work it in this than a hoop this time.  What you can also see here is some iron-on interfacing, (probably medium weight), which I apply to help the fabric hold the weight of the relatively heavy embroidery that's to follow.

Moving on to the felt padded areas and, as you can see, again, I don't use any complicated or 'correct' methods of getting the right shape.  In Jane Nicholas' books, you'll find that she recommends applying the tracing to the fabric you'll be cutting the padding shape from with fusible webbing (Bondaweb, Pellon etc) and then cutting around the shape.  I'm afraid I go for a quicker and simpler route.  I just pin the tracing paper onto the felt and then cut around the shape.  As shown below, there is a pin in each shape, so the tracing stays still.

And when they're cut out, they fit over the shapes I traced them from perfectly adequately.  Stumpwork isn't a very exact science much of the time, so half a millimetre here and there won't hurt.

Next up is applying the felt shapes to the fabric, getting out the fabric for the detached ear and getting that traced etc. and also, which I'm amazed I haven't done yet, getting out the threads for the project!!

Oh and PS:  Silvia loved her bookmark!=)

© Elizabeth Braun 2012