Getting the pants on... It's a Juggle WIP

After all the excitement around home lately we took off during the week and spent a couple of days at the beach. Sleeping, walking along along the beach, riding the bikes down for coffee, reading and simply catching our breath. It was just what the doctor ordered.

Although it was busy before we left, I did work a tiny bit on 'It's a Juggle'.
I have started working on the pieces for my jester’s costume. For the most part, I will probably be making little needlelace slips, but apart from that, I haven’t made any plans for how to stitch all the various pieces yet. I am really quite happy for it to simply take shape as I go. 

I am making the pants first and will need two needle lace slips, one for each leg. I draw the shape onto baking paper and then stick it onto very firm vilene with clear contact (plastic film). That gives me a firm ground to work on, and unlike card the vilene doesn't tear.

The thread I am using for these is Colour Streams, Silken Strands (42 Raspberry). I normally don’t use variegated threads much (I like to be charge of which colour goes where), but I love working needle lace with this particular thread. It is sold as a stranded silk but the individual strands are very firmly twisted, almost like a very fine Perle making it perfect for detached stitches. While working  my way, row by row down the leg I was trying to work out how to finish the edge around the calf.  It would be nice with some kind of decorative?, frilly? trim that will hang over the  top of his stripy socks.

I ended up trying to make overlapping rows of little triangles. They were fiddly and the first attempt looked terrible. I realised it was probably partly because the detached blanket stitch wasn't stable enough to hold the shape, so I pulled them out and started again. 

Second attempt is stitched using proper button hole stitch instead. This forms an extra little twist at the top of each stitch giving it more stability. I don’t have much experience with this kind of work, and had to reach for my trusty old stitch directory. 

The term buttonhole stitch is often used for blanket stitches placed really close together, but really they are two quite different stitches. There is a very good article on Nordic Needle that explains the difference between the two.

Getting the tension on these little 'suckers' even and consistent, takes practise and my effort is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I think they will pass. I was too keen to see how the piece looked on the Jester, so I forgot to take a photo before I put it on, sorry.

One leg down, one to go...

And that is as far as I got before we jumped in the car and headed down the coast.
I am not sure I will get much further this week. I really, really, really want to get the new crewel embroidery kit finished, packed and in the shop, but I do hope to get at least the other trouser leg done while I remember how how did it LOL.

I hope you all have a nice relaxing weekend.
Best Stitches,
Anna xx