Tuesday 7 June 2011

Boots, shoes and backgrounds.

I have made another pair of fairy shoes and pixie boots. I posted the ones on the left in the picture above some weeks back, then decided to make some more. I didn't paint the insides of the latest ones as I couldn't achieve the degree of brightness with my metallic paint that Annette Emms got.


I tried to get a more interesting fabric by layering a sheer over fine cotton, but the effect seems to have been lost. I don't know how Annette gets the amazingly delicate effects her shoes seem to have - probably a trade secret.


I buttonhole stitched round the top edge of these pixie boots with a metallic thread ......


.................... and added a tiny metallic tassel at the back to finish them off.


I have been continuing my experiments with my embellishing machine with a view to making backgrounds for machine or hand stitching. It is quite hard to do good machine stitching on some embellished backgrounds. I 'stole' the idea of stitching daisies from Gina Ferrari's blog

'Fan my Flame'. She has done some beautiful daisies - in fact everything she does is beautiful. You may remember the background to my daisies from a couple of posts back - it was embellished onto Lutrador and then distressed with the heat gun. I cut it in half with a view of using it for cards. I have just quickly machined each one onto a piece of painted paper.



These next samples are my pieces of knitting which you have also seen before, some weeks back. I have worked wisps of silk waste into them, along with strips of dyed muslin, scrim and sheers.








This is the only one which had a backing of Lutrador which makes it flatter and firmer, and I think it will be much easier to stitch onto. They all look like landscapes to me, so trees will most likely be featured on them, but whether stitched by machine or hand I haven't decided yet. I quite like the idea of cutting these in half down the middle to make a tiny scene.


















17 comments:

Lyn said...

Beautiful, bautiful!

Lyn said...

that should be BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL!!! I must read before I press publish!
x

Jane said...

Looks l;ike it is going well with the experiments - I especially like the knitted pieces.

diane.ca said...

Love the boots. I found making fairy shoes a bit addictive, and so pretty when finished. How are you going to display them?

Gina said...

Your fairy shoes are lovely Heather. I'll let you into a secret - my daisies were stitched seperately on a layer of lutadur and felt and then cut out and applied to my embellished backgounds.

Heather said...

That's the way to get a really neat finish Gina. Thanks for the tip.

Anonymous said...

I am fascinated by your fairy slippers and pixie boots, love them to bits! Are they difficult to make? I can't get a grip on the sizes of them, are they incredibly tiny?

Ro Bruhn said...

Fabulous post, what divine little boots, I love them.

Heather said...

Toffeeapple: The fairy shoes are about 3"/7cms long and the pixie shoes a little longer. They are a bit fiddly to put together but the process is easy and explained clearly in issue No.70 of Stitch magazine (pixie boots). The fairy shoes were in an earlier one which I can't remember and have lent to someone, could be issue 65 or 66. Annette Emms is the designer and her blog is called Fairy Shoes and Other Things, where you will find the exquisite things she makes.

Maggi said...

Absolutely luscious backgrounds Heather. The fairies must be queuing at your door for those shoes

The Weaver of Grass said...

Heather, I am completely bowled over by those pixie boots - they are wonderful.

Linda Vincent said...

The top photo is wonderful Heather ...they look great lined up together like that!
And your embellished pieces are brilliant...love 'em.
xx

Val said...

Oh Heather! Your fairy shoes and boots are absolutely exquisite - I have barefooted fairies living in my foxgloves ...........
Your embelished pieces look amazing!

Carol Q said...

lovely yummy work Heather. lots to look at. pleased to see you are getting back into it again. I like the different feel you have created with the boots. very delicate and I love the mixture of textures created with the wool and embellishing.

Robin Mac said...

Oh Heather, I shall have to get back to making some fairy shoes when I return from Brisbane, they look so wonderful all lined up like that. The embellished pieces are inspiring too - I need more hours in the day!!! Cheers

A Heron's View said...

Wonderful fairy shoes!
I can imagine that there are number of folk who would like to have some full size shoes like these :)

Downunderdale said...

gorgeous boots Heather - thanks for all your lovely comments on my blog