TIF September, some progress!

My to-do lists continue to grow, I'm sure they're breeding in the dark.

I can cross one item off the list though.

Yesterday I took a great workshop at our Embroiderers' Guild here in Sydney with Annette Hinde. The subject was Fairy Slippers, which appealed to my sense of fun and also my interest in miniature things. They were inspired by an article in "Stitch" from the Embroiderers' Guild UK. Annette changed the working method quite a bit, resulting in a messy workshop with vleisofix, Angelina fibres, chiffon scaraves, gilding, sequins, threads, felts etc. You can imagine the fun had by 15 women all making wee fairy slippers. No-one was able to finish in 5 hours, but we all made design decisions and were well on the way by the end of the workshop. The variety of embellishments was quite remarkable, and I'm looking forward to making time in the next week to finish at least one slipper.

So, I've decided that the fairy slipper will be my TIF Challenge project for the month. It satisfies the criteria because making something miniature, and stitching a full project (for once) has been on my to-do list for quite a while!!

The photos show the slippers pictured in "Stitch" magazine, and the progress so far on my own version. I've used yellow felt and 2 different colours of Angelina fibres fused down under a red chiffon scarf as the background for the upper. The first round of stitching is chain stitch in orange stranded cotton, then a round of Palestrina stitch in a variegated silk Colour Streams stranded. Then a round of orange irridescent sequins. I think it needs some green in there, and the star sequins will be a motif on the vamp part of the shoe.

The finished slippers are about 1 1/2 inches finished. If I made a pair they'd look great framed in a shadow box with an illustration of a fairy as a gift for a little girl's room. Hmm, another idea for the "to-do-one-day" list!!