I wouldn't recommend this to anyone but Saturday was dreary and rainy and we stayed home all day and I stitched way too much. I began working on this at about 7am and stitched off an on until midnight--I probably stitched at least ten hours. My hands and arms were quite sore and achy, it lasted through Sunday, but I was done!I'd also done laundry, cooked dinner and tucked in a couple of chores, watched "Bell, Book and Candle" on dvd and also a strange but interesting dvd by, about and for fans of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Fans are sure a strange breed.
I had the embroidery nearly done when I started. I did this added floral row Saturday morning(an outline stitch stem with French knot flowers and lazy-daisy leaves) and began working on the felt scissors fob. It's a stuffed felt shape covered with detached chain stitches and then beads. The second fob is actually an emery. I had some left over from another project and stitched a muslin liner for the felt and made the emery. I used ribbon I had (which needs pressing) for the cord and frill at the top.If you stitch a lot, especially if you have a favorite needle, then an emery is very helpful. Remember the little berry that came attached to the old tomato pincushions? That was an emery. They're hard to find these days. It will clean, polish and sharpen your needles and I can definitely tell the difference. I poke the needle in and then hold it and run it back and forth, sometimes giving it a twirl, too. Just takes a sec.
I put the sheath together by hand. First I basted around the drawn-on cutting line. I used pinking shears to cut out just outside of that line. That way I knew the muslin liner would stay smooth and my edges wouldn't fray. I marked seam allowances (6mm) all around, using the drawn cutting line as a guide--just pencil on the muslin liner. Then I stitched the embroidered wool to the cotton lining all around. I did this for both the long back and the shorter inside front of the piece.A piece of plastic was cut to the pattern size and fitted into the base of the longer piece. I'd never thought of this before, it was in in the instructions, and it does add a lot of body to the scabbard. Then I overcast the front and back together.
I made twisted cording as instructed and stitched one into the top of the strawberry fob and the longer, thicker piece around the scabbard. I added the ribbon frill to the fob and the ribbon to the emery. Then I decided the scabbard needed a snap and so I stitched one on and was done.
