365/2013 - Day 322

working on hand sewn projects

Geez...the lengths I go to in order to avoid what I really ought to be working on...tsk, tsk.

Tonight I was playing around with the idea of the creature in a suit thing.  I also grabbed a spare set of glass taxidermy leopard eyes (yes, I did just happen to have these laying around) to see if they'd go into the felted mask I started last week during Jan Waller's felting demo at Second Thursday.

I tried using batting to make an arm, hand, and fingers.  Then I cut a piece of old pajamas material and sewed a sort of sleeve with a cuff around the arm.   

I used the black thread when I was sewing the fingers and thumb so that I could see what I was doing.  When I try it for real I will use a thread that matches the batting more.

Not too bad for a first attempt.

 

Now, the eyes and mask...

the leopard eyes and mask "before"

First I used some sidewalk chalk to mark the spot where I wanted to make the hole into the felt for the eye.

The initial first cut, the hole is pretty small.  I kept trying to work my finger and then my thumb into the hole to widen it slowly.

Next I started to stitch it open a bit as I turned the edges in...it was sort of making a little bit of a shelf.

I kept working it and finally got the eye to slip in -- at first I kept getting it just right and then the glass would * POP * right through and fall into the inside of the mask...that made me more than a little bit nuts.

            

Then I found I could set the eye in and sort of tighten the felt around it...I don't know if I was actually doing anything at this point, but it sort of seemed like it was helping so I kept at it for a while.

Here you see the inside of the mask, the hole for the eye (slightly smaller on the inside) and the celadon color is the inside of the glass taxidermy leopard eye...resting on a sort of ledge of felt.

I think I have the eye positioned how I want it...kind of snug in between the felt layers, but still not totally secure yet.

How the inside of the mask looked after all of my stitching around and behind then back around on top of the eye. 

The eye feels pretty secure -- I think I ended up making a little pocket of sorts for it. 

So that's where I am tonight.  The deadline for the probable goal for the lion-creature-guy is still a little ways off.  I know I will finish him in plenty of time.