Katherin and Faith, Hope and Charity

Usually during the month of December I take a break from designing retail patterns and the day to day teaching that I do. I take the time to stitch and work on some of the things that I want to do not the ones that I have to do.
Designing something new is not a thing that can be forced; although I have found that one thing does lead to another. Once I start with one new patterns others follow.

One pattern that I have been working on for years is Faith, Hope and Charity by James C Christensen. It is one over one on 32 count linen and I am hoping that I live long enough to finish it. I do want to but can't and don't want to work on it solidly until it is finished. So I stitch on it in fits and starts. If I had known when I started what I know now, I would have dyed the linen shades of spring green and just stitched the figures.

I have been working on the doll - Katherin. As much as I can, I am trying to dress her as she might have been dressed in 1670. I have been hand stitching all the clothing and using fabrics like linen and silk that are period appropriate. Creating a reproduction outfit of any size is always a balancing act. you can never totally get everything perfect.
This week, I stitched her petticoat and covered her shoes. Although I do know how to cobble a shoe, starting from scratch was more than I wanted to do in this scale. So I used some gold brocade and silk ribbon to make her shoes look more up to date for the 17th century.

Her petticoat is linen with a ribbon waist band. The ribbon worked well  because it would fold to the correct size with out adding too much bulk.

I do have more pieces planned and am excited to work on them but for now the retail designs are calling.  Once it get the designs finished and the stitching started, I can come back to Katherin.