First, I basted along the finishing line as they are charted. I used regular sewing thread for this. If I could’ve found my hand quilting thread, I would’ve used that since it is a bit easier to pull out. I used a thread that contrasted with the fabric, since these will be my guide lines later for the sewing.

Second, I ironed fusible interfacing onto the back of the stitching. This step isn’t necessary, but since the linen I used for these is pretty see-through, I wanted something to try and keep the lining fabric from showing through too much. I cut the interfacing just a bit bigger than the overall design size.

I then laid my lining fabric on my stitching so that the right sides are together.

I pinned the lining fabric in place and then got out (drumroll please) – ye olde sewing maching:

When sewing the ornament together, I used a thread that matched the lining in my bobbin, and a thread that matched the stitched ornament fabric in my sewing maching. This way, the thread matched each side. It probably doesn’t matter, but I felt better doing it that way. It is important to note that I needed to leave a hole in the sewing so that the whole thing can be turned right-side out later. I left the hole on the side of what will be the back of the ornament so that it would show the least.

I used the basting thread to guide my sewing, since it was visible through the interfacing:

This is what I had when I was done with the sewing machine. Note that I am alternating red and greeen linings on the ornaments, but that is how I roll.

Next, I needed to trim off all of that excess fabric. I trimmed mine to within about a 1/4 inch of the sewn line. It might’ve been better if I had left a little bit more or made my stitches smaller with the sewing maching. On the whole, nothing came apart and that’s what matters. Here’s what a trimmed ornament looks like:

Since I was doing six of these at once, I got out a bag for my scraps. Mocha thought fabric scraps in a bag were very interesting and needed to be investigated:

And she almost got herself stuck! Don’t worry, mommy was keeping a close watch and helped her out of the bag:

Next, I turned the ornaments right-side out:

At this point, the ornament looked like this:

I pulled out the basting threads and then ironed the ornament to get the wrinkles out.

Now it was time to get out the sharp needle and the thread that matched the outside linen. I folded the hole edges in and then whipstitched the hole closed. Someone with more sewing experience might’ve been able to make this look neater, but it will end up in the folded edge of the pocket, so the whipstitching isn’t noticable in the end product:

Then, I just folded the piece in half with the stitched design on the outside:

I then whipstitched the folded edge together, making sure to catch the linen fabric on each side; that forced the lining fabric to the inside of the pocket. Look – a pocket to put things in!

Finally I tacked a piece of cording to the top of each side of the pocket, so that the ornament can be hung on the tree (or wherever):

Now, I just need to do five more!

First, stitch klosters:

These klosters are stitched with DMC pearl cotton #8. I picked the color 676 to closely match the fabric (Moon Glow from Picture this Plus); this adds texture without color, additionally I don’t have to worry about the color of the fabric showing through the threads. The klosters will keep the fabric from unravelling at the cut edge.

Step two is to cut the fabric! For this design I’m cutting out the threads of fabric in between the klosters. This means that I cut at the interior edge of all the klosters. I do this very carefully and with sharp scissors. I put the tips of my scissors around a thread, then push in toward the kloster a tiny bit before snipping the thread:

Step three is to pull out all the pieces of thread that were cut. In each quadrant of this particular design, I’m pulling out eight vertical and eight horizontal threads while leaving four vertical and four horizontal threads uncut in the middle of the quadrant. Clear as mud? Here’s a picture:

Sometimes I use a tiny tweezer to help pull out threads, but I didn’t use it this time.

Ok, so I’ve carefully cut my threads and carefully pulled them out, and now I’m left with this:

The next step is to do the decorative stitching with my DMC pearl cotton #12, also in color 676. For this design, I’m doing wrapped bars and Greek crosses. Wrapped bars are pretty easy; starting on one side of the uncut middle threads, I go over two threads, then under two threads, wrap around and go over and under again. Fill up the uncut threads, then move on to the other side. The Greek cross is a bit different. First, I wrap my thread around two of the uncut threads from the outside to the middle of a quadrant; sometimes this is a bit tricky as the thread can get squirrely and it needs to lie flat. Then I start doing the over/under thing again, but this time, I’m going between two sets of threads that are at 90 degree angles to each other. The thread will naturally fan out and look like a quarter of a circle. When the fanned out thread is as far out as I want it, I wrap the remainder of the second bar with thread. Then repeat around for this particular design:

Finally, the finished product:

Not so bad!

Ok, who wateched the stage yesterday! It was awesome although I was really hoping Christian Vandevelde would make a break for it as well. Now, we have to see if Sastre can hold his lead through the time trial on Saturday or not. As a side note, I don’t recommend doing hardanger while watching something like yesterday’s stage. I did have one miscut, although it was easy to recover from, since it was a thread that went underneath a wrapped bar. On the other hand, I’m happy to say that this design is now completely stitched! I’ll be framing it and hopefully printing it this weekend.
Becca submitted the following pictures to the TDF SAL, and I’ve added them to the Flickr group:

Aren’t those awesome? Cross Eyed Kat design, yellow stitching, bicylces, French stuff, and kittens! I just want to pick up the kittens and play with them, although Mocha might get jealous.

There’s still time to enter the TDF SAL! Join in until Saturday (midnight CST).