craftgrrl | Two things! Hand sewing + stenciling halp?

Hey ladies (and gents!)

I've got two questions:

1. Does anyone have any recommendations for either books or online tutorials for hand stitching? My hand stitching is awful and I would really like to improve it!

2. Any recommendations for stenciling? I've been making purses with a demon girl cameo on the front (using hand cut stencil plastic and fabric paint), but I'm having a hard time getting the paint to stay IN the stencil (and not blop out and ruin the silhouette). I'm also having a hard time getting details (like the eye lashes). I've tried using paint brushes and painting, miniature brushes for the small parts, rollers, squeegies, stamp brushes.. blah! Any recommendations would be very much appreciated :)

Note on the above: I also tried the method of using an embroidery hoop and organza with mod podge to fill out the non-stencil part, and paining in that but it also leaks a little. But honestly it might be me doing something poorly!

And so there is some visual niftiness, here's some things that I've made!