patch excursions

[elena-marie.livejournal.com]

i've been playing with digitizing software for a long time now, so i finally decided that i would attempt my first patch recently. i drew a picture of someone bellydancing, and re-drew it till i knew it would be simple enough to digitize into a small patch (not too many details).





yes, i'm still using primitive paintbrush for any graphics thing i want to mess with. i traced all the major lines in my drawing, after scanning it in, with that curvy line tool. probably the most complex tool there is, in paintbrush, ha!
that was the easy part. the hard part was clicking on each fill area outline, decinding on a kind of fill, and on the angle of fill. see how the body parts have different directions to them? i didn't want to have to outline & have a cartoony effect. well, then i was on a roll, and i angled all the skirt sections appropriately. i had a hell of a time with that veil. but it was worth it, because the variegated thread moved along the veil rather nicely.

i did do some outlining, just on the clothes with a metallic thread. mom says that all her metallic thread breaks, so i was wary to use it in a fill-blown fill just yet. it worked just fine, though, so the next experiment will be the bra& belt done in the metallic thread. (sulky metallic, for references' sake)

i was considering beading over the bra & belt to add some dinension to it, but it really does look nice on it's own. i'm working on another patch that just says "bellydancer", and i'll add the fringe and beads to that one to fancy them up.

in the modern-day version of "it's snowing down south", i need to tighten the bobbin tension. you can especially see the bobbin thread in the hair.

isn't it great! i'm so glad my first patch experiment didn't get all jammed up or anything!

x-posted to elena_marie,craftgrrl, advanced_sewing, and machinembroider.

if you are one to use your sewing machine to embroider, you should totally come over and hang out with us cool kids in machinembroider! i need to be able to pick brains when it comes to stabilizers & fill patterns.