....I don’t give a damn.” One of the most famous movie quotes in
history, by the time you get to this line in the movie and Rhett finally says
it, you just want to stand up and cheer! Finally someone tells Ms. Scarlett
they have had enough! And like I said in my last post, he’s my favorite
character because he just doesn’t take anyone’s crap! But most of all he’s a
survivor above all else and that really appeals to me.
If you know anything else about Rhett Butler, you know that he
looks sharp as a tack so I want to impose that with my stitch choices. We
already stitched his jacket and skin tone. Now what to do with the color of his
shirt? It’s a small area and I wanted the fabric to look like a small check, so
I stitched in a skip tent pattern but as a cross stitch in Pepper Pot, color
Salt 02 and by doing the stitch as a cross stitch, the stitch appears more
square reinforcing they checkered affect. To stitch his eyes, I used a Kreinik (brown)
metallic #12 Braid 002. The pupils of Rhett’s eyes on this canvas were painted
all black. I thought it made him too sinister looking so I replaced a few
stitches with the brown metallic to slightly soften the look. I stitched the
mustache and the eyebrows in long and short style diagonal stitches in DMC
pearl cotton 5 in black (310). I like the contrast of using a different thread
for facial hair than the hair on his head.
Rhett has that dark and handsome thing going on and he has that
unflawed jet black hair. I really wanted it to look dark, thick and slick. When
you want that dense look in the best thin in my opinion to use is Rainbow
Gallery’s Flair. I used black (F501) and just more than a touch of light gray
(F591). While we only need a touch of the light gray — and we could have done
without— it makes him look distinguished and it helps break up that expanse if
black so it’s not too one-note. Similar to how I stitched Ashley’s hair, I
found my part line and drew a line with blue dressmakers chalk (which is in a
pencil form). I then stitched long and short in both directions leaving the
vertical row for the part unstitched/empty. I stitched down the right side
first then I worked from the top down on the left side in the black. Once I got
to the silver streak, I had both colors going in separate needles at the same
time. I will often do this as I find it an easier way to shade. Remember though
to maintain good thread management so you don’t get tangled up on the back
side. Once I stitched the bulk of the hair, I then went back at the end and
stitched tent with the black Flair over the empty vertical part row. I find
black much more forgiving when doing hair. It’s so dark and dense it hides a
lot of stitching flaws so if you’re cautious about trying “Flair for hair” (I
love how that rolls off the tongue), I recommend trying it in black for your
first attempt.
As soon as I saw the flower in his lapel, I knew I had to stitch
it as a woven ribbon rose. I think it’s rather busy how it’s painted but if you
use the right ribbon and simplify, it could really be a feature. When doing
woven ribbon roses, you need the appropriate sized ribbon and a matching
thread—floss or pearl cotton is fine is that’s all you have but silk ribbon is
just luscious. You probably won’t see your thread but having a decent match
helps disguise it if it peaks through. I am using Planet Earth Fiber 4mm ribbon
in the color Lollipop 011 which has a little over-dyed edge which will look
especially nice once it’s woven into a rose. Using 3 strands of DMC 3687 I made
a circle of 5 “spokes” in a circular pattern. On smaller flowers you can use 3
or on a larger you can do 7 or 9 but it has to be an odd number so that’s your
most important take away. You don’t want your spokes too loose or too tight,
remember these are going to create your petals and you don’t want them so tight
they over wear your ribbon. Below are my spokes:
Attach your ribbon in the back either by burying it under
existing stitches or piercing it with your needle and come up one canvas thread
from the center. I tend to like to work clockwise but you can work in either
direction as long as you keep going in the same direction. You then go around
the clock weaving over and under, over and under. Keep going round and round
and as you do, manipulate the ribbon a little so you get some nicely shaped
petals. Once the flower seems pretty full, keep going until you make sure you
can’t see any of the spokes’ thread and when you are satisfied with your rose,
poke your needle under a fat nice petal through to the back of the canvas and
end your thread as your normally would when working with ribbon. And here’s my
finished rose.
If my description wasn’t detailed enough, Sarah Homfray has a
great instructional video HERE.
If you aren’t familiar with Sarah, she has taught for the Royal School of
Needlework and is an enormously talented embroidery teacher. Many embroidery
videos can be easily converted to needlepoint especially if you aren’t afraid
to pierce the canvas (there isn’t a law against it you know), so if you ever
want to try a new to you technique and can’t find a needlepoint video, I highly
recommend looking at embroidery videos to help just remember you want the idea
of it not the exact science (because this type of needlework work isn’t).
My version of Mr. Rhett is now complete. I think this is the perfect example that proves you don’t have to do anything outrageous to bring a character to life. He looks pretty damn (there’s that works again!) suave, if I do say so myself!
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