You’ve got a friend...

When I think of Mrs. Ashley Wilkes (aka Melanie or “Ms. Mellie”), I akin her with friendship. Have you ever had THAT friend? You know the one, the friend who doesn’t judge you (even when you probably deserve it). They’re almost miraculously oblivious to your flaws and somehow think you’re the moon and the stars. I happen to be blessed enough to have one just like that and it’s an extremely special thing... my “bestie” reminds me so much of Ms. Melanie because not only does she NOT have a malicious bone in her body but she also has that special something that makes people respect and look up to her because there is such an abundance of innate goodness. She leads in a quiet, almost demure way. That’s the thing about Melanie (and my bestie too in fact), you just can’t help but like her.

The first time I watched Gone with the Wind and for a long time thereafter, I will admit that I thought of Melanie as a doormat. I would roll my eyes just waiting for the vivacious and sassy Scarlett to come back on the scene. My longtime obsession with this movie kept reinforcing this opinion... My thought process was that Melanie HAD to know what’s going on….her sister-in-law (because remember, Scarlet married Melanie’s brother) is in love with HER man, how could she NOT KNOW?! Scarlett, the woman who can have any man on the hemisphere, a woman who will steal her own sister’s longtime beau, a woman who (gasp) drives her own buggy and runs her own business, is after HER man, everyone knows it, how can’t she?? She not only puts up with Scarlett, but she’s STILL her friend, and a good one at that. . .that was my perception of Melanie... that is until I read the book, and in doing so, I discovered what I now think of as Melanie’s “silent strength”. It takes an enormously strong woman to trust not only her husband but also her best friend. Yes, she suspects what’s going on, but at the end of the day, she trusts them both. Now that’s strength. 

Think about it, who thinks on her feet when Scarlett kills that Yankee solider who breaks in? She literally gives Scarlett the nightgown off her back to wipe up the blood and helps her conceal the murder.... Who has a baby even though it is clear that health-wise it probably isn’t a good idea? Who goes against society and not only is kind to Belle Watling, but takes her contribution? Who makes the final call about that controversial auction? Who convinces Rhett to let them bury Bonnie? And who thinks on her feet again when the police are after the gentlemen for going after Scarlett’s attacker? Melanie. ALLLL Melanie!!! She’s actually quite a strong women, but in typical Melanie form, you wouldn't know it because she just never makes a fuss.

That’s the thing about Gone with the Wind, there’s many layers and ways to looks at it. Most think of it as a love story/romantic drama but I have grown to think of it more as a movie about friendship. When you really think of it, the men are in and out of the story, they’re bootlegging, in prison, at war, or they've passed away but Melanie and Scarlett, they’re the constants. The movie makes out like Ms. Scarlett is the heroine with her grand declaring of “I’ll never be hungry again,” but I’m just going to say it, once I read the book, I discovered that Melanie is the one to be revered.

I would be remiss not to talk about the amazing actress who played her in the movie, Olivia de Havilland. Olivia got an Oscar nod as Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal but not the win, she DID go on to win Best Actress in a Leading Role for both The Heiress and The Snake Pit. If you are a stitcher and have not seen The Heiress, I highly recommend seeking it out as needlework does play a part (although small) in this drama (and FYI this has been colorized so if you hate black and white movies, this may be an option). And in 2017 Ms. de Havilland was made a Dame as she was awarded Dame Commander, Order of the British Empire, by Queen Elizabeth. I mean we always knew she was a classy lady and that was evident in her portrayal of Melanie. As I post, Ms. de Havilland is the only surviving member of the cast and today just so happens to be her 104^th birthday (and no, that number is NOT a type-o, 104!!!). Ms. de Havilland, I wish you the happiest of birthdays. . . and with that, HOW are we going to do this justice on our canvas?? Even though Melanie is plainer than Scarlett, Melanie’s still a leader in society and the moral compass of what’s in good taste, so we need to treat her as such. When you look at the reference photo (above), that bow is bigger than I am willing to go for scale’s sake.  . .So many details to think about! I mean no pressure, right??

This pink gown just screams for silk and because the shades match so well, I’m using three of my favorite brands. Splendor S824, Planet Earth 6 ply silk in Romance 1017, and Soie Cristale color 2031 and as I usually do, I’m using three strands of each. Now I know a lot of you really like to completely cover the canvas, but as I’ve stated before, there’s a time and place for that and then there’s a time to let the wonderful painting peak through and do the work -- this is one of those times.

Since I already had a few ideas for the bodice, I decided to start with the skirt, but as I often do, there were a few false starts as far as stitches were concerned. I tried a few different darning patterns all of which didn’t work out for one reason or another. They looked too stripy, looked too much like what we did for Scarlett's or it was too difficult to follow the shading. In the end, Parisian stitch ended up giving just enough coverage, seemed to follow the drape of the skirt and worked for the areas that needed shading. For the corset area of the bodice, I used a stitch called Damask. All of these stitches are from “Stitches to Go.” Funny thing about the name of this stitch—the book has TWO Damask stitches and I just so happened to use both. For the area of as the bodice, I used the Damask stitch at the top of the page which reminds me of arrows. I am in the habit of taking a close-up photo of areas before I begin an area to use as reference, you will see why this comes in handy. I stitched right over the lines depicting the darting/corseting and will need my reference photo to gauge where to put the lines back in. As I’ve mentioned before, Fidelis creates the most incredible tassels so she has an extensive collection of gimp for covering tassel heads and she just so happened to have the perfect color -- I just love when that happens! Gimp is so striking when couched down, especially with clear thread, so that’s how I featured the darts/corseting. If you don’t have easy access to gimp like I do, Painter’s thread has some pretty hand dyed versions but gimp is around, you just have to look for it, you might have luck on Etsy if all else fails. I have come to like it so much, I’ve started hoarding—I mean collecting—it when I see it in my travels.

For the bib area of the neckline, I used the other Damask stitch and on the right-hand side, I flipped the stitch by turning the diagram one turn clockwise – this is a great tip, to flip a stitch, play with turning the book in either direction until the angle is what you want. Once again, I stitched right over the curls of the painted lace—you’ll see why in a moment. The puff sleeves were stitched in alternating continental.

 Now what to do with that lace?? So you remember Bonnie’s doll buttons? Well, I decided I needed a fine, small scale lace so again, I looked for doll materials and this beautiful doll lace is the correct scale. This one happened to have the right amount of space to feed through a coordinating 4mm silk ribbon. Plant Earth Fiber had the perfect shade in Lollipop 011. I wove the ribbon through every other channel of the lace and although a 2 or 3mm probably would have fit better, 4mm worked fine with some finessing. After I fed the ribbon through the lace, I attached it using my trusty clear beading thread using my reference photo and used a thick laying tool to open up the hole in the canvas and used the plunge method to bring both ends to the back (you can then use your needle to close the big hole back up and restore the canvas to it’s usual weave). If you don’t remember the plunge method, you can find details HERE. For now I am ignoring the lace at the top as I want to stitch Melanie’s skin first and it could be in my way. Using the same silk ribbon brand and color only in size 10mm this time, I made a bow using the technique using a fork and attached it by tacking it on. You may want to attach the bow as we get closer to the end. I also highly recommend using just a touch of Fray Check on the ends so the silk ribbon won’t unravel. Make sure you have a Fray Check that says it doesn’t show and dries soft – I would test it on a scrap before putting it on my finished bow. And just to manage expectations, I probably wasted a good foot of ribbon and a half hour trying to make the perfect looking bow. It took several tries and is quite fiddly work but I didn’t want any strange folds as the devil really is in the details. If you aren’t familiar with the fork technique, HERE's the video I referenced. It’s a handy little trick to have in your back pocket.

And let's look at our progress of Melanie thus far:

In our next episode we’ll continue working on Melanie. . .possibly doing something fun with the hair. .  .and not to be coy, but just wait until you see what we have planned for that fan! In the meantime, I hope we all channel the spirit of Ms. Mellie by being sweet and kind to each other.

This is war, not a garden party!

Let me begin by apologizing for being away, dear readers and stitchers, for so long. Now I probably have no reason to complain. I mean I’m not going through the level of setbacks like Scarlet and Melanie, but sometimes LIFE HAPPENS and this is one of those years where life just keeps throwing things our way. I would complain except I have good friends who have encountered so much worse lately so I will count my blessings and keep my (often big) mouth shut because unlike Aunt Pittypat, I know what’s important. And I think that’s why she is a character I’m so ambivalent about, because she gets wrapped up in “the stuff”... you know the type, they’re all about faux drama. A catastrophic and as I get older I have no time or patience for that kind of nonsense. Don’t get me wrong, I have a healthy respect for etiquette, rules and all that, but to a point. I think Doctor Meade summed it up perfectly when during the taking of Atlanta he tells Aunt Pittypat “Good heavens, woman, this is war, not a garden party!”

After a break from a project for a while, I find the best way to get back into it is to start with something relatively obvious—or obvious to me anyways. The smelling salts bottle is so iconic to Aunt Pittypat... it deserves some bling. At first, I was thinking wonder ribbon but I’m saving that for another area. And I already used Water and Ice for the glass windows so the next obvious thing (to me) to do would be mass beading. I took a class a few years ago and they had us use 2 strands of Accentuate changing the bead thread color to mass bead with clear beads. I’m sure the technique has its merits but after five minutes both myself and my friend I attended with were already highly annoyed...Accentuate stretches and shreds... no thank you! I also recently took a (different) class and that teacher felt strongly about using specialized beading thread to match the bead color. I bead fairly often, a lot of times on a whim so that would require a whole other type of thread I would need to keep on hand which for me just isn’t practical. In the end, I used what I always use for beading, The Collection’s clear beading thread along with their 11/0 crystal (clear) beads. Their beading thread is so versatile and it doesn’t stretch or beak and it is really really strong. Their beads are always perfect. Never any uneven hole sizes, chips or burs. Mill Hill beads are also nice but hard to come by around here. I just love the even look of brick beading in mass. The beads always look so orderly (out pops that OCD again). For the ridge at the top of the bottle, I came up at one edge, fed four beads on my needle all at once and went back down at the other end, I then went back and made a stitch between each beads over one canvas thread and that helped them stand up straight and kept them from bouncing around. For the top knob, I attached a single The Collection sequin in DM4-14 with the same clear bead. In case you aren’t familiar, i did this by coming up in the middle of the round knob, through the sequin, through the bead and then back through the sequin and canvas. There were a few canvas threads that were left uncovered near the knob so I went back in with the purple thread used on the sleeve to cover them up. 

As you may recall, there was a bit of white showing through on the edge of the sleeve. Originally my thought was to attach more lace but now that feels like gilding the lily. Thankfully it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind because I decided to stitch a wrapped back stitch using four strands of Splendor in S803 which is not a stark white but I like it. If you aren't familiar with this technique, you should be because it really comes in handy. All-things-needlework guru, Mary Corbet, created a great tutorial on it which you can see HERE. I highly recommend you check it out, as well as other tutorials on her site.

Since Aunt Pittypat’s hair will be dimensional, I won’t be able to do that until towards the end (and by “I” I mean Fidelis who recently taught a fabulous beards and hair class), so all that’s left is her skin. For the shadowed areas, I used Baked Alaska by Planet Earth, the darker shadow of her chin and around the outside were stitched using Splendor S1131 from the Bronze Porcelains card. For the areas of the lightest highlights, I used Splendor S1063 and for the bulk of skin, Splendor S1083 also from the Bronze card. Her cheeks were stitched in S816 from the Santa’s Rosy Cheeks card. All of these were stitched with three strands which is the usual amount I use on an 18 count canvas.

All that is left now is Aunt Pittypat’s features, but something about how these lips are painted bother me. The smile as painted reminds me of a demonic clown (ask my brother, he will tell you, even as a kid, clowns freak me out — they do him too and he had to carry a gun for work!)... not quite the look I’m going for in a frilly maiden lady so I’m going to make a few subtle changes. First of all, I want a color that compliments her purple dress but not so bright she’ll be confused with Belle Watkins, so I went with a pretty Merlot color of Neon Rays N120. But I have to do something about the shape of those lips...so I’m going to make some tweaks. I found the bow of the mouth which luckily is clearly painted, that will be my center. From there I stitched diagonally over two on each side in opposite directions. Then underneath, two straight stitches over one canvas thread in the middle and one diagonal stitch going in the opposite direction on either side to create the bottom lip. If my description has left you confused, which I can’t say I’d blame you, I created this rudimentary drawing to help clarify.  

You might be concerned that there is still some naked canvas where the lips were painted, no need, I just covered them up with the skin color thread. This is an excellent example of why I often prefer working with stranded threads. I know, I know, people don’t want to be bothered... it’s an extra step, I get it, but because I’m covering up a dark color with a light color, I was able to add an extra strand (so four instead of my usual three) and with that no one would never know I reshaped the lips. There are often times I’ve seen nice painted canvases except the facial features are slightly “off”. As long as there is enough room (meaning the head is not too small to make changes), give these a second look and ponder before you buy, sometimes a face can be saved with a few creative tweaks. Like with makeup (or Botox!), don’t be afraid to experiment to create the face you want. 

Since I am not sure what thread we are going to use for her hair, I am skipping the eyebrows for now so all that is left on the face are the eyes which I think really requires a metallic. I’m going to go on record as saying I highly prefer Kreinik metallics to other brands. They don’t kink and I am particularly partial to their vintage line. If it curls when you take it off the spool a light stretch will usually straighten it out. You don’t want it to pop though, stretch slowly and carefully. But nothing’s ever perfect and the only thing I find inconvenient about this brand is the little round labels with the thread size and color number are constantly  falling off! First world problems I know, but it comes into play and you’ll here how... So I can tell you I used a #12 braid Kreinik color 005 - black. And I know that I used a #8 braid color 100 (a white subtle sparkle). But for the blue, I am outta luck because the label is gone like the wind (pun intended, I just couldn’t resist)!  I know it is a #8 Kreinik but I don’t know the exact color. From what I can tell from looking at Kreinik’s website, I think it was color number 684-Aquamarine but I can’t be positive. Anyone who’s ever tried to match a thread using any kind of screen knows how problematic that can be. Mine was a nice aqua/turquoise with a little green twisted in. I like this color because it makes her eyes almost hazel which would look pretty with the purple dress. 

So there we have it. Aunt Pittypat, although bald at the moment, is done for now. Now I get to move on to Ms. Melanie, and I can explain why the older I get, the more I understand what all the fuss is about. 

Until then, keep calm, stitch on...you don’t need silly smelling salts because you got this!

“Heaven help the man who ever really loves you”....

Bet that wasn’t the quote you thought I was going to lead in with, but it pretty much sums up the whole story. When I think of all the unforgettable characters in Gone with the Wind, Rhett Butler has got to be my very favorite. I mean a lot of us are attracted to the bad-boys but he’s not just that, I think he’s multi-faceted in comparison to many of his fellow characters. Let’s face it, everyone else is pretty consistent. Scarlett is selfish, vain and completely self absorbed, Ashley always his wishy-washy idealist self, Melanie the sweet, angelic one and Mammy’s just trying to keep her attitude at an appropriate level. But Rhett, on the other hand, one moment he’s bringing trinkets to Scarlett (and in the book to Miss Pittypat and Melanie too) another a hardened blockade runner but in the midst of a sinking south, he’s the only character with the gumption to tell it like it is — whether you're going to like what you hear or not. In some ways I find him more gentlemanly than the illustrious Ashley, at least he respects women enough to be honest with them. Let’s look at all the great one-liners Rhett has, shall we?

 

I mean those are some unforgettable lines! My personal favorite is the one about being kissed and often and by someone who knows how...wooh whoooo, Miss Pittypat pass me your smelling salts for I dare say my knees get weak at the thought of it!!! If you’ve read the book, and if you haven’t, I highly recommend you do, there are entire characters in the book that are missing from the movie, Rhett’s wardrobe is portrayed more like a dandy, wearing bright snappy colors and always the latest fashions for Paris, so I’m going to keep that in mind and amp up that purple ascot. His stature in the book is also much bigger (more Cary Grant than Clark Gable actually), but I digress.... I decided to start with his suit jacket since is the largest expanse of his outfit. I wanted something that looks almost knitted so I went with Vineyard Merino in Pale Honey (M-1189) and Glazed Ginger (M-1191). This thread has a tight twist so as you stitch you want to let the needle fall and relax that twist a bit. Because this thread has so much texture, I wanted to keep the stitch relatively subtle, the look of a light tweed and Kennan stitch fit the bill perfectly. The empty space within the stitch leaves a little breathing room to show off the character of this thread and keeps the thread from appearing too heavy. It’s slightly loftier than I would normally use on an 18 count canvas but with that bit of breathing room it works. 

 

When you use lighter coverage stitches you need your thread to be a really good match, otherwise you need a stitch with full coverage. This is kind of the situation I ran into with Scarlett’s bow shown below. I know I’m going to put silk ribbon over this area, so I stitched right over the bow and assume that the silk ribbon on top is going to cover enough of the green you don’t see it peaking through the stitch and even if it does you won’t notice because of the bow’s shadow. 

This is why you can’t stitch areas in a vacuum, because as much as you think each area is their own, they aren’t, the piece is layered and you have to approach it that way. I don’t want to have to deal w this area again later if my silk ribbon bow doesn’t completely cover, might as well fill it in completely now and prevent potential headache later.

With Rhett being dark and handsome, the thread pallet we’ve been using for the other characters’ skin shading won’t do. Rhett is slightly darker, more tan, so I’m going to use the Splendor color card in Bronze (as opposed to porcelain, like the others) to help with shading. I know I’ve talked about the Rain Gallery thread cards before but seriously, having so many skin shades in a single card is so convenient. Choose the correct card for the tone you’re using and it’s like half the work is already done for you. For Rhett’s skin I’m using three strands of colors S1085 for the outlines of his face, S1131 for the shadows, S1085 for the checks, S1083 for the highlights, and S1098 as the majority of his skin tone. I’m using all the colors on the card except the darkest one at the bottom. 

If I do say so myself, the colors for Rhett’s skin are spot on, I especially like the blush color which isn’t too pink. You may notice a little something going on with his nose, as I was stitching, I took one long stitch diagonally down the length of his nose from the upper left to the lower right and then basketweaved over it. It’s a quick and easy way to add just a subtle padding to the peak of the nose. I don’t incorporate this on all of the people I stitch but I felt his nose didn’t have enough definition color-wise, again it’s subtle so I’m not sure if you can even notice it in the picture but sometimes the smallest changes are enough to add a bit of character. Here is that subtle padding before it was all covered up (sorry for the bad quality photo).

And here is our Rhett thus far.:

Next time we’re going to deal with Rhett’s hair. NEVER a strand out of place, even while saving dames in the middle of a burning Savannah. And I’ll finish off his other facial features, mustache,  boutonniere and ascot....oh, what to do??? Don’t you worry your pretty little head, I have some interesting ideas in mind, but like Rhett at the political discussion at the BBQ, I know when it’s time to take my leave.....for now....

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Until next time.....