Karol at the Window - Using a Stencil for the Outline

A bit of progress today on the miniature wall hanging of little Karol at the window.  Last night I made the stencil, in exactly the same way as I have made stencils for appliqué, only this time I used white paper for both the original tracing of the photograph and for the stencil itself.

Next I pinned the stencil to dark blue fabric.  I reversed the stencil because I am stitching it from the back.

The machine is threaded with a dark purple for the top thread because I wanted it to show up well against the white paper.  Here I am stitching along the cuff.

I left the fiddly bits, the little fingers, until last.

When finished, I pulled all the threads to the back of the work before removing the paper.

And here is the front of the work, Karol's hand outlined against the background.  This is the bobbin thread that is showing, a lighter purple than the top thread, which shows up fairly well against the background colour without being too obtrusive.  The idea is that this line of stitching is there as a guide for the next stage, a bit like doing faint pencil lines at the beginning of a drawing.

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