Pallas Athena free-hand machine embroidery or why I don't like tear away interfacing

I'm a dork.  A nerd. And that's OK.  I tell you this because for some reason I think it's dorky nerdy that I decided to put an image of Athena under the poetic raven I did.  Why? If you know the poem then you know the raven came in Poe's chamber and rest upon a bust of Pallas (aka Athena).  I decided to put her on the shirt via machine embroidery since I already had the foot.


This is what a machine embroidery foot looks like. They should cost you about $11 bucks if you don't have one.

I was going to try and do this image, but I couldn't get it to translate to embroidery...

Then I found something that would work better...

I traced the image onto that tear away interfacing I used in the sparrows.  I put it on top of the t-shirt since I didn't want to do the image and have the actual stitching that showed be the understitching.  I pinned the interfacing to the shirt since I couldn't get my embroidery hoop to cooperate with my sewing machine.  I sat down, took a deep breath, and began. Ugh.
I started it trying to stay closest to the lines as possible. I wanted it to be all proper. I learned sometimes you have to throw proper out the damn window and go with the flow. Here's what happened...

You can see where I tried to draw the other Athena. I used tailor's chalk so it came out in the wash. I trimmed the interfacing close to the stitching to make it easier to tear away.

This was all done in a continuous stitch...

Athena's gorgon shield

All in all I like how it came out. Then I tore away the interfacing.  Make sure you have muscles and patience for this crap. It cause a lot of the stitches to loosen and get all wonky. I tried wetting it to see if it would be easier. Not no, but hell no. It's like a product of Poseidon, the water made it stronger, the rat bastard. Even putting it through the washer and dryer didn't work. Poop.
My advice is if you use this stuff, make sure you only use it on the backside of what you are working on. NEVER put it to the front. Pain in the ass!

Embroidered Tattoo-inspired Sparrows (how-to? perhaps...)

I knew I wanted to put some sparrows on the t-shirt, but where? What method would I use? Hmm...
Taking a page from traditional tattoos I decided to put the birds on the shoulder area.  I knew I didn't want to paint them on, and wasn't ready to attempt the Beads in a Bottle crap again. OH! Embroidery! I've never done that before and this is all about practicing, right?!? Well hell. Here I go...
If you want to try embroidering something, here's what you'll need:

embroidery floss
needle
embroidery hoop
interfacing (iron-on or tear away or water soluble)
disappearing ink fabric pen or pattern transfer paper
design of some kind

*Sorry I didn't take pictures of the process, but there are several online tutorials on this stuff (I decided to blog about the t shirt after I already started all of this, so I don't know if I want to go the how-to route or the just telling you what I did like the skull a day guy)...just remember if I don't explain something well enough Google and the Library are your friends!* And back to your regularly scheduled blog!

This is the picture I found. I resized them printed the bad boys out.

I also reversed the image so the white lines were black and easier to see under the t shirt.  Then for some bizarro reason I tried pattern transfer paper. It worked, but not really. So I went back over the image with one of those purple air soluble disappearing ink pens. If you use a regular pen, make sure you embroider over the image to cover it, or use the ancient Chinese secret to getting rid of ink. If you know what it is, please tell me. No, seriously, tell me.

Now the image was on there and I had my floss colors all picked out it was time to start this rodeo...
Make sure you have enough interfacing so it's bigger than the hoop. The interfacing helps to keep the fabric from stretching whilst in the hoop.  For the blue bird I used iron on, but I didn't iron it on.


I used a simple back stitch since I was used to it from my cross-stitching youth. 

I used tear-away interfacing for the green bird. Honestly I don't know how I feel about this stuff. It's nice and stiff (what girl doesn't like something stiff?) but it's a pain to tear away. So if you use it, make sure you use towards the back of the t-shirt.  You'll see why I say this in the Athena post.
For the eyeballs I used black Beads in a Bottle paint instead of a french knot. Just make sure you don't iron over the paint like my genius self did.