#toga does things

My friend likes owls, pomegranates, blurple, and starlight. Hopefully this mashup harmonizes nicely. I worked almost entirely from scraps already in my stash.

I self drafted the pattern, but it's approximated from this write up and Sheila Marshall's book "Elizabethan Needlework Accessories". My library didn't have the book, so I relied on Google images.

This little owl friend is a needle minder by greennerddesigns on Etsy. I chopped up a pin and stuck a magnet on there.

The lucette braided cord nearly thwarted me, but we got there in the end. I opted for fancy silk ribbon for the inner pouch instead. I swear lucette gave me arthritis.

I'm still pretty new to embroidery, so this was a real level up project for me. I used wool felt for the leaves and pomegranates to give them a little dimensionality (and to better hide any satin stitch sins) TIL, embroidering velveteen sucks.

The pomegranates are so crunchy! I fondled them frequently throughout the making of this. But the lattice stitch with tiny gold details is my favorite part.

The laurels are a symbol of the award she's receiving. I don't love how they turned out, but they hold up okay from a distance.

Blue beads are from my local embroidery shop, Country Crafts. Silver loops came from my stash. Owl scissors from onethriftystitcher on Etsy. Wool pieces are from my local wool store Black Sheep Wool.

Overall, I have some improvements to make if I ever do another one, but after some 100 hours of work poured into this little guy, I couldn't be more proud of myself. I hope she loves it and uses it until it falls apart.

I had to wait forever to order the tassels, and when they got here, they kind of threw the color balance from my first draft.

Does anyone else play everything out on the floor like this??

I'm still very charmed by my fake gold work and crunchy beading. I'm out of those beads, however. Not sure what will go in the middle here yet...big blue tassel???

I'm not sure what to do with the waist band yet. The triangles aren't quite doing it for me. But I didn't want to bead more. Stamp won't fit. Not sure I want to commit to a totally new element like different trim or rhinestones. Do I abandon the wide waist band altogether..? Decisions..

The stamps sure came out pretty though! Glad I went with those instead of the original applique. I think I've finally got the technique for wood block stamping down.

Everything except the tassels was already in my stash. (Well. And some emergency seed beads to blend into the wreaths when I realized I wouldn't have enough 😬. They had neither the size nor color match to my stash beads. I agonized about it for days.)

I'm trying not to buy anything new for it, but I don't think I like this dark blue silk... Or maybe it's the silver appliques ?? I have some darker variations of those stashed.. I'm out of the beads that make up the laurel wreaths, too, so I need to think of something else to put between them. Not sure about the silver sequins. Maybe a blue wreath? Hrmmm....

Mostly sharing to get it out of my head, but please feel free to give feedback.

I will order tassels (the one purchase allowed). Maybe that'll be enough to pull it together... These are the contenders. Upper left is my favorite.

I want to riff on this belt I made forever ago. I can definitely bust out the stamps for the blue one, but I'd have to buy paint.

Funny enough, this purple belt was also a stash buster. Those stamps were tester swatches for a different project. Appliques are from curtain samples I got from a fabric store that went out of business a decade ago. I think I only bought the rhinestones new.