The Princess And The Toad Cowl - WIP Pics

This is the first work in progress pic of the decoration of the piece. I have ruffled some light green lace to the bottom of the cowl and layered it with some ruffled old gold tulle. I was going to use two foam balls wrapped in gold cloth hanging on the ends of the pull but I can't find any fabric that looks the way I want it. I could wrap them in tulle but its not going to cover the white of the balls enough



I have found a fabulous tutorial for making organza water lilies but I won't be putting them on the piece I shall be making them large and scattering them all around the ground when I photograph the piece. I'm also a collector of frog prince sculptures so I'm going to have either my favourite wirework frog or my little green prince balancing on the hand of my model.

Now to stitch the ruffles to the cowl.

Now the cowl is felted

Some photographs of my cowl now its felted and dried

Felted Cowl - the princess and the toad

You know what, I've just taken the cowl out of the machine and it looks good but I have decided not to go with the mermaid theme but to go with something completely different.

I'm currently listening to Emily Loizeau's cd Pays Savauge (I recommend it simply for the photographs, you get a wonderful french boho collection with a bearded lady,dandies, silk and furs, long skirts and tousled curls, top hats and horns) and I fell in love with the mix of languages and troubadourish style that echos through the entire album.

She has a wonderful song on there called "The Princess And The Toad" and it made me totally change my plans for this cowl. I'll still be decorating it with muslin but this will be tea stained and ruffled with gold tulle, old lace, pearls and water lillies and the loop pull will have two gold balls on the end to represent the ball that the princess lost in the palace pond which lead to the story itself.

I'll post some images from the album so you can see what has inspired me so much

Today I felt

Today I felt. I'm putting this cowl in to felt this morning. I'm a bit nervous as I know that the dark green main colour yarn felts like a dream, really tight and solid but the rest of it is made up of baby wool, plain wool and mohair mix so I'm not certain how they will react to the process.
Its crochet in filet stitch so its quite light but the felting should give it some body and shape




If its successful then I am planning to add ruffles of muslin, to the bottom and seed pearls dotted around the darker sections to give it an underwater mermaid/shipwreck look.

Its in the machine now so I wil check itevery 20 mins to make sure its going alright

Talk of mermaids my doll wings are finished and I now need to decide it I wil make her some arms or not as she looks slightly off balance just with the wings at the back