Sunday, January 28, 2007

Oh, Artoo.

You know what's fun? Embroidery.

You know what's even more fun? Embroidering something pleasing.

But, what is pleasing? What what what... Oh yes, of course. Star Wars.


I have a friend who really appreciates hand-made gifts. Seeing as it was this friend's birthday, I was going to embroider some tea towels for him using the completely adorable patterns from Sublime Stitching. In particular, I thought spaceships with little creatures in them would be great.

Enter my wasband, who kindly accompanied me to the local needlecraft store to get more colors of embroidery floss.

WASBAND: It's too bad you don't have enough time to knit him that Star Wars hat.
ME: I'm gonna embroider these tea towels for him. They'll be great.
WASBAND: But he loves Star Wars.
ME: I know.
WASBAND: You should embroider C3PO and Darth Vader on those tea towels.
ME: What?
WASBAND: He'd love it!
ME: But I have these iron-on patterns --
WASBAND: We'll go on the internet and find a pattern. It'll be great! Come on! Here's some bright blue embroidery floss for R2D2 right here! Look!

My wasband loves to come up with things for me to make. Loves it. And when he locks on an idea, he gets really enthusiastic and kinda can't stop mentioning it and how awesome it is. He's all good ideas, my wasband; however, he rarely realizes what's involved. ("You should make a rocketship so we can go to the moon! The moon is awesome! You could totally do it! It'll be great! Do it!") There have been many times I've crafted into the wee hours of the night in order to finish one of Mister Big Ideas' projects. This was one of those times. (Proof? The wee-hours lighting in these photos.)

In all fairness, my wasband did help me find and re-size a drawing from the world wide web. I then traced the drawing onto the tea towel with a pencil and hand-embroidered it. Backstitch for all the outlining. Satin stitch for the colored-in parts. And a few french knots for the red and white dots on the front top part.

I also machine-sewed a little "Made with Love by Dr. B." cloth label on one of the edges (labels courtesy of my SIL).

I particularly like the back of the towel:


I think it looks like a cool drawing.

Hey! Wouldn't it be great to have a whole set of these towels? You know, with tie fighters, and the Death Star and all that stuff? That would look so great in a dude's kitchen!

Oh God. That last part sounded a lot like my wasband. Only it was me.

Huh. Well.

That was awkward.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh no! Now you've gone and done it - you've joined the dark side and am dragging me into it too! My hubby loves your towels (me too, if I have to admit to it).

Dr. B. said...

Tienne - Thank you for your kind words about my towels. But, you know what? You started it! You and that blasted hat that my wasband will not stop talking about. The least I could do was give a little back. Ha HA!

Anonymous said...

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http://superbuzzy.com/

Kristy said...

You always have the most interesting projects. I mean really, Dr. B, I can't think of one other person I know who would make Star Wars hand towels. They are quite ingenius, really. They are an excellent kitchen-crafty-gift-for-a-man.

I am enlightened every time I come here! :)

Kim said...

Great project - and the embroidery is so neat on the back!

Anonymous said...

"But he loves Star Wars". Oh, man. That's some funny Gundar(k) shizit.

Your friend who likes homemade gifts probably feels guilty that he got the towels before others got their hats.

Ah, well.

I, myself, have always wondered if it's considered wildly inappropirate to use a TEA towel as a bathroom HAND towel. A tea towel in the kitchen will only become soiled. An artoo on a bathroom towel, however, will maintain his shiny throne-room luster. It's true. Although most people would assume the majority of soiling occurs in the bathroom, it's just a myth. Surprisingly, a bathroom towel has a much longer shelf life (rod life?) than a kitchen towel.

"But he loves Star Wars" hilarious...

Leopold Bloom

penny said...

Oh dear! (Said in a very C3P0 voice) I can't believe your tea towels! What have you done? Now I must make a bunch! Do we get to see your Darth Vader one, too?