Ready to Assemble

Over the last couple of days, I've been getting ready to FFO the pears project. I took several fabrics to my stitching group on Monday and had them help me select one appropriate for the backs of the 3D pears.

This is what we came up with.

It is fabric that has been in my stash for a couple of decades and should work out well.

I traced the stitching line around the back of each fabric to use as a guide when I'm sewing them together. I also decided to use an actual piece of a twig for the pear stem instead of a rolled up piece of felt.

What a surprise! I had the perfect felted wool in my stash for the leaves and base.

I also prepped the stitching by fusing interfacing to the back. The pattern has templates for the fabric back, leaves, base and a separate one for the interfacing - which omits the seam allowance. It's good to fuse interfacing to the back of stitching before FFOing. It stabilizes the fabric and locks the backs of the stitches in place. There's less distortion of the stitching when stretching or stuffing it as a 3D item.

They're all ready to assemble! Now to find the motivation to do it. I'm great on the planning and stitching. I just seem to have a block when it comes to FFO an item. I guess that's why doing model stitching is so satisfying for me. Once my bit is done, I just send it off to the designer to finish as they want.