The Lady and the Scissors

(Not the greatest picture, thanks to indoor winter photography on a phone, but you get the idea!)

I really like how this turned out.  The stitched lady is what I was working on in my car a couple weeks ago, now completed and with beads added for a bit of bling.  The scissors are a well-used pair of Robert Klaas that I found in an old sewing basket that I won at an auction.  I've had them cleaned, but it seems that the tarnish is permanent...  I don't mind, though.  They work fine for snipping threads, they are rather unique and lovely, and I wonder what stories they might tell.  I have another pair, too - a little larger, and the handles are a bit out of alignment.  The scissor repair man I took them to wasn't sure he could fix that, so we just left them as they were (he cleaned/sharpened the blades).

The whole piece was a bit of an experiment.  I put it together kind of like a pillow - first I attached fabric to the left side of the front of the stitched piece, then I attached the backing.  I left the end where the pocket is open.  I turned it right-side out (like a pillow) and sewed along the seam to make the "spine."  Then I hemmed the pocket and attached it by hand - there are probably better ways to do this, but I wasn't confident in my measuring and placement skills!  Then I cut a piece of mat board to fit inside the back so the finished piece wouldn't be all floppy, and whip-stitched it closed.