Here’s my first entry for the &Stitches: Old Stitches, New Tricks competition – wish me luck! I had a lot of fun learning and improvising new stitches for this project! I wound yellow thread through black backstitching to mimic rope for the Lasso of Truth and combined straight stitch and fly stitch to create the small 5-pointed stars. The ‘W’ on the bodice was done in Hungarian braided chain stitch and plain braided chain stitch, outlined by couching one strand of black thread. I’d never tried any of those stitches before and I’m happy with the texture they add. The red bodice and yellow belt were filled in with chain stitch, which I also used for the hair and most of the outlines. I filled the shorts in with stem stitch – I’d never used it as a filler stitch before and the effect is really smooth! I definitely added a couple of stitches to my repertoire and I’m happy with the end result!

***UPDATE: I placed third! Click here to check out the other winning submissions. Thanks &Stitches for a fun contest! ***

I used an erasable marker to trace the design off this lunch box.

The red bodice and yellow belt were filled with chain stitch; the ‘W’ was worked with hungarian and plain braided chain stitch then outlined in black couching; the stars on the shorts were done with a combination of fly and straight stitch on a background of blue stem stitch; the Lasso of Truth was done by winding yellow thread through black backstitch.