My husband celebrated his 40th birthday recently and I was keen to sew something for him but was at pains to find something that would really appeal. So many of the things I do are not always suitable for men. It also had to be unique and ideally not cost too much money. Many years ago we had seen a cross stitch at a museum in Witney, Oxfordshire done by a little girl at the Foundling Hospital in London using her own hair. She had sewn a 'sampler' into her underskirt the result was astounding. We were struck by the poignance of this beautiful piece of work. So I decided to undertake my own cross stitch using my hair for him.
After choosing a poem I started to chart out the script onto grid paper. I used a piece of linen with quite a small cube to work in the tiny stitches were very hard to execute and I almost went blind in the process, however it does look very effective. I used four strands of my hair, anything else appeared too washed out. I have to be honest with you this was a labour of love which I have worked on for the past eight months. Hair is quite tricky to work with as it can slip around a bit and the more tired you are (I only work at night) the harder it becomes!
The effect is amazing though, and needless to say he was suitably impressed. I hope you enjoy it too and anyone out there interested in trying it themselves please feel free to contact me for any words of wisdom and encouragement.
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