OhSewCrafty Blog

• Pattern: by Mirabilia, hair modified by me
• Materials: 30 ct “blue jeans” linen by Weeks Dye Works, DMC, Kreinik, Mill Hill
• Size: 15.5″ x 7.9″
• Time to stitch: 2.5 months among other projects

My third mermaid happy dance!  One of these days I’ll have gorgeous mermaid “gallery” in my master bath.

The pattern is great, no errata.  I decided to change the hair.  As charted it is mostly dark brown with some blue patches.  And I wanted to make her blonde since my other mermaids have dark hair.  More information about my conversion is here.  I switched out the beads at the end of her hair to MH 2010- though I kept the beads attached to her crown as charted.  I kept one blue patch because I thought it made a good base for her crown.

The fabric is 30 count “blue jeans” linen hand-dyed by Weeks Dye Works.  This is my first time stitching on Weeks Dye Works linen and I like it, it’s soft and easy to count.  The color is a mid-dark blue, some depth from the hand dye-ing, but the overall effect is more solid than most hand-dyed linen.  I think this design looks great on a darker fabric, provides more contrasts with the beads, especially those in the “bubble trail”.  The model was stitched on 32 count, but I’m glad I went slightly larger.  Even so, I had to skip some of the beads that were densely spaced. 

This pattern involves extensive beading- there are seven types of beads plus some treasures.  Most of the beads require counting for placement.  The “bubble trail” required hours of work.  I love the teardrop treasure beads on her shoulder strands.  Her tail is nice and sparkly too.

So what’s next?  I’m down to 7 WIPS, of which 3 are more UFO’s than WIPs.  I’ll start a new mermaid probably- either Mermaid of the Pearls or Siren and Shipwreck.