stylish ladies IV

This week I've been stitching madly on Fifi, the bombshell in the middle of the canvas.  I originally thought she didn't have much area to stitch and I would have a chance to catch up on the blank spots in the first 2 ladies.  Not a chance.  Of course, some stitches take longer to do than others.  Or longer to figure out how to do their compensating stitches.

I finally got to do the Kalem stitch on Fifi's cloche. It's a slow-moving stitch, though.  You have to be careful not to pierce the fiber of the previous stitch.  For the white of the flower I did the Woven or T-stitch, after much flipping through stitch books looking for ideas.  French knots wrapped once form the pink center of the flower. 

I can't wait to finish Fifi's hair--I got started just so I could see how it would look.  I did 6 strands of splendor in French knots wrapped twice.  This produces a larger, splattier knot that is perfect for the look I wanted.  Her "ear-bobs" (a Southernism) are Satin Stitch in Petite Sparkle Rays.

Her collar is done in the mosaic stitch and her jacket is the Milanese.  Talk about a tough stitch to figure out how it fits in odd corners.  Whoopee!   I think I got it right, but I'm not looking too hard to find a mistake.

I got the idea for her blouse stitch from Anne Stradal's blog
http://www.thecapestitcher.blogspot.com/.  She used the Cashmere stitch horizontally to simulate water.  I decided to use it vertically for a silk camisole-look. 

Next week--Giselle and all that hair!