A Preppy Odyssey - Scarf with Brooks Brothers Logo - Project begun (6/21/2011)

Finished Project:  I finished hemming my Golden Fleece scarf this morning (8/12/2011), the embroidery was completed on 8/3/2011.  I called this an Odyssey because I don't often venture into monogramming,  Elizabethan embroidery has been my main area of interest for 15 years.  However, lately monogramming has been intriguing me.

This is a scarf to go with a Preppy outfit - very casual and quirky.   A polo shirt and Seersucker jacket - both from Brooks Brothers.  I love Brooks Brothers' clothing - love the quality and the style.  I have shirts, skirts and sweaters from the early 1990s that look as good as new and I still wear them.

 I downloaded a copy of the BB logo - a sheep suspended by a ribbon.  (Their ribbon reminds me of the motifs used in French antique monogrammed linens.  I think that's why I've always liked their logo so much.  Their logo was adopted in the mid 1850s -  they copied it from the British wool merchants, who copied it from a medieval chivalric order.)

 I printed the logo and colored it in the blue I'll use for the embroidery, then pinned the paper copy to a piece of linen to see how it will look with my outfit.  I think it looks pretty good.   All it needs is a pair of white capris and keds white sneakers.

 I'm redrawing the logo so it will work with embroidery stitches.  You can see the start of my drawing to the left of my outfit above.  I think I'll change the bow and use one very similar to what I used on my pink monogram scarf, which is typically found on old French monograms.

Here are my plans for the embroidery:

The sheep's face will be filled in solid, and so will the bow/ribbon with padded Satin Stitch, possibly the legs.  I will attempt to do "Voided" Satin stitch for the eye.  The sheeps body will be outlined with either button hole stitch or New England Laid to create a scalloped edge (see my drawing in photo above).....

With the project now completed, the following details what plans I was able to keep and what had to change:

 * I used DMC (color 322) coton a broder #25 to embroidery the ribbon, sheep's face, legs and horn in padded satin stitch.

 *DMC Cotton Mouline Special (6 stranded floss)  was used to embroider the buttonhole stitch scallops outlining his body.  I felt the coton a broder was too heavy for these fine scallops.

* Linen is cambric weight, 60ct.  So light weight and drapes wonderfully.  It comes in this beautiful yellow that matches the stripes in my polo  perfectly!

I wanted his eye to be voided  (meaning it was left devoid of any embroidery).  I actually stitched it that way and while it looked great technically, it gave the sheep an evil look.  I asked a friend's opinion and she agreed that he looked evil.  I tried adding a pupil - it wasn't enough.  Finally, filling in the area with long straight stitches running the other way worked.  

Here you see the back of my work.  This is the least tidy padded satin stitch I've done so far, so I'm not real pleased with that.  But, surprisingly on these scarves, you never see the back while wearing them.

The finished scarf with the outfit I planned it for shown  to the left.

I'm pleased with how this turned out.  The colors look great with this outfit, and I know I have several other outfits it will coordinate with beautifully.  

For comparison, here is the original logo (left), and my finished embroidered version:

Adieu to Summer 2011 projects.

Time to begin planning for Autumn....