The entire concept of this reliquary bag is to make it very obviously the Baba Yaga with her iconic hut. But what I had completed up to this point was missing a crucial piece. The feet!
I set upon the task of sketching out two identical chicken feet, then stitching and shading them on linen ground fabric. I wanted to make sure that they had dimension and texture. But also that the back was neat and tidy so I could move on to the dreaded step 2:
I will admit that cutting out hours of stitching was terrifying! I clipped the corners and notched edges so that the next steps would be easier. I did employ a technique I have used in past applique and paper piece quilting and used a glue stick to help turn all those edges nice and neat. Then used a needle to help smooth over those edges crisp to then apply over a wool felt backing.
I regret I did not get a photo of the finished feet with the backing. I will admit I was very focused on the task and was racing against the glue which I knew was not a permanent hold but just a finger on the knot to get these nice and safely stitched. I applied the wool backing with a simple whip stitch.
Next was putting it all together! I sandwiched the pouch front and back together and inserted the feet in a space I had left for them on the back panel. Then blind stitched to secure all the way around.I am pretty pleased on how the feet came out. Next I did some lucet cording to stitch over all the edges and to make a handle. Then thread in the cording and make tassels.
And here she is! I'm ready to take her to some events and put her out to display.
I learned a LOT with this project and I built a lot more confidence to move forward to use period materials.
