I have to admit I have still not finished my Epic Pokemon Generation I but I will get there eventually, got a couple more pages done recently. I find my nemesis is the hunching - I am prone to getting really hyper focused and forget to take breaks and as a result my neck and shoulders seize up completely. To try and combat this I thought I would try some smaller projects, and given I adore Akira Toriyama's sense of design I have gone for some Dragon Quest monster sprites.
To get them to come out small enough for brooches I decided to use 28 count linen (plus I don"t really like the look of raw Aida). My first experiment was in cross stitch with one thread of DMC but I kept breaking the thread and it got fluffy and burred really quickly. I ended up going for Petite Point stitching with two strands of floss (the extra bonus is half as many stitches to sew!).
This is the largest size brooch I have made and is 5cm in diameter, about the biggest I think anyone would want to wear really. I initially tried using a badge maker to create the brooches but it is very touchy when you use fabric (particularly as the linen is fairly thick) and you can ruin your piece horribly easily. Plus the badge back itself seemed a bit cheap and nasty considering all the work that goes into the stitching, so I came up with an alternative method.
If enough of you are interested I could put together a tutorial on how to do this it is a little fiddly but worth it in my opinion. A word of warning though brooches made this way will not survive a trip through the washing machine (you don't want to find that out the hard way believe me).
The smallest size I have made is 2cm, which makes for a very cute little button.
I have to admit I am completely addicted there are so many adorable sprites. I don't know what I am going to do with all of these but I just keep making them. This one is 4cm across:
One last picture, I have plenty more brooches but no more pictures and it is too dark to take more (natural light is way better). This one is 3cm across: