Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Teapot Tissue Box Cover

I've had this Bucilla plastic canvas 6243 teapot tissue box cover needlepoint kit for probably 15 years.   It still has the price tag on it, which shows that I paid $11.70 for it at Bend Franklin Crafts.  I know that the branch of that store I shopped at went out of business a long time ago, and needlepoint kits cost a lot more than that now.  I have no idea why it took me so long to complete it, but I feel quite satisfied to finally wrap up this project.

The most difficult parts were constructing the handle and the spout.  Also, because the majority of project utilizes white thread, and because I outlined the canvas patterns with a black marker before cutting them out, the thread kept getting dirty each time I pulled it through the edges with the marker ink.  I should have scrubbed the ink off the canvas before doing the needlepoint.  

The assembly directions were very general with no diagrams.  I tried looking up more information on the Internet regarding how to construct the spout, but the kit was so old that I couldn't find anything beyond people trying to sell unused kits on eBay.  So, I did my best.  I noticed that in the picture on the front of the kit, the teapot was angled to not show most of the spout, and I could tell that whoever constructed the example had trouble matching up the seams just like I did.  I suspect this is one of those projects that is expected to be flawed, since perfection seems impossible given the nature of whip-stitching plastic canvas together.

But I'm happy to be done with it, and now I have a cute tissue box cover.