Wrestling Embroidery

[Knickertwist]

I do believe this is my very first needlework post! Woo hoo! Please excuse the long winded intro... I just copied it from my blog post on this project.

Ok... so Chris Jericho is on Dancing with the Stars this season. I adore Chris Jericho. He's really funny. He's charismatic. He's from Winnipeg. If you haven't heard of Chris before you're probably not a professional wresting fan. He's the best in the world at what he does! He's the man of 1004 holds! He'll save us all! Y2J!

Chris' appearance on DwtS has spurred an awful lot of snobby comments about wrestling and wrestlers. The depth of hatred some people feel toward this form of entertainment (we all know it's entertainment right?) is both laughable and disturbing. Anyway, in an attempt to combat the negativity I've decided to profess my love for those men in tights through craft.

When I was a wee gal (in the days of the very first Wrestlemania) I was a big wrestling fan. I'm not a hard core follower now, I only catch a bit of it here and there, but I do find myself quickly sucked in. The crazy story lines, the good guys and baddest baddies, the costumes, faux fur, glitter, explosions, muscles and high flying action to boot... really, its the perfect source of crafting inspiration!

So I've spent the last week or so stitching up some of my favourite old time wrestlers...

Andre the Giant


Sgt. Slaughter


Macho Man Randy Savage


Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka


(excuse the wrinkles...) Iron Sheik


Big Show (I know, I know... he's not an old timey guy)


Stitching these guys has been a ton of fun. These are the first 'real' stitchy projects I've worked on and I'm sure I'll be doing more. Besides, I've got to get an homage to Jericho in somewhere (he did inspire this set of stitchery after all) ... and then there's Undertaker, he'd be fun to do... and maybe Kane... and ... oh, you get the idea

[Sandroo]

Okay - you are like my total soul mate!!!  I grew up on the old-school wrestling as well, and sucked my hubby into it when we first got together.  You have TOTALLY inspired me to get off me lazy bum and do similar works!   I'm off to search for Jeff hardy images now!  lol

Great job!

[aethelberga]

Seconded. I saw the thumbnail, and thought "Is that Andre the Giant?". I love your work. I was a fan of Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat & The British Bulldogs too.

[jennythor]

love this idea! i dont think i can stitch like that though, i would love to see the undertaker, around the time when he would come in with the pallbearer! so sweet

[spikefan]

So awesome! The Macho Man one is my favorite.

[Knickertwist]

Thanks guys. It was a load of fun to do these

[Correlating]

OOH! these are awesome!!! Please do hacksaw jim dugan (love those crossed eyes!) and george the animal steel! you could stitch him up biting into a turnstyle with real stuffing spilling out!!!! these rock! love andre (RIP <3)

[NikkiZBM]

Wow, you did a really nice job capturing the likeness of each guy!  Good job.  You should definitely do one of Jericho!

[Mandyhello]

OHHHHHHH YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAH!

Sorry, cough, Macho Man syndrome

Awesome job, I love your andre the giant!

[microjivvy]

I grew up in the Tampa Bay area during the era of Gordon Solie -- my dad actually took us to a couple of matches at the "Sportatorium". I mostly remembered being thrilled just to be there... and that it was very loud.

Which is to say, I LOVE these.  And Andre is my absolute fave of these pieces.

But only because you didn't do Dusty Rhodes.