rock | Mr X Stitch

Hollywood Vampires embroidery souvenir As the title of my column suggests, aside from family and friends, my life revolves around craft and rock music. And one of my favourite bands is the Hollywood Vampires, a supergroup fronted by actor Johnny Depp, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry and the legendary Alice Cooper. Sooooo excited to see the Hollywood Vampires live a few years ago! Their music is fantastic. I was lucky enough to see them live a few years ago and they are a great combo, all excellent musicians in their own right. It was a fantastic night but I did not buy any memorabilia and instantly regretted it on the way home. So I thought I’d make my own. While trying to decide what to do I decided to have a read of a fantastic book my husband had bought me. It’s called The History of Rock for Big Fans and Little Punks and it’s really fun. For each musician or band you get their background and fun facts put together by Rita Nabais and a brilliant illustration by Joana Ray. How cool is the cover alone? A fab book for any music lover! Love the Marilyn Manson! Well who did I spot on page 29 sitting alongside Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin but Alice Cooper himself. There he was in one of his most famous poses, in his top hat fully made up with a massive snake wrapped around him. Perfect. So I contacted Joana to ask permission to embroider her picture. The fabulous illustration of Alice Cooper by Joana Raimundo which inspired me! With permission granted I took a photo of the illustration on my mobile, printed it out and then used a light box to transfer the image onto embroidery fabric. Then I got stitching. I started with the hat and then did the snake. Then I did the eye make up, one of the most important bits of Alice Cooper’s look! And then the facial features and that amazing mouth to perfect the look on his face! Alice under way with Joana's picture guiding me along! Then I fed his hair in around those parts and added French knots for pupils and the spots on the hat. After much thought I decided not to fill in his skin. I thought that once I got his hair finished he looked complete and filled in skin might ruin the look. So there he is. My fab ideal reminder of a great night out! Now complete, Alice sits amid lots of other gig memorabilia in our house. Maybe I should sew a Johnny Depp and Joe Perry to go with him, he might be lonely on his own! Many many many thanks to the fabulous Joana Raimundo for giving me permission to sew Alice and to use her images in this column. For more info on this brilliant musical book visit Triumph Books here. and on Instagram visit @triumphbooks and @joana.ray and @thehistoryofrock Have you ever sewed your favourite band or singer? If you have I'd love to see a pic. Rock on! Cost: none, made from a small leftover piece of fabric and threads already owned, yippee! Best song for this make: Heroes by the Hollywood Vampires Best cake for this make: Blood (see what I did there, vampires, blood…) orange drizzle cake