Creator Spotlight: Tales from the Stitch Makes Crochet Creepy

August 18, 2020

Tales from the Stitch Crochet — Photos: Tales From the Stitch

If you’re like me, you can never have enough horror collectables. Of course, I pick up the awesome mass-produced stuff like Funko Pops, but I pride myself on finding obscure things to fill up my nerd cave: a packaged Kurt Russell Stargate figure here, a Jaws Big Mouth Billy Bass there. When I saw the detailed work that Tales from the Stitch puts into their crocheted pop culture dolls, I knew one would make the perfect addition to my collection.

Visit the site here: www.talesfromthestitch.com!

The artist behind Tales from the Stitch – or The Stitchkeeper, as she likes to be called – learned how to crochet from her grandmother by the time she was eight. It wasn’t until her late 20s that she realized her talent could be intertwined with one of her biggest passions from an extremely young age, horror movies. She picked up the hook again, took inspiration from a book called Super Scary Crochet, and got to work. To attest to her dedication, she spent six to seven years creating dolls and honing her craft before she felt confident enough to start creating and publicly showing her renditions of the horror creatures and characters that inspire her work.

The amount of focus and care that goes into the creation of every single doll is incredible. She often only does one-offs of the dolls, making you feel more connected with the art – you feel like that piece was made specifically to be on your shelf and no one else’s. She goes into great detail about the creation of each individual doll on her website. She writes, “Every single doll starts off with nothing but a ball of yarn and a vision. I personally crochet each doll with my own hands. Once the doll is crocheted, I use different techniques which include fabric paint, felt, buttons and pretty much anything I can find that can be incorporated into the yarn to create perfection. I also use a technique that I just call ‘yarn sculpting’ where I just shape the dolls by gluing or sewing more yarn onto the original yarn. After the doll is complete, I do an inspection to make sure everything is perfect. Seriously, I have a basket of dolls that may look fine to others but have failed my inspection.”

Tales from the Stich doesn’t only tackle the heavy hitters in horror. She has done many films and shows for the more obscure horror lovers as well, including dolls from films like Attack the Block or Maniac Cop. The dolls often come with little winks and accessories to their characters, making us smile as we immediately recognize what movie they’re referencing. A couple other favorites are Tim Capello (the saxophone guy) from The Lost Boys, and the cat version of Vladislav from What We Do in the Shadows. I couldn’t help myself when seeing a doll of the laid up, open-shirt, sexualized-for-whatever-reason doll of Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park. I just happened to be online as soon as it was posted, and I purchased it immediately. The doll was shipped quickly, arrived in perfect condition, and is soft, fully poseable, and a wonderful addition to my collection.

Got my @thestitchkeeper Ian Malcolm. I love it! #JurassicPark #IanMalcolm #LifeFindsAWay #WellUhThereItIs pic.twitter.com/xgvN4JxH2D

— Rosey4Boston (@Rosey4B) August 16, 2020

Most of the dolls on the site are around $80 CAD (roughly $59 USD), which is an extremely acceptable price for the sheer amount of hard work and extreme detail that goes into each individual piece of artwork. There is also a clearance section, letting some full-size dolls go for as little as $20 CAD (around $14 USD) and mini dolls for $10 CAD (around $8 USD).

I totally recommend taking some time to browse the selection she currently has available and seeing if one of her dolls is for you. I also recommend pulling the trigger before someone else swoops in and buys it first. Remember, no two dolls are exactly alike. If you’re looking for a fantastic way to support the horror community and a hard-working, devoted artist, check out the Tales from the Stitch website, Instagram (@talesfromthestitch), or Twitter (@thestitchkeeper) for new doll releases.