Ruth Bader Ginsberg: The Value of Trial and Error

The Ruth Bader Ginsberg "DISSENT" ornament was one of the first I made. I had a Notorious RBG maternity shirt, and when I wanted to see if I could do faces it was my first crack at it.

RBG--first attempt.

Not bad for a first crack at it. But then I made a bunch more ornaments and this one--though really popular--was bugging me a little bit. I had learned not to accidentally split a stitch on small details (you can see that her "lace" collar is pretty wonky in places), that thinner, stiffer felt works much better for lettering, and better techniques for doing eyes.

So I decided to give it another shot and got this:

RBG -- Second attempt.

Much better eyes. Thicker, denser face felt, more conscientious collar stitching. Incorporating my husband's feedback that the letters were a bit hard to read, I included the center stitch that I had been including on more recent ornaments.

Here's the before and after:

I think I'd make the center-stitch a light grey color, were I going to improve this a bit more.