Year of Bunting Challenge 2

March 1, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Year of Bunting Challenge 2

Hurrah for the Year of Bunting!

It’s not really catching on, but it’s only March so I’m still hoping. In case you’ve missed it and you don’t have a clue what I’m on about, I announced at the beginning of the year that 2019 will be the Year of Bunting.

To make it fun, I’m setting challenges.

Challenge 1 was to make some bunting to decorate some furniture.

This is Hazel’s that she made to decorate her dresser. She found inspiration in the snowdrops in her garden.

Here is Christine’s bunting with her pretty crocheted flowers in between the flags.

They both won pincushion craft kits. Challenge 2 will have prizes too, so please have a go and enter!

I know that sometimes it’s offputting. You wonder what other people are doing, whether yours will be as good, whether there’s any point as hundreds of people will probably be entering and whether anybody will even notice yours.

I love seeing what you’ve made! This blog has some lovely loyal readers but it’s small and your contribution will be noticed :).

Challenge 2

So are you ready for the next challenge?

Challenge 2 is to sew some bunting embroidery.

I love this because it’s an easy way to sneak some in! Even if some soulless person in your house objects to you hanging up bunting everywhere, it’s much harder to object to a little bit embroidered on a tea towel and, let’s face it, there’s a good chance they won’t even notice!

This is some embroidered bunting I’m working on at the moment. I haven’t quite decided exactly what I’m going to do with it yet, but as I’ve managed to lose all my bank cards this week, I might be turning it into a new purse.

Exactly how you do your embroidered bunting is up to you. You can embroider by hand or use the sewing machine. It can be something functional, like a towel or a purse, or something purely decorative.

Here are some ideas of things you can embroider:

Tea towels
Dish cloths
Bathroom towels
Face cloths
A table cloth
Napkins
A top or a pair of trousers
Pillowcase or a duvet cover

There are some more ideas here on my bunting Pinterest board, and I have an embroidery board too.

The challenge will end at midnight GMT on Sunday 17th March 2019.

Please enter, it will be fun! And there will be prizes!

Cherry Blossom Embroidery Tutorial

February 2, 2018 · Leave a Comment

Cherry Blossom Embroidery Tutorial

Who doesn’t love cherry blossom?

Although I love winter, I’m looking forward to spring now. I spotted a daffodil last week, and I’ll be keeping a close eye on the cherry trees round the corner from my house!

For a few weeks every year, those trees are the most beautiful thing ever, and I’ll be finding lots of excuses to walk past them!

To remind me of those beautiful trees and that spring isn’t too far off, I’ve had a little go at some cherry blossom embroidery.

I used stem stitch for the trunk and branches, and French knots and seed beads for the blossom.

If you don’t want to draw your own tree, you can download the one I used here.

Cherry Blossom Embroidery

You Will Need

Fabric for the embroidery (I used a cotton linen blend), embroidery thread in pink and white, pink seed beads, a hoop for framing (you could also use this for the embroidering, although I found it easier with a larger hoop), felt for backing, sewing thread, needle, scissors, pencil.

I have some kits for sale for this project here on Etsy if you don’t fancy hunting down the stuff yourself.

Before You Start

I drew the trunk and the branches, but not the blossom. To make it easier to sew, I drew lines on the trunk that extended into branches.

If you are confident at drawing, you could draw the tree directly onto the fabric. Otherwise, have a practice on a piece of paper first, or download the one I used, then transfer the design to the fabric.

To do this, you could either use dressmakers’ carbon paper or a light box.

Embroidering the Cherry Tree

1. Using stem stitch and 2 strands of embroidery thread, start embroidering the trunk. Where you can, extend the lines of the trunk into branches. There’s a tutorial for stem stitch here if you need one.

2. Where there are gaps in the trunk, fill them with stem stitch.

3. Using 2 strands in a darker shade of pink, embroider some French knots. Sew some near the trunk and branches, and others in the space around them.

If you need a tutorial for French knots, there’s one here.

4. Take the lighter shade of pink and sew more French knots near the branches and in the spaces. Try to keep a tree shape. Unless you want to make a tree with not much blossom, you will need to sew French knots past the ends of the branches.

5. Add some French knots in white.

6. Fill in the spaces some more with more pink, until you’re happy with how it looks.

7. Sew some seed beads in between the French knots. I used about 20 opaque beads and about 30 translucent ones.

Finishing the Embroidery

1. Take the hoop you’re planning to use for displaying your embroidery. Remove the inside ring of the hoop and place it over the embroidery. Draw round it.

I’d recommend doing this on the wrong side, which I didn’t do and immediately regretted it!

2. Using the same part of the hoop, draw round a piece of felt. Cut it out.

3. Trim the embroidery down to 2 – 3 cm away from where you drew.

4. Put the embroidery into the hoop. Sew a running stitch around the excess fabric at the back and pull it tight.

5. Sew the felt to the back of the embroidery.

Now you have a little bit of spring to enjoy all year round!If you’d like to buy a kit with all the materials included, I have some for sale on Etsy here.

Negative Space Embroidery Clasp Purse

January 12, 2018 · 3 Comments

Negative Space Embroidery Clasp Purse

Negative space embroidery is a fun way to create letters and other simple shapes. Instead of embroidering the letter or the shape, you embroider the space around it.

You can do this on all kinds of things (I’ve seen lovely embroidery hoop art things on Pinterest). I chose to do this to a little purse. I used the first letter of my name, but you could do anything, as long as it’s a simple shape!

French knots are great for negative space embroidery.

There’s something very satisfying about sewing French knots. Once you get the hang of it, they’re easy to do. The trick is to pull the thread tight around the needle, then poke the needle through the fabric next to where you started the stitch, not in the same place or your French knot will disappear!

To make it up into a purse, I used the same method as I did for this embroidered clasp purse. Here’s a tutorial if you want to make one yourself! And you might be interested to know that I have these little purses as kits for sale here on Etsy.

Negative Space Embroidery: Clasp Purse Tutorial

I have included some affiliate links.

You Will Need

Fabric for the outer and the lining, a purse clasp, interfacing (optional), embroidery thread and a needle, Google Docs or similar and a printer, a pencil, usual sewing supplies. An embroidery hoop is also useful.

Before You Start

1. The purse clasp I used was approximately 9 cm x 6 cm (3.5 inches x 2.5 inches), and if you’re using one the same size, you can download the pattern pieces here.

Otherwise you will need to make the pattern piece, and the instructions for doing this can be found in this tutorial here.

2. Once you’ve got your pattern piece sorted out, you can decide how big you need your letter to be. The easiest thing to do is to find a font you like on Google docs, type the letter and print it out. You will need to check that it will be the correct size, and don’t forget that your purse piece will include a seam allowance!

For my letter, I used a font called Alice, in size 200.

3. If you haven’t sewn French knots before, it’s probably a good idea to have a go on a spare piece of fabric first. There’s a tutorial here if you need one.

Cutting Out

Using your pattern piece, cut 2 pieces from your lining fabric and 2 from interfacing. Cut one from the outer, and for the other outer piece, draw it onto the fabric but don’t cut it out yet! It’s much easier to embroider it first, then cut it out when you’ve finished the letter.

Sewing the Letter

1. Cut out the letter you printed and draw round it onto the fabric.

2. Start to sew French knots around the outside of your letter. If you’re using more than one colour or shade, space them out a bit so that you’ve got room to come back in with a different colour. I used 3 shades of pink plus white.

3. Once you’ve done this, go round again, then once more so that the French knots are 3 deep. If you have using a letter with a space inside, like an A, a P or a B, you might like to fill this in.

4. Now add some more French knots around your letter, but more spaced out. I did these mostly about 3 deep as well, but you can decide to do more or less depending on what you like!

Assembling the Purse

1. Place one of the purse pieces on top of an interfacing piece with the right side up. Take the other outer piece and place that on top of the outer piece so that the right sides are together. Place the other piece of interfacing on top.

2. Take the clasp frame and line the top of the bobbles up with the top edge of the purse. Check that it is centred and that the distance all the way round the top between the clasp and the purse pieces is roughly the same.

3. Using pins, mark where the top of the hinges are on the purse pieces.

4. Sew the bottom of the purse outer between the pins. Repeat for the lining.

5. Pop the purse lining inside the outer so that the right sides are together. Pin the lining to the outer. Leaving an opening on one side, sew the lining to the outer.

6. Turn the purse the right way out. Slip stitch the opening.

Attaching the Clasp Frame

To sew in the purse frame, you will need to identify the centre hole on one side.

You will also need to find the centre of the top edge of your purse. The easiest way to do this is usually by folding it in half.

1. Take your needle and thread and bring the thread through from the inside of the purse to the outside, in the centre of the top edge, about 5 mm down from the edge.

2. Now bring the needle through that hole in the centre of the purse frame, from the inside to the outside. Push the edge of the purse into the purse frame so that it is right inside. Pull the thread taut.

3. Put the needle through the next hole and through the top of the purse. Pull it out through the other side so that it comes out just underneath the frame. You might need to do this at a bit of an angle. We’re aiming for the stitching to be hidden underneath the purse frame.

4. Take the needle back through the purse and the frame to the next hole.

5. Now put the needle through the hole where you ended the first stitch, through to the wrong side.

6. Pull it taut, then sew upwards through the second hole away from where you have just sewn.

Keep checking that the edge of the purse is pushed right inside the purse frame.

You are basically working a backstitch to sew the frame to the purse, with the neat bit of the backstitch visible on the front and the messier side hidden underneath the other side of the frame, on the inside of the purse.

When you get to the hinge, tie the thread off on the wrong side.

Then go back to the centre hole and sew the other half of that side to the purse in the same way.

Repeat for the other side.

Now your little purse is finished!

Fern Stitch: Hand Embroidery

February 28, 2017 · 5 Comments

Fern Stitch: Hand Embroidery

Fern stitch is a useful stitch to know, especially if you’re sewing plants and flowers. Obviously you can use it to sew ferns and other plants, but it can be used in other ways as well! On the little purse I’ve been making, I’ve used fern stitch for the lavender.

Fern stitch is made up of three little stitches, sewn in the same way and repeated along a line. It is worked from top to bottom.

How to Sew Fern Stitch

1. Bring your needle up to the right side of the fabric at the top of the first stitch. Make a vertical stitch.

2. Bring the needle back up to the side, then take the thread through the same spot as the bottom of the vertical stitch.

3. Bring the needle up on the other side and make another stitch in the same way, ending in the same place as the others.

4. Make another vertical stitch by bringing the needle up just underneath the first stitch, then taking it back through where the first stitch ends.

5. Make the stitches at the sides in the same way as previously, ending the stitches at the bottom of the second vertical stitch.

You are basically sewing a backstitch, while stopping off to make the stitches at the side.

To keep it neat, try to ensure that the stitches are the same size.

If you worry about neatness, you could draw 3 lines, equally spaced apart. The centre line would be where you would sew the vertical stitches and the lines at the side would be a guide for the stitches that come out at the sides. The top of the stitch would touch the line. I didn’t bother with drawing lines, I found just sewing the stitches by sight was fine. If the odd stitch was a bit wonky, I just undid it!

If you like learning embroidery stitches, you might also like these posts.

Lazy daisy stitch

Woven wheel stitch

Stem stitch

And if you would like the embroidery design that I’ve used on the little purse pictured above, you can download it for free here!

These are affiliate links for embroidery stuff on Hobbycraft.

Linking up here.

How to Sew French Knots

February 24, 2017 · Leave a Comment

How to Sew French Knots

The French knot is a funny little stitch that can be used to add a different sort of texture to a piece of embroidery. My favourite way to use them is as blossom, but they can be used whenever a round stitch is called for, but a woven wheel would be too big.

The stitches can be pulled tight or left a bit looser.

How to Embroider French Knots

1. Bring the thread through to the right side of the fabric.

2. With the point of the needle close to the base of the thread, wrap the thread around the needle a couple of times.

3. Pull the thread so that it is fairly taut.

4. Take the needle through the fabric to the wrong side, close to where you brought it through originally. Be careful not to put it through in exactly the same place, or your French knot will disappear!

5. Keep your thumb on the knot while you pull the rest of the thread through.

That’s one French knot!