Ideas For Bunting Embroidery

March 20, 2019 · 1 Comment

Challenge 2 for 2019 The Year of Bunting is to sew some bunting embroidery. The post that explains the challenge is here.

If you or the people you live with don’t want bunting hanging up everywhere, or if you already have a lot hanging up, this is a nice, easy alternative.

It doesn’t take very long (once you’ve decided what to do of course!), and you can either make it part of a new project or add it to something you have already.

If you want to join in with the challenge but you don’t know where to start, here are some ideas for embroidery, some things you could embroider and some tips to make it all easier.

Ideas For Embroidery

It’s probably easiest to sew the outline of the bunting then embroider the flags as you like.

With this one I made patterns.

For this one I sewed sheep from French knots.

In this design, the flags are appliqued, then the flowers embroidered between the flags using woven wheels and lazy daisies.

Other things you could embroider onto the bunting flags include:
Trees
Hearts
Flowers
Letters
Or you could just pick your favourite embroidery stitches and use those to decorate the flags!

Ideas For Things to Embroider

The nice thing about this is that you don’t have to make anything new if you don’t want to. It’s easy enough to add some embroidery to something that you have already.

You could even buy plain white tea towels and embroider them yourself!

Here’s a list of things you might have already, or could buy ready made, that you could add embroidery to:
Towels
Face clothes
Tea towels
Jeans
Shirts
The hem of a dress
Canvas shoes
A canvas bag
A shower curtain
A babygro
Baby bibs
Hat, scarf and gloves
A baseball cap
Plain napkins
Pillowcases

If you wanted to make something for your bunting embroidery, here are some ideas:
A drawstring bag
A purse or pouch
A fabric basket
A peg bag
Some trousers or a skirt that you’ve made yourself
A needle case

Another option is to display your finished bunting embroidery in an embroidery hoop.

Tips For Making Things Easier

You might find it easier to draw your bunting on a piece of paper first, then transfer it to the fabric.

If drawing isn’t your thing, you could make one triangle as a template, then use that to draw the others.

Instead of embroidering onto the item, you could instead embroider a piece of ribbon or bias binding. You can get ribbon made of pretty much anything! You might choose to sew onto the silky stuff, but ribbon made from cotton or linen would work well.

Sewing the outline of the bunting with the sewing machine might be quicker. On the other hand, it’s easier to keep some hand sewing near you so you can work on it whenever you have a few minutes!

DIY Embroidered Christmas Star

December 19, 2018 · 2 Comments

DIY Embroidered Christmas Star

When I was younger, I did a lot of Christmas crafting. I used to make cards and decorations and bake stuff.

Then I had kids and everything changed! I’d plan to make lots of things, then feel frustrated and annoyed that I hadn’t managed to get them done.

One year I tried to get round the fact that I had several tiny children by starting early. I was making stuff from August onwards. But because I’d been thinking about Christmas for so long, by the time it eventually came round I was sick of it!

So a couple of years ago, I made the decision to not worry too much. I’d do a bit if I had time and if I felt like it, and not attempt anything too ambitious. There is a limit to how many decorations I can hang off the tree anyway and I don’t send that many Christmas cards.

This year has been different again. Home educating my younger three means that I have boys at home in the day again. As they were showing signs of needing a break from the academic stuff, we spent most of last week doing Christmas crafts while listening to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. It was lovely!

One “grown up” thing that I’ve been working on recently is an diy embroidered Christmas star.

It’s made from felt with a snowflake design embroidered in the centre. The stars are sewn together using blanket stitch.

It’s a perfect project for a busy person who’s left things a bit late! It doesn’t take long to make. You can do a bit when you have a minute. You can make one, or a few and string them together. And to make things easier, you can download a template with the snowflake design at the bottom of the post.

How To Make a DIY Embroidered Star

You Will Need

Felt
Embroidery thread
Ribbon for hanging
Star shape
Snowflake design

Making the Star

1.Cut 2 stars from felt.

2. Embroider the snowflake design onto one of the stars.

3. Sew the 2 stars together. I used blanket stitch, but you could use back stitch or running stitch if you prefer.

4. Attach some ribbon or twine for hanging.

If you would like the template I used, please enter your email address in the form below. Please note that by doing this, you will be added to the Tea and a Sewing Machine email list. I never send spam, only a weekly email containing updates, links, and other things that you might like. You can unsubscribe from these emails at any time. For more information about why I do this, please click here.

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Christmas Embroidery Project With a Free Pattern!

September 28, 2018 · 5 Comments

Christmas Embroidery Project

Although I love Christmas and making things for Christmas, over the last few years I’ve given up on the idea of making masses of stuff specifically for Christmas.

It’s just too busy! And it has a habit of sneaking up on me. I know the date never changes, but by the time the Season of Birthdays is over (my boys’ birthdays are all in the autumn, in the space of 2 months!), we’re halfway through November. By the time I’ve got my act together, it’s December, there’s Nativity plays, shopping, present wrapping, baking and everybody’s tired!

Having a little Christmas embroidery project is a nice thing. It’s something you can pick up when you have a few minutes. You can work on it in the evenings without people complaining that they can’t hear the telly over the sewing machine! And if it’s a little thing, it’s going to be achievable and you’ll feel pleased when you’ve finished it. With a longer project, if you don’t finish it by Christmas it’s just going to end up in the UFO pile and you’ll feel annoyed with yourself (I do!).

So I’ve got a little Christmas embroidery project for you!

You can download the pattern here.

And here are the instructions!

Christmas Embroidery Project Instructions

1. Transfer the design to your fabric. There are a number of ways of doing this. The easiest way is to use dressmakers’ carbon paper (affiliate link). You could also use a light box (you can make one yourself using your phone and a plastic box), or you could try printing directly onto the fabric using your printer. If you do this, it’s best to tape the fabric to a piece of card first.

2. Embroider the letters. Start off by sewing them all in backstitch. To get the calligraphy effect, identify the bits of the letters that would be downstrokes if you’d written them. Add an extra line of backstitch to those bits.

3. Now sew the tree. Work each line in backstitch. Then go back and add the leaves.

4. It’s up to you how you’d like to do the star! I sewed around the edge in backstitch then added some French knots to the centre. You might like to try leaf stitch or satin stitch.

To finish it off, wash it in warm water and washing up liquid. Rinse it, then let it dry flat. Iron it on the reverse. Then decide what you’d like to do with it. You could put it in a frame or you might prefer to display it in an embroidery hoop.

Christmas Embroidery Hoop

September 22, 2018 · 5 Comments

Christmas Embroidery Hoop

Last month I was invited to contribute to a series of posts on All Free Sewing for National Sewing Month.

One of the suggestions was sewing for Christmas and, as it had been a long time since I’d made anything Christmassy, I decided to hatch some Christmas themed embroidery.

I’ve recently jumped on the handlettering band wagon. If you haven’t tried it, it’s a lot of fun! It doesn’t matter if you’re not arty or if your handwriting is normally not very nice. Mine’s dreadful and I did not do well in my Art GCSE.

I was given this book as a birthday present, and I’d recommend it if you want to give handlettering a try (this is an affiliate link)! There are step by step instructions and space in the book to try them out. Even if your handwriting normally looks like a spider rolled in ink then ran across the page, with a little bit of practice you’ll be handlettering everything beautifully. The lady who wrote the book also has a blog here, which I discovered before the book.

Anyway, fuelling my love for my new hobby, I had an idea for making a little Christmas embroidery hoop with the word joy embroidered inside a garland.

I was very pleased with the results! Actually I was so happy with how it turned out I made 2 more with the words love and peace.

The Christmas embroidery hoop was easy to do and it came together quite quickly. Most of the embroidery is worked in back stitch The leaves are lazy daisies and the berries are seed beads. If you didn’t have any beads, you could sew French knots instead.

The back of the hoop is finished with a piece of felt.

You can find the tutorial here. There’s a free pattern for the embroidery if you want it, but the tutorial includes instructions for drawing the designs yourself if you prefer.

They’re small enough to hang on your Christmas tree, but you could hang them wherever you like! I’ve got plans to hang mine in the window of the front room.

If you want to make one but you don’t want to faff about finding the stuff to make it, or if you know somebody who would like one, I have some kits for sale on Etsy.

If you like free embroidery projects, I have another Christmas one here!

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.

Ideas For Embroidery

Ideas For Things to Embroider

Tips For Making Things Easier

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DIY Embroidered Christmas Star

How To Make a DIY Embroidered Star

You Will Need

Making the Star

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Christmas Embroidery Project

Christmas Embroidery Project Instructions

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Christmas Embroidery Hoop

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Cherry Blossom Embroidery Tutorial

Cherry Blossom Embroidery

You Will Need

Before You Start

Embroidering the Cherry Tree

Finishing the Embroidery

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