Saturday, October 31, 2009

Boo! My Only Embroidered Pumpkins
Happy Halloween, everyone. I've never really embroidered for Halloween before, but I do have two pumpkins I'll (re)share with you - resurrecting an old project that I had a lot of fun stitching!

These are embroidered pillowcases, and the theme for them is "opposites" - so I embroidered one black and one white pillowcase with faces. On the white pillow case, they're all awake and having a blast, and on the black pillowcase, they're snoozing away comfortably.

Hand Embroidered Pillowcases


The pumpkin was easy enough to embroider while he was awake...

Hand Embroidered Pillowcases


... but sleeping pumpkins pose a slight problem, when it comes to closing their eyes. When I worked this project, I think I embroidered those eyes two or three times, trying to get a "sleepy" look.

Hand Embroidered Pillowcases


Yep, I can safely say this was one of my Just for Fun projects that was really fun!

I hope you have a fun day, that you get out and enjoy the autumn weather (if you're in the same hemisphere - spring, for the rest of you!), and that you have a terrific weekend!

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, October 31, 2009
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Friday, April 17, 2009

Stuff It - Then Stitch It
Before Easter, I was playing around with the idea of embroidered Easter eggs. Thing about it - spring colors, Easter egg decorations - a great combination for fun embroidery (and something I thought the kids would like!) Because of time constraints, I didn't get very far, but I thought I'd show you what I threw together and how easy it can be to stitch on a stuffed anything.

The Easter egg - which actually looked more like a football at first - is made out of some wool remnants I had lying around. I cut out four marquis-shaped sections, using two colors. Taking one of each color, I sewed them together, right sides facing, then I did the same with the remaining two colors, then placed the two sewn together pieces right sides facing, and sewed those together, leaving a little turning hole in the last seam. All this was done by hand - it would go a lot faster by machine and would look a heck of a lot better! Anyway, this was just an experiment.

Next time, by the way, I'll use six sections and hopefully the finished product won't remind me of a kid's stuffed football!

Hand embroidered stuffed Easter egg made from wool


This is the egg, with a few layers of embroidery worked on it. Next time (next year?) I'll work a few more rows and do something more elaborate with the tips. The possibilities are really endless as far as the embroidery goes - you could get really elaborate with something like this! Beads, ribbon, a variety of stitches...

Hand embroidered stuffed Easter egg made from wool


From top to bottom, I used fly stitch, double feather stitch, herringbone, daisy stitch and French knots, and buttonhole wheels.

Hand embroidered stuffed Easter egg made from wool


Embroidering on a stuffed figure is pretty easy, actually. You begin with a knot in the end of your thread, take the needle in some distance away from where you intend to start...

Hand embroidered stuffed Easter egg made from wool


...wiggle the needle around a bit in the filling, then pull the thread through, so that the knot catches inside the filling and secures the thread.

Hand embroidered stuffed Easter egg made from wool


Work your stitches in a "sewing" method - that is, taking the needle in and out of the piece in one swoop - and then, when you get to the end of your stitching, anchor the end of the stitch as you normally would....

Hand embroidered stuffed Easter egg made from wool


...bringing the needle either out in a seam, or out underneath a stitched area...

Hand embroidered stuffed Easter egg made from wool


...and take a small securing backstitch, to anchor the thread. It's best if this can be done in a seam, where the backstitch can't be seen, or, again, inside some stitched area where it will be hidden.

Hand embroidered stuffed Easter egg made from wool


Bring your needle out of the stuffed figure anywhere, and cut the thread close to the surface, pulling a bit on the thread so that, when it's cut, it is pulled into the inside of the stuffed thing.

Hand embroidered stuffed Easter egg made from wool


See! It's gone. Wow. Those seams are really ugly. A sewing machine will eliminate that messy look, I think!

Hand embroidered stuffed Easter egg made from wool


You can see here a view of the egg on a "corner." To ensure relatively straight paths along which to embroider, I first used regular white thread and basted a running stitch line around the egg. Once the line was embroidered, I cut the white thread and pulled it out. You could probably even use something like a fabric masking tape to mark the line and then baste, to get a really straight line.

I'm pretty sure I'll do this again, but next time, I'll make a pattern for a six-panel egg, and I'll use a machine to sew up the seams. I suppose any fabric would work - wool felt would probably work great!

Another option would be silks and brocades and fancy fabrics, for a dressier look. And, of course, you're not limited to egg-shapes. You could do spheres... think Christmas ornaments and so forth. I'm contemplating a similar project for my kids' embroidery classes this year.

So that was my stuffed egg adventure. I love the colors! But now that Easter is over, I think I'll move on to other needle 'n thread adventures!

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, April 17, 2009
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