Today, we finish our Cornflower Scissor Envelope stitch-along! I’m so excited to cover the final touch on this project (the button and loop closure), so that you can put your pretty little scissor envelope to good use to house your favorite needlework scissors!
If you are just coming along this stitch-along and you like the looks of it and are interested in following along, you will find all the previous installments to this project available here in the Cornflowers Project Index on Needle ‘n Thread.
If you would like to purchase a materials kit for this project, you can find the Cornflowers Materials Kit available here.
If you are a member of the Needle ‘n Thread Community on Patreon, last Friday, I posted the final lesson (covering this portion of the project, too) over on Patreon in a handy-dandy downloadable PDF format for you to print and save.
Preliminaries over, it’s time to move on!
Last week, in the first part of finishing this project, we sewed up the fabric and created the cone-shaped scissor envelope.
Today, we’re going to add the pearl button and make a fastening loop.
Begin by folding down the flap over the top of the cone shape. When you fold the flap over, give it a little wiggle room – it doesn’t need to be absolutely tight against that top inside edge, but it should be fairly close to it. Too much wiggle room, and it won’t hold your scissors!
Take some time with this arrangement. Make sure the center tip of the flap is aligned with the center seam.
Pin the flap down as shown in the photo above.
Hold your pearl button up to the case and determine where you will need to attach it.
The hole in the pearl button should run parallel to the seam, so that, when you stitch from left to right or right to left over the seam (perpendicular to the seam), you can pass through the hole. Think of the hole as a tire sitting on top of the fabric, on the seam, and able to roll along the seam.
Mark where you will attach the pearl. It should be just below the tip of the flap, with maybe 1/8″ between the actual button and the tip of the flap.
Use a strong sewing thread to sew the button in place. Start the thread with a knot, and begin stitching discreetly in the seam, or coming up from inside the case. You want the knot to be hidden, so it can’t be seen on the front.
Sew the button on, passing up through one side of the seam, through the button, and down into the opposite seam.
It’s ok if you sew through the layers of fabric, including the silk backing fabric. No one will see the stitching on the inside of the envelope.
The center of the button’s “shank” should sit right on the seam and, if possible, sort of nestle into the seam a little bit.
Here is the button, sewn in place.
Cut about 30″ of the cornflower blue (3838) floss.
“Strip” the embroidery floss – that is, separate each of the six strands from the bunch, and then put the whole bunch back together. You can see how to do that here, if you are not familiar with this process.
About 1/4″ up from the tip of the flap, pass the needle and thread into the flap (between the fabric layers) from right to left (or, if left-handed, from left to right).
You can use a knot on the end of the thread if you wish, but it will be more difficult to get the knot to pop into the fabric layers, because you’re using all six strands and a knot will be chunky. If you hand-sewed your case, it will be easier, but if you machine sewed it, it will be more difficult.
If you have one, you can use an awl to very gently open a hole in the linen weave just in the seam, and then pass your needle through there and pop the knot to the inside. Then, use your needle’s eye to fiddle the fibers back into place. (Don’t pierce a hole in the fabric – just separate the weave.)
OR – you can skip a knot altogether, pull the thread through so that a tail is inside the flap fabric, and, holding the flap so the tail doesn’t pull out, work some tiny backstitch holding stitches inside the seam on the side you emerged, as discreetly as possible.
You might have to play with this. The point is that you want the thread securely started, and you want to be as discreet as possible about how you secured the thread.
Pin the flap closed, so that it is sitting just above the button, as shown above.
Pass the needle and thread into the opposite side of the flap and out again, as shown above, so that the floss surrounds the button in a light loop. You want the loop securely around the button, but you don’t want it choking the button.
Do this twice, so that you have two loops of six strands of floss each (so, twelve strands of floss) around the button.
This is your foundation loop.
Now you can unpin the flap and work on it open, without the button in the way.
To work the buttonhole stitch, pass the needle into the middle of the foundation loop and out over the working thread as shown above.
Pull gently to tension the stitch around the foundation loop.
I found it easiest to work directly on a table, using a finger to hold the stitches in place while I worked the buttonhole. It’s important not to pull too tightly for these stitches. You want them to cover the foundation loop, but you don’t want them to pinch it.
Continue working the buttonhole stitch over the foundation loop.
Don’t crowd the stitches! If you pack them too closely together, the loop may buckle and twist.
You can se that the buttonhole stitches are not tightly worked, nor are they packed onto the loop.
When viewing close up, you can see the foundation loop between some of the buttonhole stitches, and that’s fine. It won’t be noticeable from farther back.
Aim for the stitches lying nicely next to each other rather than jamming against each other.
When you’ve finished covering the foundation loop, pass the needle into the seam, next to where the loop terminates.
Work some tiny holding backstitches in the seam, where they are hidden by the seam, and then cut the thread.
Use your needle’s eye to encourage any cut ends of thread into the fabric where it can’t be seen.
Here you have the finished button and loop closure!
You can fit any size embroidery scissors (up to 4″ – which is usually the largest embroidery scissor size) into the envelope.
To protect the fabric inside the case, it is helpful to have a sheath on your scissors, like the one pictured above. These are the the Golden Forge scissors available here, which I reviewed here. They come with a small leather sheath.
And yes, you can even fit more than one pair of scissors in the case!
And that, my friends, is the Final Touch on the Cornflowers Scissor Envelope!
I hope you enjoyed this project and that you learned something from it!
Pretty soon, I’ll sneak-peek the next stitch-along (or components thereof). I’ll be straying from my normal path into something slightly trendy, very fun, and super-adaptable.
You can find all the Stitch Snippets stitch-alongs that we’ve worked together on Needle ‘n Thread listed here at the top of the Tips & Techniques page in the main menu on Needle ‘n Thread.
Mary, I have so enjoyed watching this project unfold, I love little sewing accoutrements and blue and green is always a winning colour combination in my book. And of course the finished article is just exquisite.
Cheers
Dionne
Love this project! The colors, the stitches, and how you did the loop closure around the pearl! SO pretty!
Thanks, Linda! 🙂