Tutorial Tuesday: Embroidered Easter Eggs (the easy way)

Last week, Craft Gossip posted a link to these embroidered eggs featured on the Needle n Thread blog:

and I've been thinking about them ever since. That led me to find this project

posted along with a tutorial by CelineG on Hand Dyed Fibers.com. First you punch the holes, then you stitch the ribbon through and hope to God it doesn't crack.

I also found these on Wikipedia

 

made by  a Ukrainian folk artist named Forostyuk Inna. Amazing!

I just had to try this myself, so last night I whipped up these:

Except I cheated. I let someone else do the embroidery... a long time ago. I simply got out my vintage suitcase full-o-embroidered pieces that I've purchased at estate sales, flea markets, antique shops, etc. over the years and chose a few to (gasp!) cut up. Apologies to the ladies (I'm assuming) who worked so hard on these but remember, I rescued them because I recognized the time and talent that went into each piece and I held on to them for the perfect project. This was it.

Here's how you do it:

First, blow the yolk out of some eggs. If you're not sure how to do this, read this tutorial - How to Decoupage Easter Eggs - which I posted in 2009. 

Now, find an embroidered linen, the thinner and more lightweight, the better.

Next, carefully cut out the embroidered part close to, but not clipping the stitches.

Now, coat the backside with Mod Podge.

and carefully press onto an egg. For an all-over shiny look you can Mod Podge over top of the embroidered piece if you like. Let it dry overnight. To add a hanging device, squirt some hot glue into the hole and insert a wire or ribbon.

 

 

 

It's the perfect project for those delicate intricately embroidered hankies you never want to blow your nose into but can't bring yourself to give away. It's nice to see these pieces out of storage and on display.

 

Tutorial Tuesday: Patchwork Carrot Tutorial

The bunnies I made last week were hungry, so I made them a bunch of patchwork carrots:

If you have hungry handmade bunnies, here's how you can make some too. Here's a pattern:

 

The 2-3 sided larger carrot is easiest, while the 3-4 sided smaller carrot is more challenging. I worked my way up. Here's the challenging one: 

Cut 5 separate pieces and sew one to another 2/8 inch from the edge making sure to meet at a common endpoint at the bottom:

Stitch all sides together leaving an opening at the top:

 Trim excess fabric at the tip and turn right-side-out through the hole at the top.

 Now stuff it:

For leaves, rip fabric into 1/4 inch strips. Insert into the hole and hand stitch closed.

You can also use string or ribbons or lace:

or ric-rac:

Now your bunnies* won't go hungry.

*Not suitable for real-live bunnies, intended only for the handmade variety.

Tutorial Tuesday: How to fix a too-small neck hole

I got this super-cute embroidered Mexican top for McKenna at a thrift store but when she tried to put it on she couldn't fit her big noggin through the tiny neck hole.

If this ever happens to you, here's what you can do to fix it:

First, cut a slit about 2 or 3 inches long down the center of the neckline in the back (or front, if you think it would look right).

Next, pin some double-folded bias tape  around the raw edges of the slit and leave an extra 2 inches of bias tape on one side.

Now, stitch it together making sure to go through the front of the bias tape, the shirt fabric, and the back of the bias tape so you have a nice finished edge all around.

Take your excess bias tape and turn it around to form a loop and stitch it down. On the other side, sew on a button.

Now it will fit!

Tutorial Tuesday: Shamrock Accessories with Beads and Buttons

Every now and then I take a break from my sewing machine and bust out my beads and wire and jewelry supplies. Last night I whipped up these shamrock pins and barrettes:

The first one I made was with vintage buttons and large seed beads. Here's the step-by-step process.

 

Pull the wires tight to form a shamrock and use the excess wire to attach it to a pin or barrette. Or trim and tuck the wires and simply glue it to a pin, barrette, magnet, etc.

I found some heart-shaped plastic glittery pony beads in my bead box and thought they were the perfect shape for shamrock leaves. 

I made a barrette for me...

and one for McKenna.

I know, I know. Neither one of us is a very good hair model. Here it is as a pin:

Happy St. Patrick's Day. Stay Green!

Tutorial Tuesday: Vinylized and Lined Patchwork Checkbook Covers

The other night I made this:

It's a checkbook cover. Do people still use checkbooks? Oh well, it could also be a wallet I suppose, or business card holder. Here are some others I made along with a sunglasses case:

 The sunglasses case started out as a checkbook cover trimmed in bias tape, which ended up looking like crap, so I trimmed and stitched it into a glasses case.

The project  was an experiment in vinylizing fragile patchwork, inspired by this:

that I got at a thrift store for $2 the week before. It looked like it was hand-sewn together a long time ago, and possibly top-stitched by machine recently. It was spectacular... from far away. Close-up, it was deteriorating in parts, sloppily stitched, and chaotic - definite piecework material, which is why I started with checkbook covers. I liked the process so much I made a new batch tonight, and took pictures along the way to show you how to make them too.

Since I knew the patchwork wouldn't hold up to lots of wear, I had protect it somehow. Years ago, I bought some HeatnBond Iron-on Flexible Vinyl  for purse-making but wasn't really happy with the results so I haven't used it since. I thought maybe I'd like it better in smaller doses so I gave it another try.. Here's how it works:

Peel the vinyl off the backing:

then stick it to the patchwork (which should be approximately 15 by 18 inches), place the backing paper over top, and iron it down.

Oooo, shiny!

Now set it aside. For the lining, iron some HeatnBond Lite to another piece of lightweight fabric.

 Peel off the backing, place your vinylized  piece vinyl-side down and your other fabric on top of it fabric-side up and iron them together like a fabric sandwich with your HeatnBond Lite as the cheese that holds it together. Now cut it down the center vertically and horizontally so you have 4 separate pieces. I flipped two so you could see the front and back:

Now, cut out pieces of vinyl (not the iron-on kind) as wide as your rectangle and 2.5 inches tall. 

Right now you're probably thinking, who the heck has random scraps of vinyl,  iron-on vinyl, HeatnBond Lite, quilt tops, etc. lying around? I'm a craft/sewing supply hoarder, what can I say? I do it for times like these.

Now, stitch around the edge (I used a zig-zag stitch) about 1/8th of an inch from the edge. Line up the inside vinyl pocket at the bottom, hold it together as you sew and make sure to stitch it to the rectangle.

 Now trim your edges close to, but not touching your stitches.

Normally I'm neurotic about straight stitches and finished edges so this was an exercise in accepting imperfection for me. They're a little oddly shaped, but functional and aesthetically interesting nonetheless. This was, after all an experiment. Since I'm running low on labels and wanted to try out some fabric paint pens I got, I simply wrote "kokoleo" on the insides.

Viola! a finished line of shiny patchwork checkbooks...