Honeycomb Tutorial Time: Eyelet Polka Part 3 - The Finish

Welcome to the final part of one of my new tutorials, 'Eyelet Polka'. By now you would have gathered together your materials, selected your colour palate, and stitched four different types of eyelets. And now your going to learn how to finish it off.

If, however, you've only just stumbled across my blog and wondering what this post is all about, then I recommend looking back at my previous posts, in particular Part 1 - Getting Started and Part 2 - Eyelet Polka. 

Wrong side Applique:

You will need:

• Neutral coloured machine thread
• Pins
• HB pencil
• Fabric scissors
• Needles: Tapestry and a sharp.
• 12cm square of Calico fabric, you could use the excess from the embroidery
• The template again, 12cm square of light weight cotton fabric (this will be showing through the eyelets).

Working:

• Take your embroidery out of the frame. On the back, using your template (the one you used to draw the eyelets from), draw the hexagon outline. Use the eyelets to help you line it up. 

• Trim down the fabric till you have about a 1cm seam allowance all the way round. 
• Cut the hexagon shape out of the fabric you have chosen to show through the eyelets and from the calico, remembering to give them 1cm seam allowance. Put the calico piece to one side. 
• Pin the right side of the fabric, to the wrong side of the embroidery piece. If you turn it over you can see it through the eyelets. Lightly tack the pieces together on the line, remove the pins. 
• Place the calico piece on top of the right side of the embroidery, and pin through all layers. Make sure that any outlines you have drawn on to this plain calico is on the top (so you can see them). 
• Neatly back stitch on the hexagon outline, all the way round, going through all three layers. 
• Using your scissors, cut an opening through the calico (only), this is for turning inside out (it’s a bit tricky but if you ease the layers apart, it will be easier to do), but don’t turn it yet. 

• Trim back the seam allowance until there is no more than about 3mm all the way round, and to help you get a neat finish, snip the points of the corners off, but not through the stitching! 
• Now turn the shape inside out, the print layer will be sandwiched between the embroidery and the calico. Use a tapestry needle to help ease out the points of the corners. 
• Sew up the slit in the calico. 
• You can gently press the shape with an iron, on the back.

I hope you found all three parts of this tutorial easy to follow, it's been a bit nerve wracking coming up with something people might want to do. And, a tutorial that is easy to follow. It's been a learning curve and I think there are still things I can do better, so I would love to get some feedback.

Leave comments here, or pop over to my flickr forum, click here.

Enjoy!

Honeycomb Tutorial Time: Eyelet Polka Part 2 - Stitching

Welcome to part two of 'Eyelet Polka'. By now you would have gathered together your materials, and selected your colour palatte. If you've only just stumbled across this blog post, then click here to read part one.

Ready? Let's get cracking.

Eyelet Polka

In this first tutorial we are going to look at eyelets. I’m going to show you four ways of doing them, and they will get ever so slightly more difficult.

Additional material you’ll need: 

• a light weight fabric with either with a print or plain block colour; this will be showing through your eyelets so you might to compliment the three colours you select to do the eyelets in. For my example I’ve used Liberty Tana Lawn.

PREP STAGE:

Yummy colours

• Click here to download the template. Print it at 100% in black and white.
• Pick three colours out of your palette, I chose DMC 725,899,955

• Cut a piece of the calico, I’m using a 6” frame so I’ve cut out a piece that’s about 25cm square in size.
• Transfer the template onto the fabric, you may find that you can see the template through the fabric, but if you can’t use a lightbox or your window. Now draw on the eyelets, use dots at the centre to mark number 1, and circles for 2-4, but don’t draw the hexagon outline or the actual numbers.
• Get the fabric in your frame, make sure it’s taut. Nothing worse than working on saggy fabric.
• Select your three colours from your palette.

EYELET ONE

• The first eyelets that your going to do are indicated on your fabric as dots.
• To secure your thread do a couple of tiny stitches near to the dot. Now come up through the fabric a couple of millimetres from the dot, then take the needle down through it.

• When you come up through the fabric to start your next stitch you will be slightly pulling on the thread to ease open the hole where the dot used to be. Keep your stitches around the hole neat and even in length as you can as you go round. It will end up looking like a star burst.

Backside of fabric - Running needle under stitches

• To finish off our eyelet take your thread to the back, and slide your needle under the stitches a couple of times, then cut the end off. Be careful not to cut your sewing!

• You may find that the hole of the eyelet isn't really visible, simply use a slightly thicker needle or your stiletto to open it up, it also helps to smooth the inside of the eyelet. Repeat for the other two dots, changing the colour of your thread for each one.

EYELET 2

• Start as before, but before you over-sew the edge to start your eyelet you will need to do a running stitch around the circle that you’ve drawn.

• Pierce the centre of the eyelet with a stiletto, or if you don’t have one use a large needle. You can use the point of your scissors but I don’t recommend it for this eyelet type as you will risk cutting the fabric. Wiggle the stiletto/needle to make the hole a little more pronounced.

• Back to your discarded thread, now you will over-sew the edge of the hole, as before by bringing your needle up a little way from the running stitch and then down through the hole you already made.

• Work around the hole, keeping your stitches as even possible. This takes a bit of practice, which is why you do this type three times.
• Finish off your thread as you did with the first eyelet, at the back, and smooth the eyelet with your large needle or stiletto. Repeat two more times.

EYELET 3

• This is the same as eyelet 2, except you will be adding some padding. Stitch round the circle in running stitch, as before. Then working outwards; stitch a single row of chain stitch. Then finish off that thread so you can start the over sewing with a clean thread.

• Work the eyelet exactly the same as the previous eyelet (steps 2-5).

• REPEAT two more times.

EYELET 4

• This is the very last eyelet you need to do, and because it’s a little tricky I am only going to make you do it once. So pick your very favourite colour out of three to work with.
• Work a running stitch around the eyelet, as done for eyelet 2 and 3.
• Cut the centre of the eyelet both vertically (up and down) and horizontally (left to right) cutting from the middle. This is why you need to have a wickedly sharp pair of scissors. If you’re a bit worried about this, you can make a hole in the middle of your eyelet, with your needle to start yourself off.
• Fold back the excess fabric and bring the needle up ready for over sewing just beyond the running stitch, you might find you can use it as a chance to stitch through one of the flaps keeping it in place.

• Take the needle down into the hole and repeat all around the eyelet. Again, keep your stitches close together and even in length.
• When finished, turn to the back of the work and cut any excess fabric that might be showing.

Back of work, trimming the excess fabric

Completed, front.

Top Tip:

If you find that you’ve got gaps between your stitches, don’t panic, simply thread up your needle again, turn to the back of the fabric and slide it through some of the stitches.Bring the needle up through stitches to the front, and work your way round again, filling in the gaps. Take it slowly, and use your needle to guide the thread round the hole to help achieve a smooth finish.

Now sit back and admire your handy work, you've completed the embroidery for the Eyelet Polka. Don't forget to show of your work on my flickr group, I'll be setting up a thread should you have any queries or questions, but by all means you can leave comments  here if your stuck.

But, you’re not done yet you need finish the shape off by doing wrong side applique. Come back this Easter weekend for the final part!

Honeycomb Embroidery Tutorials - Welcome

Welcome to the first in a series of mini embroidery tutorials, in which I will show you how to do some of my favourite embroidery stitches. I hope they will then become yours too. I’ve made them to be enjoyable as possible so that by the end of the year, you will have several stitches under your embroidered belt.

The designs have been made so that even if you only do one, you’re not left with yet another sample that floats about your house, but rather a piece of embroidery that can be done in an afternoon, if that, and immediately applied to something, like a quilt or whatever you fancy. 

One thing I also don't want to do is overwhelm you with the tutorials, so I am splitting everything out over several blog posts. The first will be looking at materials and colours, then the stitching, and finally the finishing off. There is nothing worse and a huge long blog post to scroll through. I also want you to read through the blog posts, gather what you need and then work on it when your ready to do it.

So grab yourself a cuppa, a pen and a notebook. 

Ready? Then let's begin.

For your first tutorial your going to looking at eyelets:

The project needed a name so it will forever be called 'Eyelet Polka', but as I've mentioned before your not going to be starting the stitching yet, I am going to get you picking your colours and your equipment. 

So let's begin with the first part, which is picking your colour palette!

In total you need to pick eight colours, they have to be colours that make you smile/cheer you up (strict order here folks). You won’t be working with all eight colours every tutorial, on average you’ll only work with three colours at any one time. So the colours you pick should ideally compliment one another. You should have a look at Wild Olive for some great colour combinations.

Yummy

I’ve used for my palette, DMC stranded cottons in the following colours: 

• 598
• 955
• 3805
• 725
• 899
• 907
• 926
• 938

Once you have selected your colours, I’d love to see them so why not upload them to my flickr group page - I like to be nosey! Join the Craft Hive.

Now with the pretty things sorted, you need to gather other materials and equipment:

FABRIC: I’ll be using a light weight calico throughout the tutorials, it’s nice to work on and it’s cheap, and an extremely underrated fabric. At times you may need additional fabric but I will indicate with each tutorial what you will need.

TEMPLATES/PATTERNS: Will be downloadable at the start of each stitching tutorial

EQUIPMENT:

• 6” wooden ring frame – I use a table mounted ring frame [like this one] they really are a useful piece of equipment and mean you can work hands free, but by all means use whatever you have to hand.
• Sharp embroidery scissors – if you don’t have any, I really recommend that it’s time you treated yourself to a pair, they really are invaluable. [Recommend Kia scissors]
• Sharp needles
• Stiletto / very thick tapestry needle
• Sharpened HB pencil
• Pins

At this point, I should add if you do use a wooden ring frame, then I would recommend that if you haven’t already do so is to wrap the rings with either cotton tape or strips of calico fabric. Check out my handy dandy tutorial on prepping a ring frame. Click me.

PART 2 - The Stitching
PART 3 - How to finish

Any point you have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment.

All Scream for Ice Cream

Ice Cream Bow Embroidered Collar

Made the full most of the weekend to not only wizz up another collar, the second design in the Ice Cream collection but I also made a clock in the third out of the three designs! Can't say that's not productive. Also fit in breakfast out with my mum, let's hear it for french toast, bacon and syrup, and got my haircut. Still have time left over.

I am making the most of having a weekend like this, as I am predicting in April they are going to be pretty non-existent. Reason being I've given notice on my flat, and I have until the 25th April to get move out, hopefully into the new place, if not it will be stowing my worldly possessions away and moving back home. Scary notion.

Till that point I am trying not to get too stressed out and enjoying my time embroidering and thinking about the future. And thinking about this has prompted me to book a ticket for The Startup Showcase at Somset House next Saturday. It was a spare of the moment booking and I also pinged off emails to Farnham Maltings to find out more about their creative fairs and shows. And byjove there is a lot to get involved with. I can't wait to knuckle down, but I have to be patient and concentrate on one thing at at time. But yep, I have itchy feet and fingers to get going.

In the meantime, let me show off some pictures of the latest items:

Ice Cream Bow Collar - Ickle bows in silk thread

Ice Cream Bunting - Silk embroidered wall clock

All items can be purchased in my Etsy store. If your in the UK, you can enjoy free shipping until the end of March, just use the following code during check out FREEMARCH13. 

Spring is here - Let's Polka

So on Monday, Blighty was treated to a day of brilliant sunshine. It felt to me, and others, that spring had finally sprung.

It was fantastic timing too as I had booked a day off from the day job to spend the day with my best mate crafting, drinking tea, chatting and eating plenty of cake.

Of course, no day could start without a decent breakfast and this put us on the path to a fantastic day looking colour. We toddled around for a bit in town which meant I was able to pick up some thread, and as these things happen I also ended up buying fabric. Yes, the sun had done a marvelous effect on my mood and colour palette. There was also a brief stop in Farrow& Ball for paint and wallpaper charts. I love their colours even if my bank account doesn't.

The remainder of the day was naturally spent looking at the colour swatches and playing with the various threads I had picked up earlier that morning. We flitted between looking at ideas for the soon to be new flat (yes, getting there slowly) and new project ideas. The sun pouring into the livingroom, whilst making the room hot, certainly aided our colour picking abilities.

Aren't they smashing colours, the three spools at the bottom are the silks threads I purchased at the beginning of the year, the skeins above at the ones purchased on Monday, just your standard DMC cottons.

With the colours chosen for the new project ideas picked out on Monday, it meant I was able to get on with one of them today. Now, originally I had planned on using the DMC threads to stitch the projects but I was nudged into using the silk threads, so I ended up doing just that, except so not to waste the limited amount of silk thread I had I used the cotton as the padding for the satin dots. It was pure fate that the colours picked up on Monday matched the silk.

Work in progress - seeing dots.

This is the first of three new spring/summer collar designs, and the first one made up is Ice-Cream Polka. Every time I look at it I just want to smile, and then poke the satin dots (I haven't...yet). I backed it in the new purchased cotton fabric too. Using my previous collar pattern means this design is fully reversible. And look it features my logo as the fabric label.

Dots...lots of dots

Now, all I need to do is crack on with the other two designs! Ice-cream polka will be available to purchase from my Etsy store.

Kandinsky Inspired Trinket Box

It's been a while since I made a fabric covered box, so it was nice to do one again, even if I don't particularly like working out the maths to construct it...but that grumble aside I like the final outcome. It was good to turn the Kandinsky inspired piece into something practical and not just framing it. Not that there is anything wrong with framing embroidered pieces, it has its place and I normally do frame my pieces but I've always liked to turn my work into something more useful or have some practical purposes or another. From clocks, trinket boxes, coasters to Peter Pan collars I've turned my hand embroidery into something other than something that can adorn a wall and looked at from a far...

I'm sure this says a lot about me or simply shows I get bored with framing, I like to think it's the idealist inner craftsperson. Anyway, before I go off onto another path have a look at the box for yourself, smashing isn't it? I know, so modest.

The turquoise lining works well, and compliments the stitching on the outside as well as giving the inside a great big, eyeball grabbing zing of colour. 

Speaking of colour, and reminding myself something I said in a previous post I will be doing something more with this design, colours and the stitches I've used. I have in mind a set of really bright, cheerful and playful Peter Pan collars, just designs mind you at this time, no wait three. 

And it's also helped me come up with a couple more thoughts for the stitch along that I mentioned on Wednesday.  So with that said, I must get the ideas down on paper, and start trying them out and then blitz the flat for tomorrow I have a day off and I'm having a crafting day with my best mate.

Huzzah for tea and cake.