Embroidery Floss Tassel Necklace

Inspired by this Jenny Hart blog post on Sublime Stitching. Can't wait for the Makerie Sewing!

Spicy Goodness

Mmmm....Tabasco! Full of Spicy Goodness. I put on almost everything except my cereal.  I love the taste, I love the colour, the shape and size of the bottle and I love the branding. It's an iconic item that I can't live without.  To me, the Tabasco bottle is to the USA what the Vegemite jar is to Australia.  So what better to do than embroider it?! I started this months ago and just finished it. It began on a piece of gold velvet corduroy that was leftover from making a dog cushion for Mai-li. I didn't know what the final product would become and it turned out to be just the right size and thickness for a sunglasses case.

First, I traced the full-size image onto water-soluble stabiliser from an embroidery shop, with a water-soluble pen. This is the box from the big 12oz/355ml bottles I get at Costco (these last me about 6 months. The litle bottles only last a few weeks in my house!).

I used a couple of different colours of red and green, split stitch and stem stitch for most of it, and satin stitch to fill in the bigger letters. I free-handed the shadowing stitches on the bottle and label rather than tracing them.

My initial concern about loose stitches on the thick textured fabric was justified. You'll notice that the stitches in the diamond-shaped border came loose when I turned the fabric right-side-out after sewing the case together. I'll fix up those stitches at some point.  I was also using beeswax on the floss in the beginning and then switched to Thread Heaven.  The thread with beeswax (ie; the word 'TABASCO') is a bit dulled.  All in all, it was an experiment that I'm pretty happy with

Sublime Embroidery

I decided to embroider my jeans jacket for my third Sublime Stitching embroidery project. After carefully following the instructions for the iron-on transfer, I discovered that the pattern was almost invisible on the denim. Oh no! A visit to a local embroidery shop got me set up with sheer dissolvable stabiliser fabric and a wash-out transfer pen.  I traced the pattern onto the stabiliser, pinned it on and was ready to go (if anyone knows of stabiliser that irons-on and washes out, please let me know - I think it may not be chemically possible).  When I finished, I cut most of the stabiliser away, soaked it in cold water and all the remaining bits were gone!

The book: Embroidered Effects by Jenny Hart

Dresses and Bibs

Here are some dresses and bibs I made for my nieces from some of the fabric purchased at the Stitches and Craft show.  The dress fabric was from Kelani Fabric Obsession.  For more details and free pattern downloads for the Popover Sundress and Mu handpuppet, go to my BurdaStyle page. The bibs were made from Butterick pattern B4533 and a lovely free download at the Chickpea Sewing Studio.  Embroidery patterns are once again from the Sublime Stitching craft pad.  I love the fact that I was able to download a free pattern from someone in Slovenia, make the handpuppet in Melbourne, and post it to my niece in Los Angeles! What did we do before the Web?!

Choo Choo Popover Sundress

Upside Down Strawberry Dress

Mu Handpuppet