Daisy Chain

Posted on August 29, 2021 by craftycreeky

A few months ago I stitched one of the Raggedy Ruff kits I had in my stash, it was called Susie the Cat, it had a black and white cat surrounded by echinacia flowers. I made it into a cushion for my friend…

When I was hand embroidering a white denim jacket with flowers last month I thought it would be nice to embroider white daisies round my blue denim jacket. I’ve worn my white one a few times already and I love it…

Initially I thought of hand-embroidering them but I was concerned by the fact that this jacket, unlike the white one, was made with a stretch denim. I didn’t want to spend hours embroidering them only to find they totally distorted when I wore it. Equally I really didn’t want to use a stabiliser as it would make it difficult to work through that as well as the denim.

I remembered the echinacia and decided that made in white, they would look like daisies! Unfortunately I couldn’t find the pattern but Andrea kindly sent it again. I traced about twelve flowers onto bondaweb and then had a rummage through my fabrics. I’m hoping that the bondaweb and stitching on top will make everything stable enough to withstand a little stretching.

I thought of using white on white patterned quilting cotton at first but it looked a bit too stark. I then had a rummage through my batik scrap box and found some light ones which I’d used for the low volume background of the humming bird quilt I made for my niece. I did a bit of fussy cutting too as some of them had daisy sort of designs, they worked out pretty well, though they were fiddly to cut out! I arranged them along the back and two just coming round each side. It would have been nice to have more on the front but then I would have stitched through the pockets! I used thirteen flowers all together.

I thought of using a denim needle but couldn’t find one in my drawers so I used a top-stitching one instead. First thing to do was to do a basic outline. I chose a fairly dark variegated blue thread. Some of them were somewhat wobbly but I know from previous Raggedy Ruff patterns that wobbles are not noticeably once it’s finished – luckily!!

I went round a second time putting a bit more definition on the petals. I also used a variegated orange to stitch on the centres of the daisies.

Once I was happy with the basic flowers I changed to a cream/off white variegated thread and added some detail on each petal. Once that was stitched I just need to add a few stems so they weren’t just hovering in mid air…

I thought of adding a few grasses but having shared a photo on my Skipton Stitchers whats-app group, the general consensus was that it was finished enough.

I’m really pleased with this one, I love the effect and it didn’t take half the time it took to hand embroider the other one. It did make me wonder what a denim jacket would look like with a large design of Andrea’s on the back, she’s just done one with a baby giraffe and the mothers head looking down, wouldn’t that look amazing on a jacket! If you fancy doing one of her raw edge applique designs, please follow the link to her website, she’s got some beautiful designs.

Posted in embroidery, Sewing | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Seaside Quilt HQAL

Posted on August 22, 2021 by craftycreeky

I’ve made reasonable progress on my seaside quilt, though not as much as I hoped as I ended up distracted this week by the Little Book of Comfort and Flossie the Barts Bunny! This is the quilt design by Kathryn Whittingham, she kindly gave me the book after I enjoyed making her Cottage Quilt so much.

Three weeks ago I had finished the top row and just started four of the smaller embroidered blocks.

The lifebuoy still needed some rope stitching on it. The instructions call for perle thread, whilst I have a good selection I haven’t any white, so I found some thick but smooth thread inn my stash and used my cordmaker to twist it into a length of cord. Once it was made it was just couched in place…I say just, but I needed my biggest chenile needle to get the cord through the fabric for all the loops round the ring!

Last time I wasn’t keen on my bumble bee beach hut. A few of you suggested changing the front door,well thank you, it worked brilliantly! I couldn’t remove the old yellow door as it was bondawebbed on so I just stuck a new door over the top. I decided not to add the heart in the middle as it was already hard to stitch with three layers of fabric and two layers of bondaweb. If I feel it needs something at the end I can always add a tiny button.

I’ve made up the sets of four squares to go in between the lifebuoy and the beach hut, I haven’t stitched them into a long row yet as I want to see how the colours work. This will be in a line going down in the quilt, it was just easier to put a long photo across ways here!

I embroidered the lollypop to go with the 99 ice-cream though they are at the other end of this quilt row.

Next to make up were two flying geese blocks with fussycut fabric in the middle. Theses are made with half square triangles, rather than the usual way of a rectangle base. This makes it easier to stitch this particular block together. I’ve made all the half square triangles and trimmed half of them to size, just need to trim the others and stitch the squares together. At the moment the blocks look quite dark and prominent, but I think they will settle down once everything else is made. I love this harbour fabric by Macower, it reminds me of Whitby, there’s a photo of Whitby below.

The next block is one of my favourites. The Yorkshire coastline has lots of little villages right on the coastline, hugging the cliffs round the natural harbours such as Staithes and Robinhoods Bay, we walked through many of them when we did the Cleveland Way a couple of years ago…

This block perfectly captures the higgledy piggledy nature of these villages. I haven’t finished the embroidery yet but I’ve made a good start.

The windows looked pretty dominating to begin with, but once I embroidered the window frames on in a very light grey they settled down nicely. I’ve still to do the shoreline and the seal bobbing about in the sea – that’s the grey blob!

Hopefully by the time I next post about my Seaside quilt in another three weeks time this row will be starting to come together.

If you fancy making this quilt the book is available (together with the cottage garden quilt book) from Kathryn’s website, Patchwork Katy. They’re both gorgeous designs and the instructions are very easy to follow.

Affiliate links; I was kindly gifted this book by the author, but my views and opinions of the quilt and the book are my own.

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, and Daisy

I’ll also be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday

Posted in embroidery, Quilt-a-long, Quilting, Serendipity | Tagged , , , , , , | 16 Comments

A Comfort Book

Posted on August 21, 2021 by craftycreeky

Ever had an idea and just run with it…

A friend who is going through difficult times at the moment recently posted on facebook that she had heard about comfort boxes, the idea being that friends and family wrote something nice about you and when you’re feeling low you can read the comments for a pick-me-up. Lots of people wrote comments.

I suddenly had the idea that if you made a little fabric book with pockets in, you could put messages in there and carry it with you, a little book of comfort.

I felt it needed some words running through it and chose a poem from Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. I selected some variegated thread and stitched the lines of the poem with simple back-stitch.

The pages sort of came together as I went along, finding fabrics that worked as I stitched. My friend has very different colour tastes to me, she is brilliant at mixing colourful textiles, when I think of her I think of oranges and reds. In my stash I found a little square which I made at a Embroiderers Guild dyeing workshop a couple of years back, it was perfect for the first page…

I stitched everything onto wool felt squares, I find it very forgiving as a backing, you can hide stitches in it for a start! Each double page spread had a pocket stitched on one side and a line from the poem plus a few embellishments on the other…

I raided my button box and bead box for suitable things to sew on, just to add a little something without spending hours embroidering.

My friend comes from Manchester which has the symbol of the bee, so cheerful sunflower fabric with bees on fitted in perfectly…

I just used a simple running stitch most of the time to stitch on the fabric…or tiny beads!

I bound it using some coloured glass beads from Hobbycraft in between each page. I think I’m on about my fourth packet of these beads as they are so pretty and a useful size. For the cover I used two different quilting fabrics, I made a sleeve and then stuffed some heavy interfacing in between the two layers. It was a bit fiddly but it wasn’t an iron on one and I didn’t want the extra bulk in the seams. I embroidered her name and the title on some spare linen, made a cord from two co-ordinating DMC threads and stitched a button on the front as a wrap and tie.

I wrote all the various comments from facebook on luggage labels so they can be read at random, she can even add poems or words that she likes.

I’m really pleased with how it came out, it really didn’t take too long either, an afternoon and a couple of evenings. Time well spent if it helps her in some way through the next few months.

Posted in Books, embroidery, Textile Books | Tagged , , , , | 34 Comments

Barts Bunny is ready for duty

Posted on August 19, 2021 by craftycreeky

When I made a Barts Bunny as part of the Great British Sewing Bunny competition held by Cool Crafting, one of my former flatmates said Pleeeease could she have one too, how could I refuse, they are so nice to make…

I started Flossie the bunny whilst we were away last week and finished her over the next few days, of course she needed some lacy undies before any photo shoot…

I then started making her uniform. For the GBSB we had three hours to make an outfit. Confession time, for my Barts Bunny, there was a judicious use of pins behind the scenes to hold everything in place. I clearly couldn’t do that this time, I could hardly send Flossie through the post with pins in her!! So, it did take me a bit longer this time!

I made the dress using the raglan dress pattern but changed it to a front opening, with a white collar and short sleeves. It closes with a little press-stud.

The apron is just two squares of cotton. As Flossie is somewhat pear-shaped two rectangles didn’t sit tidily on her middle, so I added a couple of tucks either side. I made the navy belt from some satin bias binding, it worked very well as I could shape it with the iron so it sits better around her ample middle. A shiny button makes her silver buckle which we were so proud to buy when we qualified. I think our aprons tied with buttons, that was too fiddly so Flossie has a ribbon tied in a bow across her back.

Flossie has already learnt that a Barts nurse always folds her apron across her lap when sitting to prevent creasing!

I was well chuffed to find doll sized fob watches on etsy, they’re just the right size, even if I think they’re designed more as pocket fob watches as they have a little chain hanging down. We always had a pair of nursing scissors in our top pocket (and strings of safety pins!!) so I attached them straight to the apron to give the effect of a top pocket.

The beady eyed amongst you may also have noticed a hospital badge by Flossie’s collar, the hospital badges at Barts (were made by Fattorini no less!!) had a enamel blue surround and a shield in black and white. There’s no way I could reproduce that, however I’m pretty pleased with Flossies badge, I used a little blue sequin with an even smaller ivory one and a shiny dark grey bead in the middle…

We had the lovely black wool capes with a red lining and red straps coming from the shoulders so they hung nicely without being fastened. I decided to use some black felt, a bit more realistic than the quilting cotton I used for my Barts Bunny, but a little stiffer too. Again I’ve tied the red ribbons in a bow for ease. Both the dress and the cape patterns are adapted from patterns in the first Luna Lapin book.

All that was left was the cap,ours were made from a square of starched linen, we made them over a shortbread tine,secured with safety pins and hairgrips. They were meant to have five pleats down each side and neat tails over the middle. I got the knack of making caps so I regularly made them for friends, everyone had their preferences whether they liked a deep brim or not, big tails or short tails…

For Flossie I used a square of cotton, about 8″, and made it round a bead container with a few stitches to hold it in place. This one is attached to Flossie with pins as I couldn’t think of any other way without making it permanent! Ours were held on with white hairgrips, the caps were great for holding long hair out of the way. I remember one of our group, Judy, had her hair cut really short so the hairgrips wouldn’t work…so she stuck her hat on with blutack!!

To be accurate Flossie should also have black tights or stockings and flat lace-up shoes, they were meant to have three pairs of eyelets for laces and no moccasins, which were trendy at the time!

Although the modern nurses uniform is much more practical, (I wear scrubs all day) I loved our uniform, you felt like a proper nurse!

So Flossie will be winging her way to London over the weekend, all ready for duty.

If you fancy making your own Luna Lapin, follow the link at the top to Cool Crafting for both books and kits.

Posted in Luna Lapin, Sewing | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Wednesday Wanderings

Posted on August 18, 2021 by craftycreeky

We tried to go for a walk yesterday but we were thwarted by the weather…

Our plan was to climb Great Whernside, another one of the Dales 30. We set off in good time having bought our packed lunches on route. We were planning to shorten the walk by driving up Parkrash and parking at the top, reducing the amount of climbing substantially! The road is a very scenic, single track lane winding it’s way over to Coverdale.

When we parked at the top the wind was howling round the car and the rain was coming sideways! Now we don’t mind rain when it happens during a walk, but setting off in the rain is not our cup of tea – this walking lark is meant to be fun! We sat in the car, ate our suasage roll and had a coffee, hoping it would show signs of blowing over.

After half an hour we decided it wasn’t going to happen…maybe a walk further down the dale. We drove down all the little back roads, mainly single track with passing places, so my friend did have to do a fair bit of reversing as we met cars coming the other way. It was a delightful route though.

We parked up near Embsay, hoping for a walk round the reservoir, but the rain was still coming down. I did manage to get a pretty evocative picture of the moody skies…

…we ate our sticky buns and had another coffee!

We drove up to Ilkley Moor, the weather was still inclement so we ate our sandwiches looking at the views over Wharfedale before returning home for a coffee in the garden in the summerhouse!

It reminded me of the Safari Suppers that were popular in the 80’s with each course in a different house!

Hopefully next week we might actually manage to do some walking!

Posted in The Dales 30, Walking | Tagged | 10 Comments

Jacquie SAL

Posted on August 15, 2021 by craftycreeky

I’m now four parts in to the Jacquie SAL and I love it already! The pattern sections are released by the designer, Faby Reilly, every two weeks, as this SAL post is on a three week cycle, sometimes I’ll just have one new part to share, and sometimes, like today, I’ll have two parts to share.

Three weeks ago I just had a jelly baby on a stick…

You’ll be pleased to know that uneaten jelly babies metamorphose into beautiful dragonflies!

As well as the beautiful blue dragonfly, Faby had stitched a cloud of little ones in a metallic silver thread. Whilst I was rummaging in my box of metallic threads I found two variegated ones which I thought might work, a green/purple one and a pale gold/pink/turquoise one. I decided to stitch a flutter of them across the top in the darker one and all the others in the lighter one. I rather like the effect. I also used the darker metallic one for the veins in the wings

When the next section was released on Wednesday I was that keen to stitch it that I forgot to take a photo before I started the extra back-stitching.

The final section of this panel includes outlines inback-stitch which give it an almost Art Deco feel, together with beads and sequins. I like the matt finish sequins and one little packet has so far done several projects and there is still plenty left! I checked on line the colour of the Mill Hill beads which Faby uses and found some similar in my stash. I decided to change the colours for the heads of the darker dragonflies to a light mauve/green metallic bead. I’m really pleased with the way it’s come out. I love the way the dragonfly stands out even though the background is so busy.

I’ve a decision to make soon, when I was stitching the outlines I realised this piece of linen wasn’t quite big enough for all four panels so I messaged Faby to see if there was a preference for which panels were stitched in a different colour. The next section was one of them. I had a look through the various colours I have in my stash, there’s lighter ones, darker ones…and I found a piece the same colour!! So now I’m wondering whether to do it as per instructions all in the same colour, or do I do two panels in a different colour. I think I’ll wait and see what the next part looks like.

If anyone is tempted to join this stitch-a-long please follow the link to Faby Reilly Designs. It’s nicely paced and her designs are always gorgeous!

Stitch-a-long

This SAL is organised by Avis, we share our progress every three weeks on a wide variety of hand-stitching. Please follow the links to see what every one else has been stitching;

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, AJ, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

Posted in cross-stitch, embroidery, Stitch-a-long | Tagged , , | 19 Comments

Flossie

Posted on August 14, 2021 by craftycreeky

Earlier in the year whilst the Great British Sewing Bee was on television, Cool Crafting from Kendal ran their own version, the Great British Sewing Bunny. We had three hours each week to make a costume on a set theme for a Luna Lapin or one of her friends, it was great fun. One week the theme was heroes so I dressed my Violet as a Barts nurse, I trained as a nurse at St Bartholomews many moons ago and this is what our uniform was like, starched aprons and hat and a black wool cape…

Well one of my nursing friends was very keen to have her own Barts bunny, so whilst I was away at the weekend I started sewing Flossie. These are hand-stitched apart from the ears. My friend wanted pink ears, so I found a pretty pink ditsy print for her ears and feet, I left out the interfacing from the ears as I knew they would be getting squashed under a hat.

The hardest bit of these rabbits are the eyes and nose, the eyes are small buttons with some straight stitch eye lashes. For the nose I stitched over some pink felt so it didn’t look too pointed, I’m still not sure about her nose but I’ll wait until she’s dressed and see what she looks like then.

Flossie in her undies!

I made a pair of pretty pale pink French knickers from some broderie anglais in my stash, with a little white flower at the front.

She’s now waiting impatiently for the rest of her uniform…

…so the collar is made and the apron (all the white bits first!) I just have to finish putting the dress together, keeping my fingers crossed that the collar fits OK as I’m mixing two patterns together. Back in the day the collars were detachable, together with all the buttons, it used to take about ten minutes to sort out a clean uniform, and that’s if you didn’t have to make a hat!

Once the main dress is stitched I can add the extras like scissors, I’ve even managed to find a mini fob watch, then it’s just the cape to make.

Hopefully soon Flossie will be on her way to London, where else would a Barts Bunny live 🙂

Posted in Crafts, Luna Lapin, Sewing | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Wednesday Wanderings

Posted on August 11, 2021 by craftycreeky

My friend and I had a couple of nights in a lovely B&B up near the pretty village of Ravenstonedale, walking some of the more distant Dales 30 mountains. Many are close enough to do as a day trip, but some are nearer the lakes and it’s much easier and more fun to have a couple of nights away. We stayed on a working sheep farm called Upper Greenside, it was ideal for us, comfortable, good breakfasts and a drying room for wet clothes!

We drove up via Swaledale to climb Rogan’s Seat. We parked in the pretty village of Keld and had THE BEST bacon sandwich from the farmhouse at the bottom which has a campsite attached. The walk took us up the top of swaledale, past the ruins of Crackpot Hall. I’d seen the hall on maps but never walked this way. It’s about 300 years old, originally a farmhouse it was finally abandonned around 1950 as subsidence from the lead mines made it uninhabitable. It’s wonderful name apparently comes from old norse words for crow and cave

It was a great walk up, we went up a narrow valley, which felt quite precarious at times. Swaledale used to be very much an industrial area (in 18th century terms!) with lots of mining and quarrying. The remains of buildings and spoil heaps can still be seen, it must have been a pretty desolate place to work. The heather is all in flower on the moors at the moment, it looked beautiful.

Once we reached the top plateau, the mist and rain started, luckily we were then walking on a landrover track which as there for the shooting fraternity. The actual official top of Rogan’s Seat wasn’t very clear, especially shrouded in mist, so we chose a clump of stones amongst the peat haggs and decided we were there!

We usually have our lunch on the top but there was clearly going to be no where dry in the rain and wind in the middle of a peat bog. I remembered passing a shooting hut about quarter of a mile earlier, we thought we might just be able to sit in the lea of the hut out of the wind. However we were pleased to see the shooting hut was only closed with a sneck lock and a rusty nail, so we opened the door, peered inside and found a long wooden table with benches either side, a perfect spot for lunch.

We returned by the same route, I did comment to my friend as we walked down that there’s a reason some summits have no paths going to them, as why the … would you want to go up there!! The walk up to the plateau was lovely though and it ticked another one off our challenge.

Having dried off at our B&B the next day (Sunday) the aim was to climb Yarlside and Randytop. We parked near the Cross Keys, an old Temperance Inn on the road to Sedburgh. The path took us gradually up towards Cautley Spout, which is meant to be the highest waterfall in England. Our path veered off to the right before reaching the falls but we still got a pretty good view and you could hear them for a long way too.

The path took us steeply up to the col with Bowderdale and then straight up the side of Yarlside. The higher we got the stronger the wind got, wind on mountains scares me more than anything due to my lack of balance, I’ve been blown over before! As we reached the ridge, just before the final ascent, it was getting beyond a joke. We sat down and ate our sndwiches, in the hope it would ‘blow over’. Half an hour later it was no better so we made the decision to turn back, it just wasn’t safe to continue. We were probably only 100m from the summit.

When you’re walking in the mountains you have to have total respect for the mountain and for the weather, it can change so quickly and there are so many micro-climates. It’s one of the hardest things to teach someone, when to turn back.

Despite not quite reaching the summit (We’re still calling it climbed for our challenge!) We really enjoyed the walk, we pushed ourselves out of our comfort zones, there were a few scary bits even without wind and the views were amazing. This is on the edge of the Lakes and it has a completely different feeling to walking in the Dales, I love getting up high on the ridges, you can’t beat it!

After our walk we called in for a pot of tea and a slice of lemon drizzle at the Cross Keys. It’s a fascinating place, still run as a Temperance Inn so there’s no alcohol served. Apparently it’s the only pub in England without a liquor license! I’ve just read an article about it and it dates back to 1732, originally it was a normal pub, but in 1902 the landlord drowned inn the nearby river Rothey trying to help a drunk man. The next owner removed the license and it’s been a Temperance Inn every since, selling a huge range of non alcoholic drinks…and cakes!

Fellside from HowgillLane

On Monday we decided to walk up Fellside, this is one of the mountains you can see as you drive up the M6 through Cumbria. It was a lovely walk, all the high mountain feelings of being on top of the world without the scary bits of steep, narrow paths!

We were delighted to see the wild ponies on our ascent – until I read the Dales 30 book I didn’t even know there were wild ponies up here!

The view from the top was amazing, we could see across to Morecambe Bay, over to the Lakeland fells, though trying to identify them from that direction wasn’t easy – we think we could make out Helvellyn and the Langdale pikes…

It was a fairly easy descent, picking our way down the flanks of the mountain and through the bracken back to the car.

All in all we had a wonderful few days, despite a little inclement weather! We ticked off three more of the Dales 30, I think we’ve also realised that the authors suggestions of doing two in a day are a bit optimistic for us, we can do it occasionally like with Pen-y-ghent and Plover Hill, but we also know when enough is enough. We’ll just have to go back for another weekend!

The Dales 30 book is certainly making us explore and walk in corners of the National Park we’ve never been to before. Next week we’re hoping to climb Great Whernside.

Posted in The Dales 30, Walking | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

August Smalls

Posted on August 10, 2021 by craftycreeky

I’ve just got round to changing my display of cross-stitch smalls. Last month I was wondering whether to do a themed display or not, bees or birds, well bees seemed the most popular so here are lots of bees…

The big bumble bee is one of my favourite smalls, I’ve stitched it three times! I made one for myself, one for my mum and one for a friend at work. The pattern is still available on etsy.

The square pincushion with four bees on is one I made back in 2015, it was one of the early pieces I shared on here, it was a pattern from Jardin Privee. The Scatter Sunshine one is a recent make from Shepherds Purse which happens to have some tiny bees on.

There’s still lots of bees in the garden, though they keep getting stuck in our conservatory, I’m getting a dab hand at catching and releasing them. They keep popping up on my embroideries too, my embroidered denim jacket had a couple buzzing around the flowers and my Cottage Garden quilt had lots of bees around.

I’ve just counted up and there’s over thirty bees on these photos 🙂

Posted in cross-stitch, Smalls of the Month | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Summer Dresses

Posted on August 5, 2021 by craftycreeky

I do like a pretty frock for warm summer days. Just recently I’ve fallen for a few light cotton prints from facebook sites, mainly Maggie Tuite and Fabric Heaven UK. They both sell gorgeous colourful cotton for a very reasonable price. The only problem is you have to buy it when you see it as they buy from India in relatively small quantities…well hat’s my excuse for all the squishy parcels that keep arriving!

I decided it was time to start stitching some up before the summer disappears, we’ve been promised another heatwave,but like all weather forecasts here in the UK, we’ll believe it when we see it! Just to digress for a moment, I did hear a plausible reason why weather forecasts are more unreliable than usual at the moment, they usually get information from airplanes but of course there hasn’t been as many flying. It makes sense to me.

Back to sewing…I decided to make a dress from Style 2713, I think it’s a pattern I got from a destash site. It’s a princess line dress with or without short sleeves and a rather pretty deep sweetheart neckline. There are a couple of minor variations but I chose the midi length sleeveless version

It went together pretty easily, I French-seamed the seams where I could and overlocked others.The neckline was a bit fiddly, the point isn’t as sharp as it should be but it looks OK.

I had my usual struggles with fit. It is a fairly loose fitting pattern, but how loose is too loose! I think the main problem is that my body shape has changed and I’m not too keen on the new shape, especially my belly! I’m still drawn to shapes which suited my old figure but probably need to reassess what to look for in a pattern.

Anyway, despite having misgivings I persevered. The neckline has a facing, I decided instead of understitching the facing down, which I often find allows it to peep round, I would embroider round the neckline and arm scythes.

I kept it simple with a feather stitch, I started at the back each time as I wanted the stitch in the same direction on either side. I did think it would be awkward sewing the opposite way to my norm, but I think it was actually easier! I also added a bead at every stitch, ensuring that it settled on the outer line of the stitch. I left the armholes embroidered but free from beads so it didn’t scratch. I’m really please how this came out, pretty and subtle, but not blingy!

I’m still not 100% on the dress but it is definitely growing on me, the fit feels a bit loose, even fora loose fitting dress, but if I take it in I look several months pregnant! Not a good look!

I can see myself wearing this, sitting in the garden ona warm summers day with a glass of chilled Pinot Grigio. You can definitely flop around in it!

Posted in Dressmaking, embroidery | Tagged , | 8 Comments