Introduction to Embroidery

Pattern Review: Summer in a Jar by Polka and Bloom

For my birthday this year my parents bought be an introduction to embroidery course. It was a 3 hour introductory course at the Village Haberdashery in West Hampstead. 

It was a small course of 6 people and the course was 3 hours in total. All of the materials including the pattern were included in addition to tea, coffee and biscuits :-) The pattern that we worked on was a good sampler to try a variety of stitches. 


I really enjoyed how quickly this project grew compared to cross stitch. It was a great portable project as you don't have to carry around a copy of the pattern as we drew it on the fabric with a water soluble pen. I ended up completing this on a work trip to Dubai.


The class was taught by Carina Envoldsen-Harris. She was a great teacher who explained everything clearly. I purchased her book Mandalas to embroider as there are some great stash busting patterns for left over embroidery threads, so look our for some more embroidery projects!

Work has been extremely busy so my sewing output has been minimal. However, picking up a small bit of stitching in the evening seems less tiring than sewing, so my embroidery and cross stitch output has really increased. Like I said, look out for some more stitching projects!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LGBT+ Pride Cross Stitch

Image
Pattern Review: SonofaCrossStitch - Pride Tattoo PDF Pattern I am back with some instant gratification cross stitch. This simple pattern is from SonofaCrossStitch  and is the PDF Pride pattern .  This is a really simple pattern that I bought as a stash buster. I had some 16 count aida purchased during a clearance sale and I used up some of my leftover threads from previous projects. The pattern does have suggested fabric and thread suggestions, should you wish to follow them. It is also available as a kit, which would make nice present.  I have tried various finishing methods for my cross stitch, and decided on trying the felt backing method for a hoop, found in my Cross Stitcher Magazine. It is a neat method and prevents anything showing through from the back of the cross stitch project.  The was a really fun quick project and the PDF pattern is very affordable. I am planning on buying a couple more as they will be excellent travel projects as well as stash
Read more

April Garment of the Month - Dress for Easter

Image
Pattern Review: Butterick 4443 Happy Easter! After spending Saturday in sunny Brighton, today in London is a such a contrast. Grey and miserable, but the perfect excuse to curl up in bed with a coffee and catch up on sewing blogs. So here is my April garment of the month - another version of Butterick 4443 . I have made this previously here  and I really love the style of the dress. I picked up this crepe like fabric from Goldhawk Road priced at £3 per metre sometime last year. I knew instantly that it would be great for another version of the dress. It drapes perfectly. As the fabric was quite thin I underlined all of the pieces with some stretch lining picked up from Simply Fabrics in Brixton, priced at £1 per metre.  I cut a size 14 and made my usual alteration to take in the waist and under the bust. I was very proud of myself as last time I made this dress I altered the skirt to make it shorter and remove some of the fullness. For this I traced a new ski
Read more

February Garment of the Month

Image
Pattern Review: Vogue 1387 I have to admit that my sewing mojo has been so low I wasn't sure February's garment was going to happen. Quite a few fellow sewers have mentioned that they have not been as productive as hoped during February, so maybe there has been something in the air? That said, I pulled it out of the bag to finish my muslin for this  Vogue 1387 Rebecca Taylor pattern. I initially fell in love with the pleats in the shoulders and the sleeve bands. Aren't they fab little details?? However there have been mixed reviews on Pattern Review, so although the line drawings looked simple enough I knew that it would be wise to make a muslin. I cut a straight size 14 and I think the fit is not bad at all. As you can see in the photo below there is a bit of excess in the sleeve, something that can be easily remedied for next time.  I did make two alterations. I lengthened the skirt by 2", without this it would have been ridiculously short on me
Read more