Needle Felted Feathers on a Wool Coat

 Way back in October I showed you a picture of some needle felting and then left you hanging! In the early summer I picked up a few brand new wool coats at Goodwill. They still had their tags, but had been marked 50% off about 3 times.

Needle felting is very simple. Using a felting needle covered in fine barbs, you push wool into your fabric. The needles are quite sharp. You should put a block of foam behind it, and keep your free hand and all interested toddlers out of the way. I used clean undyed fleece batts for the feather motifs. I didn't plan them, I just kept punching those suckers in until it looked right.

The strings are herringbone embroidery done in DMC pearl cotton, and also executed without forethought. The centers of the feathers are back stitched.

One awesome thing about needle felting into an existing coat is that even though you punch the wool through the lining, it easily pulls away unharmed. The lining may be a little rumpled, but a blast of steam from your iron eliminates that problem.

It's a fun, fast, easy project, and it gives you a completely unique product in the end. You could do circles, flowers, stars, patterns, mix it with more embroidery... go crazy!

I fully intended to sell it in the end, but I can't let it go!

 These pictures are brought to you by Daniel Konstanski, my handsome photographer, White Clay State Park, Delaware which is free all winter, and my fairly patient children.

In Progress...

 
It is time for a very quick works in progress report! A sudden dip in temperature this weekend lit the fire under me (or should I say iced me?) and reminded me of all the cold weather items I want and need to be making for my family! I have been remiss, but it is hard to remember how cold cold is when it is in the 90s. For one thing, my husband hasn't got a scarf since he lost the one he stole from me back in college. That is changing now.  

Next there is this coat I have been needle felting and embroidering on. I found it new at Goodwill with a few other wool jackets, and I thought I'd embroider them and resell them. But when Daniel realized they fit like gloves, he wants me to keep them. This happens to us all the time. What do you think? 

 
 Lastly, here is my progress on Thacia's quilt design. Given that I have only made 2 quilts so far, and they have been crib sized, obviously I am a great expert on quilting. That's why I decided to do make a Hawaiian quilt of my own design, that will actually be asymmetrical and very curvy. I have never hand appliqued anything this big, but I am pretty darn sure thistles are not the ideal image for a project like this. 

You have seen other steps of this project here, here, and here as I have screwed up my courage to do this crazy project I've never seen anything like, in a technique I have never used, to make an item I have never made before, all before my child freezes to death. Wish me luck!

Lions and Sharks and Bees, Oh My!

Saturday we hit the thrift store and Daniel talked me into picking up these lion bowls. There were only two. Had it been one or four it would have been a no-brainer for me, but for some reason two seems like an inopportune number.

My husband explains his persuasion as selfish because he didn't want to listen to me debating about them at home or have to return to the store for them later! Good man. He knows I have a thing for animals on home products.

Speaking of which, I have been meaning to show you the rest of my napkins for years! I keep wondering why I haven't, but in the back of my mind I must have guessed a good reason. Designs on napkins are quite difficult to style. I did lots of fancy things with them, and none of them worked. If there is a theme to the animal and insect embroideries it is that most of them are pests, but cool anyway. When you come over for dinner we will pretend there is some significance in the critter you choose. 

All embroideries are done in DMC floss on African wax print cloth.



For instructions on how to embroider your own napkins, check out my instructions: How to Monogram Napkins. Same technique, different image!

Embroidery for Preschoolers

"All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." –Pablo Picasso

Case in point: Consider Thacia's first stab at embroidery. Her sense of color is startlingly on-trend, the strokes are balanced in both color and rhythm. There is stability and gentle movement in the lines that keep the eye engaged. As she works she is focused yet relaxed: The French would say "sage." She enjoys the process. This is the gold standard for adult work, and absolutely effortless for a two year old. As far as she is concerned she is playing hide-and-seek as she pushes her giant needle through the muslin. She asks "Where did it go?" She flips the work "Oh there it is! I found it!"

So much contentment in muslin, embroidery hoop, needle, and yarn.      

Heirloom Sewing Cheats

There's irony in the fact that I developed a certain taste for children's clothing in college, but I am still paying for that education so I can't afford to indulge my whims for high end Italian knits and Dutch design. I do know how to sew it, but now that I actually have children I don't have much time to sew. 

So I cheated, and I'm not ashamed. I used a secondhand cotton tablecloth. No fancy computerized sewing machine, no hours of backbreaking labor or marking, no pricey embroidery software, just a stained tablecloth and the simplest of sewing patterns.

The foundation appeal is a simple, timeless design that lets the embroidery details speak for themselves. All the charm needs room to breathe! An addition of collar, petticoat, full puff sleeve, or sash would be too much. I made my own pattern, but I like this and this too.

It has an empire waist with embroidery, gathered and embroidered skirt with scalloped hem, long fitted sleeve puffed at the wrist and embroidered, and narrow back button closure with tiny vintage milk glass buttons.

I cheated.

Go therefore, and cheat likewise. You'll be mother of the year for providing your daughter with pretty dresses, wife of the year for doing it on a serious budget, and you'll still have time for the family with all the time you don't have to spend at the sewing machine to do it! 

Here Comes the Bride

A friend asked me to make her a banner for a young attendant to carry in her upcoming wedding, and I hope she is as pleased as I am with the result!

I backstitched the letters onto a vintage flour sack, and made fabric flowers for the top. Ordinarily I would sew the flowers, and stitch them on, but I experimented this time with hot glue. A glue gun is not normally my scene, but I’m short of energy, and therefore time! This isn’t going to need to go through the wash, so I think we’re safe.

Antique swiss lace scraps and repurposed tie silks are used as ribbons. The atmosphere of the wedding is to be whimsical and romantic. Does it work?

I wanted all of the letters to line up, so I designed it by hand. All that time my mom complained of me wasting making signs and letters growing up has paid off! I just wasted my mom’s time. Mine stays intact thanks to all that practice.

Found: Hand Embroidered Fantasy Linens

Pretend with me for a moment that it is Friday, because my mother has found something truly fantastic! Linens!

My mother found them in an estate sale and rightly snatched them up. They are priceless, or at least I could never afford them. To the best I can tell these are hand appliqued and embroidered including the cut work. The bouillon stitches are tiny and perfect.

Am I right in saying most of us would settle for having accomplished one of these exquisite ships in our lifetime? Well, there are 5 different kinds.

All 5 appear on the runner. 2 apiece show up on each napkin. Two. And there are 15 napkins.

That's 35 tiny, perfect ships. And that doesn't even count...

the sea monsters! This is just one, but there are just as many monsters. Doesn't it look like Narnia? My mother believes they are not, in fact, of Narnian origin, but that they are from the Netherlands.

Which is pretty cool too. The only problem is that I can never ever ever use them except when serving extremely dry bread and water lest any one of the 15 napkins get their first stain. So I'll have to stick with the napkins I embroidered a few years ago.

Simplicity Baby Shoes

Simplicity 2867. Try it. These booties are the greatest shower gift for someone like me who has more time than money. The materials cost about 75 cents, but shhh! Don't tell anyone! They are really easy, and they took me about 4 hours for this first pair, but you have to factor in how many times I held them out to admire them in the process!

Needlepoint Lace III: How-To

Needlepoint lace is constructed over the top of a fabric, but only anchored to threads which are couched to that fabric. When the couching is cut away the whole piece is allowed to come free.

The book I learned from is the fantastic Encyclopedia of Needlework by Therese de Dillmont passed down from my great, great grandmother.

While most books won't organize the information as being for needlepoint lace, you can find clear instructions about the two basic stitches– couching and buttonhole stitch– in any book on embroidery. If there are any terms you don't understand, by all means look it up!

Supplies:
image to turn into lace,
stiff fabric of a size to accommodate image,
fine-tipped permanent marker,
thread in all colors for design,
needle, and
scissors.

Instructions:
1. Select a small, graphic, simple image for your first lace piece. In this example I drew one of my pet goldfish within a circle. Trace your image onto your fabric with a fine-tipped permanent marker. Starch the fabric heavily for ease of handling!


2. Couch a doubled thread to the outlines on your fabric. Plan to follow one long line if possible. Doubling back over a line is fine. Overlap the ends of the couched thread for an inch or so at joins. Because it is very easy to sew into the couching thread that will be cut away, try couching with a monofilament.


Goldfish filled with widely spaced buttonhole stitch for the scales, and widely spaced ceylon stitch for fins.

3. There are many options for what thread you can use. Tatting thread or linen thread are recommended because of their body. However, I have had great luck with doubled sewing thread and buttonhole twist. I cannot recommend cross stitch floss because it twists and tangles so much. Whatever you choose, the next step is to fill in the spaces between couching in variations on the buttonhole stitch. Let me emphasize that after you finish couching your needle never goes through the fabric again. Everything is worked on top of the fabric and anchored to the couched thread. Hide all of your ends in the couched edges if possible and work over them with your next stitches. Above all, use your common sense!buttonhole stitch single and in rows

Rather than giving you a step-by step I am including diagrams of both basic and exotic combinations. I have found that this is more a matter of experimentation than planning.
By varying the size of your stitches and skipping stitches you can achieve very different looks.
open chain stitch

Instead of beginning with a buttonhole stitch along the couching you might consider working an open chain for a different look.
ceylon stitch

Ceylon stitch lends a knitted feel to the filling. In the fish above, I employed a loose stitch for a ribbed feel. 

a netting stitch




Try these insertion stitches on a narrow area.


Another example of filling

4. Once all of the desired areas are filled with stitching (in this case I left an empty spot between the tail and body), block the piece by holding a steam iron about an inch away on full steam until the threads relax. Don't touch it until it is cool and dry.


5. Cut away the couching threads from the back of the work. Peel the lace away from the fabric carefully!

Needlepoint Lace Part II: Projects

Since I've made so many monogrammed napkins for people, I wanted to make some for us. But "K" is kind of a goofy letter for a monogram so I logically ended up stitching things like caterpillars, sharks, and this bat instead. The bat is one of the Ceylon stitch things I worked on over the summer. It looks knitted, yes?



Obviously my first thought when I really saw the potential for the technique was "I wonder if it will hold its shape if the needlepoint is worked over some sort of armature?" If so, I was imagining a series of fabulous bras in the technique: How much would you love to have a bra with lace fig-leaf cups??? Ummm... maybe don't answer that question.

The only problem is that it took me 3 hours to do the first petal on this flower. Quickly realizing that the commercial opportunity of this particular scheme was about, oh, nil --unless I find some untapped market of millionaires longing for fig leaf bras–– I almost gave up but my curiosity won out in the end. As it turns out the lace does hold shape very accurately, I just don't know if I have it in me to do cup number two, even though I did become faster. In case you are wondering this is a flower... but it looks like a burning bush. Oo la la!

Lastly, I made this goldfish collage as a gift for a friend. I think it looks better in person than in this photo. The fish is the subject for the how-to to be posted Monday, so tune in next time!