TUTORIAL - a jenny-leaf and scissor keep...

My sweet little textured leaves came to life one day as I was doodling and stitching. 

I wanted to create a new leaf to compliment a posey of flowers in a design and thought how lovely to combine my two favourite stitches – back stitch and blanket stitch.

Someone else may well have done similar leaves in the past but I’ve never seen a leaf like mine before so I’ve called it a Jenny Leaf because it features in most of my designs lately.

Want to try one?

Download the free pattern sheet here

Trace the design onto your fabric, fuse a thin stabiliser behind the traced design, choose a green thread and we can begin!

Note: I've stitched my leaf with a single strand of Aurifil 12 weight which is the same as using 2 strands of embroidery floss. 

Start your backstitch at the base of the leaf where the centre line begins.

Stitch around the whole leaf.

Your entry holes for the right side of the leaf will become your entry holes for the blanket stitch so think about this as you stitch.

Small stitches will mean more blanket stitch veins on the leaf.

Larger stitches will give fewer veins.

Ignore the first backstitch entry hole (if you have small backstitch) and begin your blanket stitch at the second entry hole on the right side of the leaf. However, if your backstitch is large begin at the first entry hole.

Sew a line of blanket stitch all the way up the centre of the leaf.

When you come to the top omit the last backstitch entry hole if your backstitch is small.

If your stitches are large sew a blanket stitch into every entry hole along the right side of the leaf.

Finish the centre line of the leaf by sewing one straight stitch and ending it just slightly above the point of the leaf. 

Stitch the second leaf.

It will be much quicker this time. 

Now that you’ve sewn two leaves would you like to make a little scissor keep?

Fuse a piece of thin Pellon behind your stitchery.

Trim the stitchery to 3” (wide) x 3 ¼” (high).

Cut a piece of pretty fabric the same size.

Pin the fabric and the stitchery together, right sides facing.

Sew a ¼” seam around 3 sides, and ¾” along each end of the fourth side to leave an opening for turning out.

Turn the needle-keep right side out, press, and fill the inside with stuffing. 

Ladder stitch the opening closed.

Instead of a flower we’re going to add a button under our leaves.

Choose a button to compliment the fabric you’ve used at the back of your needle-keep.

But if you want to really compliment the fabric you could always do what I have done and self-cover a button with a scrap of the fabric for a perfect match!

You know, with a pretty pair of embroidery scissors one of these scissor-keeps would make a lovely gift and as it's July already it might be time to start filling the Christmas pressie box.

Just a suggestion! Ha ha!

I've included this full tutorial in the free pattern so save it to your computer and it will always be handy. 

Start to finish this little project took me 30 minutes so it might be a good one for a friends sewing afternoon at your house...of course with coffee, cake and chatter it might take you a little longer than that, but imagine the fun?!

It's Monday morning here and while Mr E's at work and Blossom's beloved is back from overseas so they are relishing family time with little Cully May, I shall get moving with housework and a bit of baking because...we have friends coming to stay later this week for a one night stopover as they travel around Australia on their motorbike and sidecar. 

We've never met in person but have known them for a number of years so it should be a lovely night!

I wonder if you can guess who?

Enjoy the new week!

hugs

Tracing on fabric...

One of the most regularly asked questions left for me in comments or sent via email is "What pen do you use to trace your designs onto fabric?"

Since I first began embroidery in 2005 I've progressed from a pencil to a green pigma pen, and on to two different variations of brown pigma pen...

2005...

I used a fine graphite pencil. (I used to call them lead pencils, but my husband assures me that we do not use lead anymore, so graphite they are) This choice was soon discarded because graphite leaves a very fine residue on your threads as you stitch, and those lovely soft pinks, lemons and greens were dulled with grey dust.

2006...

I read that you could trace with an Artline green pigma pen and as long as you washed the finished stitched block before you ironed it, the traced green pen lines would wash away.  I liked that the green ink assured I could see the lines to stitch over, no matter the lighting - but the pen tip did tend to catch on certain fabrics.

Blossom and I used this pen for about a year, but then we had a sorry hitch. She had stitched her original and intricate 'Rapunzel' design over a couple of weeks onto a marbled pink quilting fabric. She washed the stitchery as we normally did, but that green pen refused to budge. She was shattered, and the pretty stitchery ended its short life in the rubbish bin. It was time to look for something else. We tried ceramic pencils with erasers and blue fading pens, but even these refused to budge on certain fabrics.

2007:

I read about the brown Micron 01 pigma pen. The traced lines were so very fine and all my stitches, even using single threads, beautifully covered those lines.

The downside was the ‘catching’ of the pen’s tip in fabrics with a larger weave, such as homespun, quilter’s muslin or calico - all of which I liked to use for my stitchery backgrounds. This proved frustrating so I started tracing and stitching my designs onto good quality solid or tonal quilting fabrics instead - but the pen still wasn’t as smooth as I’d hoped. 

2009:

I discover the Zig Millenium pen! It glides across any fabric, no matter the size of the weave. It is fine, brown, and perfect for my needs. My stitches cover it every time as long as I trace exact lines and don’t try to fix a mistake by drawing an extra line or thickening an area. I haven’t moved on, and still use it today to trace every one of my stitchery designs onto fabric because I’m so happy with the consistent results.

Just so you can compare the four tracing mediums, here they are drawn onto calico...

 ...and onto some RJR solid quilting fabric.

Good fabric really does make a difference, even with a good pen.

Now here is a tracing hint for you...

 When you trace a design that has lazy daisy stitches, don’t draw in the whole daisy stitch. It’s hard to cover all the traced lines of a small flower petal or similar shape with a lazy daisy stitch, so leave it blank or just put a little dot where the stitch is meant to go. In my ‘Bloom In Your Own Pot’ design I made dots for the placement of the French Knots, but did not draw the lazy daisy lines. Have a look at the photos below and you'll see the lazy daisy placement dots I've made inside the head of the flower...

 Now look at the photo below. You can see how neat the lazy daisy stitches appear when there is no visible tracing mark...

 

 I hope this little bit of Elefantz information has answered some questions for you.

A little bit of stitching got done on another secret project...

...and the rest of the corn fritters and marinated beans were on the menu with salmon for dinner.

It was a nice yesterday.

Hope you have a nice today,

hugs