Embellished Crochet

I still haven't decided how to embellish my felted bag...

In fact it's looking Very Boring!

Really...

I could do almost anything here.

I have a perfectly blank canvas to play with...

And yet I feel overwhelmed with choice.

I just don't know where to start - so I'm not starting at all!

Kind of like the housework, I guess.

Anyway, yesterday my dear friend Dawnie-Pants brought over a book called Embellished Crochet.

I think she must have known that I needed help.

So my plan for the rest of the day is to flip through the pages, seeking inspiration...

And see where that takes me!

Embellishing gifts

Here's an idea for using up those scrap embroidery threads...

You can crochet up some Gorgeous Flowers for jazzing up your gift wraps (I just glue mine in place with a dab of white PVA glue)

Most of the time I'm just a Brown Paper and Raffia girl, but every now and then the occasion calls for a little more zhuzh!

criss cross

The embellishing of the crochet hook case with scrap embroidery thread continues...

Who knows where it will end???

following the lines

Some days I feel super creative... I'm driven to push boundaries, and work outside my comfort zone.

Other days I just like to stick to the straight and narrow.

No prizes for guessing which zone I was in when I started embellishing the crochet hook case...

useful... but a bit too plain!

Look at what my friend Dawnie bought for me.



Isn't she a treasure???

This is the best hook storage system that I have ever used.



Four zippered pockets.... which are just the right size.

Pocket 1 contains bits and pieces - wool needles, scissors, gauge ruler, tape measure, etc.

Pocket 2 contains my 3mm and 4mm hooks

Pocket 3 contains the 5mm and 6mm hooks

Pocket 4 contains my less frequently used hooks. There's two bundles... one is all the hooks smaller than a size 3, and the other is all the hooks from 7mm and up.

Best of all, it's totally portable - so I can take my hooks anywhere I go. Too convenient!



Only problem... it's a little bit boring.

(but I can fix that)

And by boring, I mean to say... it is a SINGLE colour!

Now it's a wonderful colour... my favourite, in fact... but still, I'm feeling the need to jazz it up a little. I'm thinking along the lines of freeform embroidery.

I could add a few stitches here and there, as it takes my fancy. It wouldn't be a project which I rush to get finished... but more of a 'work in progress' which I keep adding to as the months and years go by.

Then it will really be MINE!

super sleuth!

Guess what guys???

We have a super sleuth among us...

Three big cheers for VJESTICICA who managed to track down the pattern for these bootees!!!

You can find the pattern in this book here which is available for sale from Annie's Attic.

Mind you, that's not where I got the pattern from...

I used this book here:



Some of you Aussie folk might actually have this one at home. I probably bought it about 12 - 15 years ago, probably somewhere like Big W or Spotlight or a similar store. It's a Patons booklet, and it's one that was around for years and years. But no longer in publication.

Here's what the bootee looks like in my pattern book:


And here's my finished bootees...

Well, one is finished, anyway!

I thought I'd take a comparison photo for you - one with embroidery and one without...



My embroidery isn't EXACTLY as directed in the pattern...

The blue on green at the top is supposed to be bullion stitch - which I haven't mastered yet... so I just worked a straight stitch there.

The dark blue crosses on light blue are as written, but I added a little red dot in the centre of each.

And the light blue zig zag on dark blue, was supposed to be herringbone stitch, but I couldn't get it working neatly into the space... and I went the simple zig zag instead!

Anyway, time for me to get on with embroidering the second bootee, before the baby outgrows them...

pin cushion

Sometimes it's fun to allow a project to morph into whatever it wants to be.



This pincushion started life as a wing for a bird, cut from a felted jumper and trimmed with a blanket stitch edging.

But I decided not to go ahead with that plan... so it lay around wastefully for a while.

A lonely, single wing.

Then I was wanting a hat embellishment, so I added a scrappy flower in green felt... with a few french knots in the centre.

But I trimmed the petals too closely together, and they pulled off really easily.

Never mind.

I added a few more french knots, and now it makes a perfect pin cushion!

another example...

here's another embellishment, photographed as it comes together

a small felt heart


unply some yarn, because it would be too chunky otherwise


use one strand to blanket stitch around




add a button


needs something more


colour behind? yes... but not this one


I prefer this colour


cut into a heart


but it doesn't look shabby enough...

so:

snip around the edges


still not shabby enough

moisten and scrunch


ahh.... that's much better


sew together... and voila!

embellishing your work...

I know that you hear me talk about it a lot... but have you ever wondered what this EMBELLISHING thing is all about???

Essentially, it is DECORATING

or ADORNING

or MAKING IT LOOK PRETTY...

But the big question is:

HOW DO YOU DO IT???

It's kind of hard to explain.

I know that doesn't help any, but it's kind of one of those thing where you just KNOW if what you're doing is right or not.

Which must be really frustrating if you are one of those people who doesn't jusk KNOW.

The good news is... that you can learn by experimenting.

That's how I taught myself.

It didn't just come naturally to me. In fact, I've only really learned to do it in the last few years.

In the past, I was always a pattern girl. There was no way that I would attempt ANYTHING without a pattern. Even if the pattern seemed to be wrong, I would still follow it. Because that's what the pattern said to do.

I wouldn't have embellished anything, unless the pattern said to.

And it would have to tell me EXACTLY what to do. Which shade of red felt I should use. What colour of cotton. Which size of sewing needle. Exactly what size of button, and where I should buy it from. How many stitches to work through the button eyes.

You get the picture.

Then, after my third child was born... I developed an interest in scrapbooking.

Which is basically cut and paste for grown ups.

I learned that I didn't need to know exactly what I was doing before I started.

I could change my mind as I went along.

I could experiment with different colours and textures and positions.

Nothing was set in stone. I could try an idea... and then change it if I didn't like it.

The novelty of scrapping wore off after a year or two... and I went back to my fibrecrafts.

But with a renewed vision.

I wanted to embellish everything!

Stuff the patterns... THIS IS MY WORK

I wanted to experiment with everything...

and I have...

(well almost)

Anyway... I've ventured off track a little, because this post was going to be a tutorial on embellishing.

But I'm not really sure how to teach it...

So, what I'm going to do is embellish a shabby hat... and show you the steps that I go through, mostly with photos

(the hat pattern is here if you haven't seen it yet)

okay...

so here's the hat to start with:


and I'm thinking a flower would look nice

I've chosen a cream felt

and cut out 5 teardrop shapes for the petals - they're not identical, but that's okay


join them together




and don't worry if the back is untidy


add a centre


and some french knots - just because I am obsessed with them at the moment






and some more french knots


and a few more, just for good measure


now for a background for the flower, just to give it some lift

trace around the flower (fabric is actually a really deep burgundy, but photographed very oddly)


cut it out, and pop it behind


stitch together - remember, it DOESN'T MATTER what the back looks like


and here it is