How to make an embroidered fabric cuff

An embroidered fabric cuff is an easy project, and doesn't require any fancy stitches or expensive purchases.  If you're a seasoned crafter you're likely to have the materials already to hand, and possibly the only thing you might buy is a hair band.  But more of that later.  

Let's start with the previouis fabric cuff I made.  (On the right in the photo above.)  I was pretty pleased with it, but decided it was too wide (though very good for keeping your wrist warm on a cold day!).  I learned a few things from making my cuff, mainly forget any notion of minimalism.  This cuff works best when you go heavily on the embellishments.  You've a small area to stitch on, so don't skimp on making the most of it.  

I made a second version (above left), and here are the instructions if you want to make something similar.  

You need to gather together: 

2 pieces of felt, measurements discussed below, but mine were 8 inches x 1 & a half inches each.  

Assorted scraps of material, ribbon, braid.  

Small beads, buttons, sequins.  

Regular sewing thread and (if you have it) embroidery thread 

Scissors, dressmaking pins and a needle for hand-sewing.  

Either go with a specific colour scheme or throw caution to the wind and use a kaleidoscope of colours.  Whatever floats your boat.  

Firstly, check the size of cuff I've given is suitable as your wrist might be smaller or larger than mine.  If you like, cut out a piece of paper and wrap it around your wrist to check the sizing.  It doesn't need to be as loose as a bangle, but neither should it be overly tight.  When you're happy with it, cut out 2 felt pieces.  

Arrange your fabric scraps, braid etc on one of those pieces of red felt.  It doesn't matter about them overlapping the felt's edges as that'll all be safely tucked out of sight later on.  Use pins to keep your arrangement in place, or if you'd rather sew tacking (basting) stitches.  Fabric glue isn't the best alternative as your blobs of glue might show through any sheer or semi-sheer material.  

Either using regular sewing thread or embroidery thread, stitch your scraps down.  Make your stitches as visible or invisible as is pleasing to your eye.  

Here's the red felt completely covered on the uppermost side.  And in the next photo, this is what it looks like on the back.  

Now you've secured your fabric scraps to the base layer of felt, it's time to really go to town.  Add beads, sequins, little charms, tiny pearl buttons, shisha mirrors, bits of broken-up earrings or necklaces, anything and everything that catches your magpie eye.  Add plenty of stitching too.  It can be running stitch, or use chain stitch, fly stitch, do several French knots ...  YouTube videos are your friend here if you're not an experienced embroiderer.  There are lots of films available, and even ones specifically geared to us left-handers.  

Embroider around and into fabric patterns, such as flowers or dots.  The more you stitch into your cuff, the more durable it'll be.  At one end of the cuff, sew on a medium sized button.  Once you've completed this, you can add the hair band.  It is going on the reverse, at the opposite end to your button.  

You want a loop of elastic band overhanging the cuff end, as shown above.  As a temporary measure, use pins or sewing clips to position the elastic band.  To get a nice fit, try the cuff on with the fastening closed.  Not too loose?  Not too tight?  Adjust the size of the overhanging loop until it's right. 

Once you're happy with it, use lots of robust stitches to firmly sew the loop to the underside of your embellished cuff.  (By the way, regular hair bands are okay for this project, but a wee bit bulky.  Try to go for the much thinner bands.  These were a pack of goodness-knows-how-many, bought for a quid from Primark.  If you're really stuck for a hairband, improvise with a homemade loop of narrow elastic.)

The last stage is adding the backing.  This is the second piece of red felt you cut out earlier.  If your cuff's been densely stitched into, it'll shrunk slightly in the process, so trim your backing to the exact size now required.  

And that's it!  You're all done and dusted.  One pretty cuff to adorn your wrist and be the envy of your friends.  

Fingers crossed those instructions made sense, but if there's anything you're unsure of, please ask.  Okay, if you've enjoyed that and you fancy creating something similar, can I recommend my embellished cuff kit?

It's available on Etsy via my shop, and includes instructions, red felt, a selection of fabric scraps, a hair band (two actually, so you've got a spare).  Also, a shisha mirror, a dozen seed beads, a medium sized button, and two skeins of embroidery thread.  

This link takes you to my Etsy shop, and I really took care to put these kits together, so I hope you'll like them.  I've made five red/pink kits, and if they're popular I'll happily make more.  Plus, the intention is to make a blue themed kit.  Possibly even a black & white one too.  Let me know if you've any preferences.  

Okay, thanks for your time, and have fun with your sewing.  


  

Does anyone enjoy writing instructions?

I used to work as an office administrator and must've written scores of departmental memos in my time.  I prided myself on being clear, precise, making points logically and so they could be easily understood.  So why do I now struggle with writing instructions?  Maybe I want to feel I've moved on from those sometimes fun but mainly times monotonous working days?  Anyway, whatever reason, I've spent way too long this morning writing a simple blog post explaining how to make a fabric cuff.  Now, I get to write another set of instructions to be printed and included in a kit, about how to make the very same thing.  Which is fair enough, but I'd rather be sewing!  Mind you, doing this stops me from thinking about the bowlful of washing up in the kitchen, so it's not all bad.  

I've got this pretty Emma Bridgewater 'Strawberries & Cream' bowl next to me, filled with embroidery thread in equally pretty colours.  The bowl's got several chips around the rim, so it's gone from being a cereal bowl to having a second life holding craft supplies. 

Coffee mugs that've become chipped or lost their handles experience their second life as pen or brush holders.  Well, it pays to get value for money out of what you purchase, and I'm a great believer in 'waste not, want not'.  The odd imperfection doesn't bother me too much.  

Besides the instructional writing, I did manage a couple of other small crafty tasks that've hung around for no good reason.  I added backing fabric to two more pennants / boho bunting or whatever I'm calling them!  That's eight made so far, and I'll have to make at least one more as it's better to have an odd number than even.  Don't ask me, why, it just is.  

Also, this morning I sewed backing material on to this kinda weird bit of slow stitching.  It's a square of white cotton I painted with acrylic before adding stencils and stamping.  I've been rather half-heartedly stitching into it, but then went into overdrive the other evening.  I've since added masses of running stitches, outlining and filling in shapes made by the stencils in particular.  

I found a lovely dusty pink printed material I'd been hanging on to, waiting for the right use for it, and backed my slow stitching with it.  So now I've a stitched, backed square I'm wondering what to do with.  Make up into a fabric roll?  Sew into an envelope style pouch?  I can't decide.  

In other 'news' I had an eBay delivery today.  A pack of ten flex frames I bought which, I hadn't noticed when I initially purchased them, were sent all the way from China.  I should've selected a UK seller really as it seems wrong - or at least not massively ethical - to order stuff from the other side of the world.  But then again, if I'd bought from a UK seller the actual frames might've been supplied from a Chinese manufacturer anyway.  Attempts to shop ethically aren't that easy, are they?  

I've not used flex frames before for making purses or spex cases, so that's another new skill to master.  

Okay, I can't ignore that mini-mountain of washing up for any longer.  I'll do it and reward myself with a chocolate bar.  Yup, that's a plan.  

Hope you're having a good day, and bye for now.  

 

Fish and a bagful of ribbons

 

It's been a funny few days.  I must've eaten something that disagreed with me on Sunday as I've felt under the weather for days, and been moping around with a face like a wet weekend.  I've done a bit of stitching here and there, working on these two pieces of needlepoint.  Both destined to end up as spectacle cases and, when I eventually finish 'em, go in my Etsy shop.  Speaking of which, I've been making another embroidered fabric cuff, this one narrower than the previous effort.  The idea being to make a kit to go in the shop, all you need to make a cuff including embroidery thread, beads, sequins and so on. 

I've assembled the packs, but now have to write out the instructions, which for me is the tricky part.  Writing clear, straightforward instructions that are easily understood is a skill in itself.  I really enjoyed selecting the material to go in the kits, and it was the ideal occupation for someone who didn't want to move far off the sofa.  

Though I did feel okay enough today to trundle along to the supermarket, of course calling into a charity shop on the way.  Picked up another bargain book for the To-Be-Read pile.  (Am currently engrossed in S.J. Parris 'Treachery.  Strapline: 'In Elizabeth's England there is no greater crime.'  Set in 1585, and treachery there certainly is.  It's a page-turner alright.)  I also unearthed another bargain, £1.49 for a bag of ribbons and trimming.  Love the shocking pink and especially that Indian style trim at the base of the picture.  There was also a vintage tape measure in the bag, softened by age and constant handling.  I like the notion of incorporating that, or lengths of it, into some slow stitching.  I don't need it for practical purposes as a tape measure.  I've at least two modern ones, plus several quilt rulers, but I'd like to give it a second life somehow.       

Can't think of much else to tell you, except I've been seeing on Facebook previews for a new film, Olivia Colman in 'Wicked Little Letters', about a scandal over poison pen letters in 1920s Sussex.  It looks like it'll be a cracker.  Anything you're looking forward to with film or TV?  I can always use a decent recommendation.  

  

450 skeins of embroidery thread ... have I over-ordered?

I've been getting near to finishing this piece of embroidery, adding lots more seed beads and bugle beads, really enjoying stitching into the fabric and feeling the texture of it change the more thread's worked into it.  I'm thinking it'll turn into a wall hanging of some kind, and did wonder about making a simple frame for it.  Cutting one out of cardboard and maybe covering that with either fabric or gell prints. Then I remembered I've got a dish full of shells somewhere.  Could I cobble together a frame covered in shells?  That might be worth a try.  

This blue rice bag is not completed yet either.  I wanted to make the four loops on it out of denim, upcycling the straps off a denim dress.  But they proved way too bulky and impossible for my sewing machine to cope with.  So I've made two loops out of patterned cotton and two out of a beautiful blue velvet that came in a Bazaar scrap pack.  I really need to crack on and get the bag lining sorted out, but I've been sidetracked by my fishy embroidery that's occupied a lot of my spare time.  

Talking of embroidery, I wanted to stock up on embroidery thread and turned to Amazon to see what they'd got in stock.  I may have gone ever so slightly overboard!  But they had an offer for - wait for it  - 450 skeins of thread for tuppence under £25.00.  That works out about 6 pence a skein.  I couldn't resist.  Delivery came today, and the thread's surprisingly good quality.  I'd taken a chance on it, knowing it wasn't branded Anchor or DMC, but it's perfectly decent for my usage.  Maybe if you're a Royal School of Needlework standard stitcher you'd not settle for it, but at 6 pence a skein I'm very happy with my purchase.  It'd be ideal for hair wraps, friendship bracelets or making decorative tassels too.  

Hope you're having a good weekend.  Bye! 



 

Who doesn't like trees?

 

Okay, this is usually a craft centred blog, but today I'm posting pictures of trees.  Specifically the bark on them, where it's all weather-beaten and mossy.  

You see, I took myself off for a walk around the nearby RSPB reserve today, a site that's a former open cast mine and is now a home to countless birds.  Most of which I fail to identify.  I'll never make it as a twitcher.  Anyway, I was very taken with their trees.  

I love these silver birches.

Look at the colours on these.  They're pieces of textile art waiting to happen.  The photos don't quite capture how vivid the moss and lichens were.  So many shades of green, some with lots of yellow in them, others that're more of a blue-grey kind of green.  All that lovely texture too.  Wouldn't that be good to recreate in fabric and thread?  

It's only a brief blog post, and a niche one at that. No doubt I'll be back to wittering on about sewing tomorrow.  But sometimes you just have to go where your interest takes you, and today it was trees!  

Hearts & Ashes

It feels odd that Lent begins today.  With Ash Wednesday and also with St. Valentine's Day, so the shops and airwaves are full of hearts and flowers and talk of true lurve.  It's a strange contrast between the solemnity of the religious run-up to Easter alongside the commercialism of 14th Feb.  

There was a wonderful photo I saw on the-site-formerly-known-as-Twitter, with several blokes staring in bewilderment at a Sainsburys display of dozens of Valentine cards.  You could almost hear their thoughts.  What should they buy?  What'll she like?  Jokey?  Sweetly sentimental?  They were probably mind-boggled by the prices too.  How much?  For a folded piece of card and an envelope!!!  It made me laugh anyway.  

Right, on to crafty matters.  After finally listing packs of sari scraps on Etsy, I put together packs of journal ephemera too.  You see, I'd got stacks of vintage birthday cards, and was wondering what to do with them.  Plus old postage stamps and equally ancient stamp albums, the pages full of references to countries no longer even existing.  Not things I have room to keep, but I'm not about to bin them either.  (I think the stamp collecting was done by my maternal grandfather, and my mum was interested in it too as a girl.)  The birthday cards are too pretty end their days in the recycling, while the stamps are little pieces of social history.  So I thought they might be appreciated by crafters who're into junk journals or art journaling.  I gathered together other odds & ends - vintage playing cards, book pages, decorative paper, punchinella, and bundled them into envelopes, ready to (hopefully) be posted off to new homes.

Much as I squirm at doing self-promotion, here's the link to my Etsy shop if you're interested.  
Okay, change of subject.  The photo at the top of this blog post shows my dining table yesterday morning.  I hadn't messed around with the gell plate for ages, so out it came.  I stamped and stenciled on sheets of A3 sketchpad paper, ready for these to be cut up and turned into a journal. 

The idea is to not saturate each surface with colour and pattern, but use just enough so you're not faced with that stark white journal page.  A completely blank page can feel intimidating - you're reluctant to start making marks in case you 'get it wrong' or all that whiteness overwhelms any creative urge.  Having something on the page already, even if your artwork will eventually totally cover it up can act as a jumping-off point, a prompt to get you painting or drawing or making a collage.  That's the theory anyhow.  

I also printed on envelopes, making sure I left plenty of room for the address and the postage to be added.  

Oh, and a final picture to end this blog entry.  Here's my clean-up sheet, where I was simply getting rid of paint off the gell plate.  Isn't it funny how clean-up sheets can often end up as the nicest thing you've printed?  Love the colours, and wish I'd printed it on fabric.  That'd be nice to stitch into.  

Right, that's me done for now.  If you're celebrating Valentine's Day with someone special, then I'll raise a glass to you (or a teacup!).  Have fun!  


  

Uh-oh! A new crafty obsession may be just around the corner

 

Signs of spring on its way are everywhere you look.  Sadly these pretty hellebores aren't in my garden, but I saw them in a community flower bed, along with these primroses.  

I think we're in for an early Easter this year, what with Lent starting next Wednesday.  I've been thinking about 'giving something up' which is what you traditionally do during Lent.  Abstain from something you enjoy.  I used to give up chocolate, but never managed more than a few days.  So instead I'm thinking of actively doing something instead.  So far my ideas include listening to a piece of classical music each day (as I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to classical stuff).  I've got Clemency Burton-Hill's 'Year of Wonder' book, where she picks out a piece of music each day and tells you a bit about the composer or other background to the piece.  I can base my listening on her selection.  I've set myself a New Year's Resolution in previous years to work my way through the entire book, but never got further than mid January.  But resolutions made in the cold, dark days of January don't often work, do they?  So perhaps a Lenten Resolution would instead?  

My blue painted calico is looking slightly less like a dish rag now.  I successfully attached three little shisha mirrors, not perfectly but the stitches do the job of holding the mirrors in place.  The circles are supposed to represent bubbles in the water.  

There're more bubbles in the shape of seed beads, and curving lines of running stitch meant to show movement in the water.  Well, it all makes sense in my head!  

I've finished stitching the four scrappy blue squares that'll form the outer sides of a rice bag.  These are pinned and waiting to be machine-sewn together.  Then I need to finish another square for the base, then decide what material I'll use to line the bag and cut five squares out of that.  

This is what the back of those four scrappy squares looks like.  All my wiggly 'straight' lines and rag-tag knots.  Nevermind, the lining will hide 'em away.  

Oh, I nearly forgot.  The reason this post talks about a new crafty obsession is that I watched a YouTube video today about making baskets out of rolled up newspaper or magazine pages.  My fingers are itching to try this thrifty craft.  You make long strips of rolled up paper and coil them together, there's no fancy equipment needed.  I have a few glossy magazines, acquired as freebies, and I'd rather find a use for them than bin them.  Plus, I do have a weakness for a pretty basket.  Handy for storing threads or beads, or any amount of creative clutter.  But I must hold back from thoughts of baskets for a while longer.  Too many projects on the go already.  

I must finish some of those first!  (Famous last words, eh?)  

Sari scraps, PVA, a couple of books and a necklace

 

I'm typing this as snow's falling, and has been steadily all day.  It's not settling to any great extent, though I bet by tomorrow morning the paths will be slippery with ice.  Which always makes me paranoid about falling over and at the very least looking undignified, but at worst breaking a bone or twisting an ankle.  Oh well, it's ideal weather to stay inside and craft, isn't it?  I finally got around to listing packs of sari scraps on Etsy this morning.  I only made up six bundles as I've no clue whether they'll sell or if I've set a reasonable enough price point.  Time will tell.  

This is a link to the listing, if you're interested. 

This vaguely pink fabric isn't from one of my Etsy packs.  It's from a bit of experimenting I was doing yesterday.  I'd seen a post on Instagram showing how a DIY version of batik could be done without using hot wax.  The Instagrammer used PVA instead, and I wanted to try this out.  The glue's supposed to be applied, let dry, then the fabric painted.  That's let dry, then the glue's washed off,  I used unbleached calico, and the results were patchy.  I applied PVA with a brush, but couldn't apply it finely due to the glue's consistency.  I wasn't sure if I ought to water down the PVA to make the application easier.  But would the glue still act as a barrier to the paint if I did so?  I left it undiluted.  

I reckon you need to pour the PVA into a squeezy bottle with a fine nozzle to get any decent attempt at a pattern.  The brushstrokes were too clumsy.  

I used acrylic paint instead of actual fabric paint for the background colour, so when I washed the PVA out, a fair amount of paint was washed out too.  But funnily enough I quite liked the look of this, especially with the blue painted calico.  I've started embroidering into it as the mottled effect reminds me of water.  I'm aware it resembles a dish rag right now!  But I'm sewing on beads and couching on texture, trying to build up my underwater scene, and I'm hopeful it'll look good in the end.    Messing about in this way made me recall how I'd done 'proper' batik classes in the past, and to decide that I'll order wax pellets and a tjanting, and try that method again.

Some of the seed beads I'm adding to my embroidered piece came from this necklace, picked up for £1.50 in a charity shop yesterday, along with yet more books.  I thought the aquamarine colour was perfect for the task, and this kind of costume jewellery is ideal to pick up for very little money and deconstruct.  You get masses of seed beads on a single necklace, much cheaper than buying the same quantity from an online supplier.  As for the books, I'm really enjoying 'Dark Tides' so I snapped up another Philippa Gregory novel, and I'm looking forward to reading 'Black Narcissus', having only ever seen the Deborah Kerr film version.  

Okay, that's all for now.  I hope you're well, happy and healthy.  Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you nip over to my Etsy shop for a browse.  You might find something you like! 

Shisha mirrors and fabric painting

In one of the scrap bags I bought recently was a packet of shisha mirrors, so this morning I had a go at using them.  There's a beautifully clear YouTube video explaining how to embroider around a mirror, attaching it to fabric, and I tried following that.  (The link's here.)  Only I went off-piste and did my own thing, which was why my first attempt wasn't good enough. 

The mirror will fall out as the stitching's not wide enough to cover the mirror's edge.  My second attempt was more free-styling, but actually it wasn't bad.  The mirror's secure, which is the main thing.  I'll try again as practise makes perfect, and see if I can't get a more professional finish.  

Once that was done, I dug out the gell plate and acrylics.  I'd a hankering to apply paint to fabric.  This smaller piece was previously plain white cotton.  (The photo's not great as it looks a dingy green when it's brighter in real life.)  The other material I used was a slippery, shiny lining fabric, and I wasn't sure if the paint would adhere to it in the same way as the cotton.  But it does.  

I've stencilled on a base layer of colour, and will add printing stamps once the paint's completely dry.  The idea is to produce something I can use to sew into, as part of this year's ambition to teach myself basic embroidery stitches.  

This is an earlier example that I've began embroidering, but not finished yet.  

Here are a few details from my initial attempts.  (Again, the colours haven't photographed very well.  It's actually a prettier pink than it appears.)

Metallic thread works nicely to add hints of sparkle.  You might not see it, but I've used gold thread in the circles above. 

Even if I don't end up with a piece of fabric I really love, it can always be incorporated into a pieced-together quilt backing.  So I'll find a use for it one way or another.   

P.S.  (written later on)  I tried again with the shisha mirrors.  Had three attempts, unpicked them all.  There was rolling of the eyes and sweary words muttered.  Nevermind, I'll try again tomorrow.