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Archives for February 2022

Scallop Stitch: Very Easy Embroidery Tutorial

     Anne      Leave a Comment

Hello and welcome to another very easy stitch tutorial! Today we will look at the scallop stitch, which is a variation of the fly stitch. I realize that I haven’t yet posted a tutorial on the fly stitch, and that’s because I never really use it! I prefer the scallop stitch, which is basically a curvier version of a detached fly stitch. I often use it for small details in my embroidery, worked with only 1 or 2 strands of floss.

 

scallop stitch embroidery tutorial

 

For example, if you’re here following my Tea Party Mini-Quilt stitch-along and you received the February Sweet Cherries pattern, you might have noticed that the scallop stitch was used for small details on the cherries. The scallop stitch, although really easy, is not a stitch I had heard much about when I first started to embroider, so I thought I would post a tutorial on how to do it. If you already know how to do lazy-daisy (detached chain), then you’ll have no problems at all with this one!

 

Scallop Stitch Tutorial

1. Bring your threaded needle (I’m using 2 strands for the tutorial) up from the back at point A, and back down again at point B. Don’t pull all the way through. The distance from A to B will be the length of your finished stitch.

needle going down from A to B

 

2. Start pulling the thread, until a small loop is left. Hold it down with a finger while you bring the needle up from the back at point C. Point C should be half-way across A and B, but slightly lower. The idea here is to create more of a curved line as opposed to the “V” shape of the fly stitch. So to do that, you don’t want point C to be too low. It’s the position of C that will determine how much or how little your line will curve.

needle coming back up between A and B at point C

 

3. Pull the needle all the way through, allowing the loop to rest against the working thread coming from point C. Bring the working thread over the loop, which should now be laying in a curved line from A to B.

thread being pulled all the way from point C to create curved line

 

4. Finally, anchor the curve in place with a very small stitch from C to D. Point D will be directly below point C, forming a very small straight stitch. This is the same way you would finish a lazy-daisy stitch.

needle going down in D to anchor scallop stitch

 

And that’s it!

finished scallop stitch laying nicely on the fabric

 

Repeat as many times as desired. Grouped together it looks like a flight of birds!

several scallop stitched grouped together

 

Here’s the pinnable step-by-step tutorial if you wish to save it for later.

scallop stitch tutorial

I hope this tutorial was helpful and that you enjoy giving the scallop stitch a go if you haven’t already! It’s such a handy stitch for little details. If you’d like to participate in the Tea Party Mini-Quilt stitch along, I send you a free mini-embroidery pattern each month this year as part of my newsletter! You can subscribe right here. We are turning the embroideries into little hexies to make an EPP mini-quilt at the end of the year. 🙂

 

Check out these posts for more info & tutorials on EPP:

english paper piecing: how to cut and baste shapes
stitching a hexie flower english paper piecing
mini-quilt project: epp & embroidery

Have a lovely week my dear readers, and happy stitching!

 

Fondly,

Of Hearts & Pretty Fabric Scraps

     Anne      4 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day, dear friend! I hope today finds you in a happy mood and that that it’ll bring you a little something sweet and loving. I’ll be honest, I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day. It doesn’t hold any special significance for me, and I eat enough chocolate throughout the year as it is. 😉 Nevertheless, this February I’ve felt particularly drawn to the Valentine’s aesthetic in my needlework. Soft pink and red threads, appliquéd hearts, delicate little stitches, and pretty fabric scraps have been my biggest source of inspiration these last few weeks. While preparing the EPP tutorial post I shared last week, I brought my box of fabric scraps out to play, and had fun just experimenting and trying new techniques.

I spend a lot of time working on large and time-consuming needlework projects that require a lot of planning and concentration, so it was really lovely to slow down a little and work on simpler, softer projects. I just let my inspiration flow and my needle and thread carry me. Shall we have a look at some of my recent makes?

flat lay showing a variety of sewing projects (laundry bag, appliqué hearts, embroidered fabric heart) and basket full of haberdashery and sewing notions

 

Needle-Turn Appliqué

I confess, a lot of my inspiration comes from Instagram, where it seems all the stitchers are also gracing this month with their prettiest fabric scrap projects. I’ve been seeing so many beautifully embroidered fabric hearts, appliquéd journal pages, and just general heart-and-pastels loveliness, that I had to try a little something of my own. After coming across a fantastic video tutorial by Sarah Edgar of Pretty Fabrics & Trims on needle-turn appliqué, I simply *had* to set everything aside and try it immediately. I’ve dabbled in appliqué before and really enjoy it, but I had never tried this method before. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy and fun it was! So here are some little scrappy hearts, made with love and new-found appreciation for the technique.

flat lay showing appliqué scrap fabric hearts, with some pins and spool of thread

I really should try more spur-of-the-moment experiments like this! Not only was it fun to just play around with fabric scraps, but it was also very relaxing. I will definitely be trying needle-turn appliqué again and can’t wait to incorporate it in a future project. I strongly recommend having a look at Pretty Fabrics & Trims, too!

 

The Cutest Clothespin Bag

Who says laundry has to be all drab and dull?! Not with this darling accessory!

clothespin bag with wooden pegs, ribbon, lace, and fabric scraps

I’m actually really proud of this project. I put my dusty drafting skills to use to make a pattern, and rummaged through my fabric stash and notions to find a satisfactory combination. This is a birthday gift for my dear mother, you see. Her clothespins currently reside in an old plastic bread bag, which deeply offends my sense of the picturesque. I must rescue them (the bag is about to pop, after all), and thus the idea for this project was born. It turns out that Pinterest is full of these charming creations, and the possibilities are nearly endless.

I spent more time deciding how to embellish the bag than drafting and sewing combined. I was tempted to embroider all over it, and to bedeck it with lace and ribbons but had to restrain myself to one ribbon bow and two buttons. My eternally practical mother wouldn’t use it if I made it “too pretty”. She has a good point of course, this is for the laundry room after all, not the next issue of Victoria magazine! And in this case, less really is more, it’s just the right balance between pretty and practical as it is, I think.

close-up of clothespin bag details; red ribbon bow and white buttons
clothespin bag hanging from door handle

In any case, this is a wonderful project to add a touch of vintage to your home and use up some of those fabric scraps! Very simple to put together, even to draft, and so easy to personalize. With a bag as cute as this one, you might even find yourself looking forward to doing the laundry. 😉 And the clothespins will be very pleased of their new home, I’m sure.

 

Embroidered Fabric Heart

The last project I want to share with you is this stuffed fabric heart made with the softest antique linen, and featuring a most gorgeous embroidery pattern by Nicki Franklin of The Stitchery. I’ve been admiring and sighing over Nicki’s work for a while now, but hadn’t actually used any of her patterns until now! Since I spend more and more time only embroidering from my own designs, it’s now rare that I use someone else’s. But how can one resist Nicki’s incredibly beautiful work? (Here’s a link to the specific pattern I used: February Heart.)

embroidered floral heart featuring roses, branches of leaves and hyacinths

Embroidering this heart was some of the most relaxing and soothing stitching I’ve done in a while! Everything about it is so soft and sweet, it uses only basic stitches, and it comes together fairly quickly. I didn’t have all the recommended colours so I changed up the palette a little, but that was part of the delights of making this! I’ve been hooked on Agatha Christie’s Poirot series since the fall, but only started watching the TV show recently. It was perfect to put in the background while working on this!

I’d been wanting a new scented sachet for the closet, so I decided to turn the embroidery into a stuffed hanging heart. I used a mix of polyester fiberfill and scrap bits of thread and fabric for stuffing. Since I didn’t have any lavender buds but still wanted the heart to smell nice, I used a drop or two of pure lavender essential oil directly on the stuffing and it works so wonderfully! A really handy tip I got from Helen of Whitewood and Linen. 🙂

stuffed fabric heart featuring embroidered heart pattern with lots of roses, leaves and other florals
close-up of embroidered fabric heart showing roses and hyacinths
I used my Awesome Hack for the bullion knots 😉

 

The Joys of Antique Linen

The antique linen I used for the hanging heart is easily the best fabric I’ve ever embroidered on. So incredibly soft and beautiful, it’s simply dreamy. Many lovely creators I follow on Instagram always use the most gorgeous antique linens for their projects, and now that I’ve had a go at it, I can definitely understand why! I do not wish to go back to anything else, but alas, I have only a small amount. If anyone is interested, I got it as part of a bundle from this Etsy shop. Highly recommended!

That’s all from me for now dear friend, thank you for spending some time on my blog today, and happy Valentine’s Day! I’d love to know what you’ve been creating lately, and what has been inspiring you. Does anyone else not particularly care about the holiday, but likes the aesthetic? Who else loves antique linen?

Fondly,

february inspiration
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English Paper Piecing Basics: Cutting & Basting

     Anne      3 Comments

A year ago almost to the day, I discovered the wonderful world of English Paper Piecing (EPP). A relaxing and easy way to join fabrics together, EPP is a very creative form of hand-sewing. I published a post on the subject last November, in which I showed you how to make a hexie flower with embroidery. In today’s post, I will cover the basics of EPP in more details and show you all about cutting and basting various shapes.

 

Learn the basics of english paper piecing

 

If you’re here following my Tea Party Mini-Quilt stitch-along, this will be a good post to refer to if you’re new to EPP and aren’t sure how to get started. 😊 I will be turning February’s embroidery pattern into a little hexagon as part of this tutorial.

 

What is English Paper Piecing?

an epp hexie flower with a pink house embroidered in the center, embroidery floss and pretty fabrics around the flower
Embroidery following the 2021 February House pattern from Mollie Johanson of Wild Olive.

 

English Paper Piecing – commonly known as EPP – is a method of creating and assembling various shapes using fabric and paper. Often done entirely by hand, EPP allows you to arrange shapes one by one to create different designs. It’s often used in quilting and appliqué, or combined with embroidery to create a variety of lovely projects. It’s a really great way to use up small fabric scraps. With EPP, you begin by basting fabric to cardstock shapes, and then hand-sew them along the edges to create your design. The most shape commonto use is the hexagon, and “hexie flowers” are often made up of 7 hexagons pieced together. The hexagon is the best shape to start learning EPP, because its shape ensures clean edges when basting and piecing.

 

Materials & Tools

flat lay showing materials for epp: mini-iron, teacup pincushion, pink paper scissors, sewing shears, paper puncher, rose-patterned fabric squares, cardstock hexagons, embroidered cherries, pins, and thread

First, you’ll need basic hand-sewing supplies: a pair of sewing shears, some snips, pins, and a needle and thread. I like to use a small, sharp hand-sewing needle, and polyester or all-purpose thread. I also recommend using a thimble.

For fabric, you’ll want something woven and lightweight: quilting cotton is the best for this, but cotton and linen blends can also work. EPP is perfect for showing off pretty fabric prints and using up scraps. Of course, you use plain fabric too!

You’ll also want:

  • Cardstock paper or pre-cut cardstock shapes
  • Paper scissors
  • Iron and ironing board (if you have a mini-iron, it’s really handy for this!)
  • Paper hole puncher
  • Optional: washable glue stick

 

Cutting Your Shapes

If you’ve never done EPP before, I recommend starting with hexagon shapes, about 1” to 1 1/4” in size. However, many other shapes can be used for EPP, so I will also show you how to cut and baste different ones.

various shapes cut out of cardstock paper, with paper template beside, and teacup pincushion and pink paper scissors

Cut your shapes out of cardstock paper, exactly to size, without any allowance. You can follow a template like I’m doing above, or make up your own. You can also buy pre-cut cardstock shapes if you prefer!

 

Once the pieces are cut, I like to “true” them up to make sure they will fit nicely against each other. Simply arrange your shapes how you want them to be sewn together, and make sure that all the edges are well-aligned. Trim off a little excess paper if need be, so they will fit perfectly.

2 paper hexagons, 2 triangles and a diamond are arranged against each other to align the edges

 

Once you are satisfied with the fit, punch a hole through each piece with a paper puncher. This is to make it easier to remove the paper later.

paper shapes punched with hole puncher, pins, stork scissors, and rose-patterned fabric squares

 

Cutting your Fabric

Now we are ready to cut the fabric that will cover the shapes! To do this, place your shape on the wrong side of the fabric of your choice. If using patterned fabric, you can do what’s called “fussy cutting” to show off pretty prints. This means that you are cutting around a specific motif on your fabric. If you’re turning an embroidery into a hexie for example, you’ll want to center it over your cardstock hexagon.

embroidered cherries next to cardstock hexagon

 

Pin in place, or dab a bit of washable glue stick to hold the cardstock to the fabric. I prefer to avoid using glue, so I pin mine. I do use a little piece of washi tape to stick to the cardstock and center the embroidery properly, but it will be removed later. For smaller pieces, I simply hold them in place with my hand while I cut the fabric.

embroidered cherries pinned to cardstock hexie, ready for cutting
hexie pinned to embroidery seen from wrong side ready for cutting
cardstock shapes placed on wrong side of fabric for cutting

 

Leave a ¼” seam allowance when you cut the fabric around your shapes. Don’t remove the pins yet!

hexagon has been cut from fabric with seam allowance, threaded needle beside
cardstock triangle over cut fabric ready for basting
You can trim some of the excess SA at the points by snipping straight across – but make sure you leave enough for basting.

 

Basting Your Shapes

The next step in the EPP process is to baste the fabric seam allowances to the cardstock shapes. If you’re working with hexagons, these are very easy to do, which is why I recommend starting with them.

First, thread a hand-sewing needle and keep it close by.

Working with the paper side facing you, fold one side of the seam allowance against the paper at one of the corners. Hold it in place and fold the next side down, creating a nice, clean corner.

hand folding one side of the seam allowance down on a hexie shape
hand folding seam allowance down to form clean corner on hexie

Bring your needle through the fold, leaving a short tail, and take three stitches to secure the fold in place and save you from having to make a knot. Only stitch through the fabric.

Then, move on to the next corner, folding the seam allowances the same way as before. Carry the needle over and again take two or three stitches to secure the fold down. Again, you only need to go through the fabric when basting these corners. Take out the pin(s) when you feel the cardstock shape is secure.

hand holding hexagon, while needle goes through the fold to secure corner for basting
hand holding hexagon for basting the seam allowances

Repeat until all the seam allowances have been basted and your hexagon looks like this:

basted hexagon seen from the back
finished hexagon seen from good side showing cherry embroidery

How to Baste Other Shapes

For shapes such as triangles and diamonds, the idea is the same: leave ¼” SA when cutting your fabric, and then fold them inwards around the shape.

basted epp shapes seen from wrong side

 

For very small pieces, it is easier to use glue to baste, but if you’re stubborn like me and don’t want to use glue, I recommend pressing down the seam allowances with an iron. If you have one of those mini-irons, they’re really handy for this! A regular iron will also work, but you’ll want to use a knitting needle or something to hold the fabric down instead of your fingers. I also recommend running some basting stitches across like this, if you find that it’s not holding its shape too well.

 

small triangle seam allowances pressed back ready for basting
basting stitches going across small triangle seam allowances to hold them in place

If one of the shape’s edges is longer than 1 ¼”, you’ll want to baste through the paper as well as the fabric. Instead of carrying your thread from one corner to the next, take a stitch through the fabric and paper around the half-way point. Repeat as many times as needed if you’re basting a very long edge.

hand holding bigger triangle while needle goes through paper and fabric to baste long edge
basted triangle with long edge seen from the good side

Preparing to Assemble the Pieces

You’ll notice that these triangles and diamonds aren’t as neat and clean as the hexagons, and still have excess SA showing at the corners. That’s totally normal, and it’ll be dealt with when you sew the pieces together. For now, you can just ignore them, or iron/glue them to the wrong side. Don’t cut them away though, unless you really have too much excess.

basted shapes with rose-patterned fabric seen from good side

 

Here’s what the piecing could look like, following the template pictured earlier, which is part of my Mini-Quilt stitch-along:

finished epp pieces against each other for piecing, stork scissors, pins, rose-patterned fabric squares

 

Stay tuned for my next EPP tutorial…

You can use your EPP shapes however you’d like; turn them into flowers or other motifs, use them for appliqué, or turn them into a mini-quilt! There are so many possibilities. I will have a future post showing you how to sew them together, but if you’re interested in hexagons and would like to make a “hexie flower”, you can find that post here.

If you’d like to participate in the Tea Party Mini-Quilt stitch-along, you can sign-up for my newsletter right here! I send out a free mini embroidery pattern each month this year, and turn the embroideries into hexagons that will eventually become a mini-quilt to hang on the wall. Of course, you can also use the embroidery patterns for any personal project you’d like!

I hope you enjoyed this post and that you’ll give EPP a try if you haven’t already. Cutting and basting is only the beginning, sewing everything together is so much fun. Warning though, it’s incredibly addictive, and you won’t be able to stop!

 

Fondly,

introduction to epp: cutting & basting
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