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Making a Scissor Case With Victorian Embroidery

     Anne      2 Comments

Back in the spring, I found myself very inspired by strawberries. There were, naturally, too many projects to fit in that season and too little time. One of these hopeful projects had been a scissor case featuring a beautiful Victorian strawberry design. Strawberries may be out of season now, but I’m bringing them back in this unintentionally festive-looking project!

 

scissor case project with historical embroidery

 

I came across a beautiful strawberry pattern while browsing through a Briggs & Co. collection of patterns to transfer from the 1880’s. I immediately thought that it would be perfect to embroider on a scissor case. If you didn’t know, Internet Archive is FULL of historical books about needlework, embroidery, floriography, and so much more! There are some absolute gems to be found there. The Briggs & Co. embroidery designs for transfer are definitely among them.

 

flat lay featuring dried brown sprigs, lace, a pincushion, a mug of foamy drink, a teacup full of embroidery floss, a red bow, an embroidery hoop, and embroidered scissor case in the center

 

The Briggs & Co. Embroidery Patterns

“Universally known” by the 1880’s, these embroidery patterns were all the rage because they were ready to be transferred with an iron “on any fabric” (clearly they did not have polyester felt back in the 1880’s, haha!). This obviously sped up the process and lowered the costs for ladies’ embroidery projects. The particular book I’m referring has a large selection of floral and ecclesiastical patterns, as well as village scenes illustrated by Kate Greenaway. We are big fans of Greenaway here on this blog and I reference her Language of Flowers dictionary often. πŸ˜‰

I absolutely love working with historical designs and knowing that somebody else also embroidered it a long time ago. (I like to imagine a fancy lady sitting at her embroidery frame, flowy skirt billowing about her, and intricate fire-screen shielding her from the fire, while I’m here in my pjs stitching in bed…lol)

The strawberry pattern can be found on p. 37. I’ve adapted it to fit on my case by only transferring part of it, and moving a few elements slightly.

For some reason, I was really set on making the scissor case out of felt, so I had to find a good way to transfer the pattern… Since you know, as fabulous as these patented designs for transfer are, I sadly don’t have access to a physical copy. I love embroidering on felt (although I don’t do it very often) because the needle glides through so easily. It’s not so easy to transfer a pattern on it, however. I decided to give the tissue paper method a try, and it worked SO well! Definitely recommended it if you want to transfer something on felt.

 

Transferring the Pattern…the “old-fashioned way”!

I just used a piece of white tissue paper (the kind for gift-wrapping), and transferred my design on it with a pencil. Then I pinned the paper in place over the felt and started stitching my design right through both felt and paper. It tears a little as you go, but that’s ok! I was able to follow the pattern pretty easily. I only stitched the necessary outlines, leaves, and sepals before pulling the rest of the paper away.

 

tissue paper with transferred embroidery pattern pinned aver hooped piece of felt
close-up view of embroidered strawberry pattern over tissue paper and felt

Lovers of fancy work cannot but remember with a sigh how much money and trouble they have been obliged to expend over their designs in past days. If they wanted a braiding pattern they either had to tack on strips of tissue paper, and after stitching the braid on to pick the paper out laboriously with their fingers […]

Ladies’ Pictorial, May 6th 1882, in Briggs & Co. Patent Transferring Papers.

 

Well, excuse me, Ladies’ Pictorial, but removing the tissue paper was an immensely satisfying step! I used a pin and a pair of tweezers to grab the little pieces of paper stuck under certain parts of the stitching. Now there’s no trace of tissue paper anywhere! Plus, it leaves no visible pencil or water-soluble/heat-erasable pen marks, which is really nice. (I only traced the outline for the scissor case piece in water-soluble ink, and that washed away very easily.)

 

close-up view of strawberry embroidery outline once the tissue paper is removed

And now I feel as though I’ve completely defeated the purpose of using a pattern from genius groundbreaking 19th century innovative embroidery technology, by reverting to the method which these patented transfers were intended to supplant. Oh, dear.

 

Stitching the Design

I kept the stitching very simple for the most part; the stems are done with stem stitch, the leaves and sepals with satin stitch, and the flowers with satin stitch and French knots. I outlined the strawberries with backstitch before filling them with trellis stitch. Needle-painting was quite popular in the 1880s, so it’s very possible that the design was intended to be stitched that way, but I went for a quicker route.

 

view of finished strawberry embroidery on scissor case pocket piece
close-up view of embroidered leaves with satin stitch
close-up view of embroidered strawberry flower

 

For the strawberries, I was partly inspired by a series of posts I saw on Mary Corbet’s Needle n’ Thread. She used some lattice work over satin stitch for one of the strawberries in her sampler. The effect was so lovely and such a good idea for filling a berry! I skipped the satin stitch and just did the lattice work (trellis stitch). I used one strand of gold DMC metallic thread for the little β€œx”s anchoring the lattice. It adds such a nice touch and I love it!

close-up of embroidered strawberry with trellis stitch

 

Making the Scissor Case

I designed the case myself, and it’s 2 very simple pieces designed to hold a pair of small embroidery scissors. I used my 4 1/2″ long stork scissors for reference.

two pieces of scissor case side by side with snips and embroidery floss bobbin
close-up of lace bordering the top of scissor case piece

 

After adding a bit of decorative lace to the top of the pocket piece, I simply laid this piece atop the bigger one. Then I sewed them together with a whipstitch. I used 2 strands of floss instead of sewing thread to create a nice border, and it worked really well! The best thing about felt is that the raw edges don’t fray, so there’s no need to worry about seam allowances and how to finish edges.

finished scissor case over lace background

 

Because I used rather thin felt and the scissors are very pointy even when closed, I reinforced the bottom with a bit of interfacing. (Applied to each case piece before I sewed it together.) And to prevent the scissors from slipping around, I also added a little ribbon to hold them in place with a bow. All I did was poke two holes with a tailor’s awl on the back piece just above the pocket, and thread the ribbon through. When the scissors are in, you can easily tie the ribbon in a bow to hold them in place 😊.

flat lay view of finished scissor case surrounded by dried plants, lace, a red bow, and small copper kettle
flat lay view of embroidered scissor case with dried plants, lace, embroidery hoop and red bow

 

And that’s all there is to it!

It was a pretty quick project, perfect for a day of quiet stitching with warm coffee, watching the snowflakes flurrying outside. The red, green, and gold were a nice festive bonus! On its own the case doesn’t look strictly β€œChristmas” and works year-round, but it was fun to work with holiday colours at this time of year.

I hope you enjoyed this little project and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you also have a scissor case? What do you think of the trellis stitch? I can’t wait to stitch another Briggs & Co. embroidery pattern, they’re so beautiful. (And read what other snarky comments such periodicals have to offer!) Again, you can find the book where I found the strawberry pattern here.

 

Fondly,

victorian embroidery scissor case project

Rhododendrons & Flower Symbolism in Rebecca

     Anne      8 Comments

Hello dear friend! This week on the blog, I have another needlework project to show you paired with a favourite classic novel: Rebecca. Written by Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca gets a lot of recognition as the perfect “spooky, gothic book for fall”. It’s definitely a book you don’t want to miss, and while I could praise its various strong points at length, I’m going to be focusing on flower symbolism in this post. Specifically, the importance of the rhododendrons, and the needlework project that captures the essence of Rebecca.

 

du maurier's rebecca: embroidered azaleas

 

I read Rebecca for the first time last fall, in anticipation of the Netflix film release. I absolutely loved it. Really, truly, absolutely loved every page of it. I can definitely understand why it’s recommended so often, and why so many rave about it. It’s that good.

 

The Book

Set in the 1930’s in England, it follows a newlywed couple as they settle down to their new life together in a country mansion named Manderley. You will hear the name Manderley a lot.  The main character, young Mrs. de Winter, remains oddly anonymous throughout the whole story. You never learn her first name. Her enigmatic husband, Mr. de Winter, is much older than her, and naturally hides many a dark secret. You won’t know what to really make of him. The housekeeper appears to be cold and uncanny, and constantly refers to Mr. de Winter’s first wife, comparing, belittling, driving the new Mrs. de Winter mad with insecurity and jealousy. Rebecca de Winter tragically died in a boating accident, forever upsetting life at Manderley. Things can never go back to how they were.

 

hardcover copy of du Maurier's Rebecca with pearl necklace and cameo brooch draped over the book

 

Throw in a murder mystery, and you have Jane Eyre meets Agatha Christie, and you’re in for a real treat. The writing style of this book is simply superb. Every single sentence is delectable. The attention to detail is astounding, from flower vases to embroidered handkerchiefs to paintings hanging on the wall.

Everything is important. Everything.

And it’s written in a way that simultaneously delights and gives you chills. It’s astounding, I tell you. The Netflix movie was cute, but failed to convey the intense, immersive atmosphere that the book delivers.

I am definitely adding my voice to the thousands who already tell you that this is a perfect October read, fulfilling all your spooky-gothic-vibes desires. And I don’t even like β€œspooky”. It’s just a wonderful book, period, and its dark and gloomy atmosphere is incredibly well-done.

I wrote a review of it on Goodreads as well, so feel free to check it out if you’d like more of my thoughts on it!

 

The Details

As I mentioned earlier, there is an attention to little details that is very particular in this book. It’s haunting, almost, the way seemingly mundane things are given importance. Among these, flowers often come up; it appears the late Mrs. de Winter had a real knack for decorating, and had fresh flowers put in vases every day.

 

hardcover copy of Rebecca with embroidered azalea project and pearl necklace

 

The beautiful flower descriptions abound in this book, but there’s one flower in particular that stands out: the rhododendron.

It’s pretty obvious that flowers (especially rhododendrons) are used symbolically in Rebecca. Many things are used symbolically in Rebecca, in fact. The rhododendrons, flaming red and intrusively imposing, are said to represent Rebecca herself. Indeed, there are many comparisons you can make between Rebecca and the scarlet clusters of rhododendrons.

But what does a rhododendron mean?

 

A Bit of Floriography

If you’ve been around for a bit, you know that I love analyzing flower meanings according to the Language of Flowers, which was extremely popular during the Victorian era. Rebecca was published and set in the 1930’s and I don’t know whether du Maurier would make direct references to it, but since flowers abound in this book and they’re clearly important, I thought it would be fun to see if we can draw any connections at all between the Language of Flowers and how certain flowers are used in Rebecca.

 

close up of embroidered azaleas over opened copy of Rebecca

 

Yes, there they were, blood-red and luscious, as I had seen them the evening before, great bushes of them, massed beneath the open window, encroaching on to the sweep of the drive itself.

Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

 

Rhododendrons are everywhere around Manderley, crowding the driveway, encroaching over windows, growing uncontrollably big and red. They’re even found inside the house, decorating bowls and vases in the late Mrs. de Winter’s morning-room. Serving as an eternal reminder of Rebecca’s lingering presence, the flaming red flowers seem to suffocate the main character the same way they suffocate the house.

 

Rhododendron = Danger. Beware.

 

flaming red rhododendron bush
Photo by Sean Valentine from Pexels

This seems an incredibly apt significance for this book. One of the first things Mrs. de Winter (present) notices when she first arrives at Manderley are the crowding bushes of scarlet rhododendrons.

 

[…] on either side of us was a wall of colour, blood-red, reaching far above our heads. We were amongst the rhododendrons. There was something bewildering, even shocking, about the suddenness of their discovery.

 

They warn her of the danger ahead, of the nightmare she’s about to go through. They bid her beware that all is not as it seems, that Manderley is full of dangerous secrets.

Danger, danger everywhere, written loud and clear in flaming red flower clusters!

It would seem the symbolism of the rhododendrons in Rebecca matches the Language of Flowers very closely. Let’s look at another passage. The book famously opens with the line:

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

The main character recounts her dream, in which Manderley seems suffocated by a host of plants.

A lilac had mated with a copper beech, and to bind them yet more closely to one another the malevolent ivy, always an enemy to grace, had thrown her tendrils about the pair and made them prisoners.

 

The lilac has a few different meanings; β€œfirst emotions of love” if purple and β€œyouthful innocence” if white. The beech tree stands for “prosperity”, the ivy signifies “fidelity and marriage”, and its tendrils represent an “assiduousness to please”. All seemingly beautiful and positive things, yet interestingly this opening is clearly meant as a bad omen, a foreshadowing of all the terrible things to come.

We learn soon enough that the main character (who is the narrator) is very young, very naΓ―ve, and very much in love with her new husband. And it is precisely her naΓ―ve love and desire to please that blind her into paranoid fear and nearly wrecks her marriage. Malevolent ivy indeed! Her assiduousness to please, born of her young love and the prosperity she thought she would have as Mrs. de Winter, are all working against her. Suffocated by the rhododendrons.

The white lilac comes up again, as Manderley prepares for its fancy-dress ball. The gardeners β€œbring in the rest of the white lilac” as part of the lavish flower arrangements, and once again the main character’s β€œyouthful innocence” cause her quite a lot of trouble with her unfortunate choice of costume for the ball.

Isn’t it interesting?! It all seems to fit so well!

I could probably analyze every flower passage for days as they are so many that are mentioned and seem important, but I’ll just do one more.

 

Hydrangea = A boaster. Heartlessness.

 

blue hydrangea head
Photo by Rifqi Ramadhan from Pexels

 

Well, if you’ve read the book, you certainly know who that describes.

I noticed for the first time how the hydrangeas were coming into bloom, their blue heads thrusting themselves from the green foliage behind.

 

The hydrangeas appear in the last quarter of the book, replacing the rhododendrons as the months succeed each other. The flaming red clusters make way for the blue heads just as the characters are trying to puzzle out a murder. An important character is at last unmasked, revealed for what they really were: heartless. It would seem the hydrangeas were foreshadowing that too!

I don’t know if du Maurier intentionally referred to the Language of Flowers in her writings, but it certainly was very interesting to analyze the many flowers in Rebecca from that angle! Amazing how the symbolic meanings of floriography lent themselves so well to this book!

 

Needlepainting Project: Azalea Flowers

This needlework project wasn’t stitched with the story in mind since I finished it before reading the book. However, the rhododendrons struck me so much while I read Rebecca that it reminded me of this project. It was my first real needlepainting project, embroidered as part of my Honours project for university.

 

close-up of embroidered azaleas in needlepainting
close-up of embroidered azalea showing needlepainting details

 

I used a feather flower pattern from an 1874 copy of The Young Ladies’ Journal. The feather strokes created perfect guidelines for needlepainting and I really liked the azalea flowers. They’re not flaming red like the rhododendrons in the book, but the contrast of the black background put me in mind of the moody atmosphere in Rebecca.

 

Azalea flowers fall under the rhododendron family, and actually they are mentioned in Rebecca!

On either side of the narrow path stood azaleas and rhododendrons, not blood-coloured like the giants in the drive, but salmon, white, and gold, things of beauty and of grace, drooping their lovely, delicate heads in the soft summer rain.

 

I like to think that my embroidered azaleas are more “things of beauty and of grace” than some dangerous warning, and their colour fits nicely with this passage!

 

Azalea = Temperance

 

A touch of sobriety to a rather tempestuous story, the azaleas serve as a foil to the red rhododendrons, much the same way the two Mrs. de Winter were so different from each other.

 

hardcover copy of Rebecca and azalea embroidery project surrounded by a vintage china teacup and saucer and various jewelry

 

My project seemed to fit this book so well that I couldn’t resist pairing the two and telling you all about it. I’m planning on detailing my project more at length in a future post (this one is long enough already!) and show you more floriography findings (unrelated to this book). In the meantime, have a look at some other posts featuring floriography and classic novels:

 

lilacs of love inspiration from jane eyre
an introduction to floriography
wisteria embroidery inspired by The Enchanted April

Alright, I think that’s enough flower talk from me for one day, but before you go, do tell me -do you prefer rhododendrons or hydrangeas? What do you think of Rebecca? I would love to hear any thoughts on it!

I really hope you’ve enjoyed reading this post and if you find flowers and floriography as lovely and interesting as I do, I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly. I wish you all a wonderful week!

 

Fondly,

embroidered flowers inspired by Rebeca
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Garden Bouquet Reveal: Celebratory Tea Party

     Anne      2 Comments

Dearest friend, it is with the utmost pleasure that I welcome you here today to conclude the Garden Bouquet series and reveal the final piece to you. Please do sit down and make yourself comfortable. We will begin in a few moments by adding the finishing touches to the piece, then frame it, and reveal it at last. I have been so eager to finally show it to you, and can’t wait to chat with you about all things flowers, ribbons, and garden inspiration. How do you like your tea? And please allow me to serve you a warm slice of apple pie, fresh out of the oven. Settle in, and we shall begin!

 

welcome to the garden bouquet reveal tea party

 

If you’ve been following along on this journey from the beginning, thank you so, so much! I hope you’ve been enjoying the project so far. If you haven’t seen all the posts or are new here, never fear! We will do a little recap.

 

The Garden Bouquet Project

 

In Part 1, I shared the inspiration behind the design as we toured my grandmother’s garden, carefully picking and choosing which blooms would be included in the final piece. I also shared a bit about my fabric choice, how to transfer the pattern onto the fabric, and how I would approach stitching the piece.

garden bouquet embroidery design traced onto tracing paper

 

In Part 2, I detailed how I embroidered the wild roses in needle-painting style. They were the most time-consuming element of the bouquet, but so well worth it! I shared all the threads I used, as well as my process.

finished embroidered wild rose

 

In Part 3, I tried something new and exciting: stump-work using bits of cotton ball! I embroidered currant berries by padding them with cotton ball, and absolutely loved the effect! I also briefly showed you how I embroidered a raspberry branch, which I explain in more details in another post.

embroidered currant berries with little "end" in brown floss

 

In Part 4, I crowned the Bouquet with a ribbon-work lily. Three-dimensional, shiny, and majestic, the lily is the centerpiece of the bouquet. This was my favourite part to work on, and it was lovely to get back into ribbon-work!

complete ribbon lily flower

 

In Part 5, I sprinkled a few yellow daisies to balance out the big pink flowers a little. They were the easiest to stitch, and I only used basic stitches. Something nice and sweet after the more complicated elements!

finished daisy flower with straight stitches around it to create the thin leaves

 

And that’s where we are! All the floral elements are embroidered, and the bouquet is just waiting for a bit of extra love and care, and a nice frame.

Let me refill your cup with this steaming Earl Grey, and I will have scones ready for you in a minute. While they finish goldening in the oven, we will embroider the Bouquet title.

 

β€œBouquet du Jardin Turenne”

 

I used a simple backstitch to write the title, with very small stitches to be able to navigate turns and corners easily. The title was hand-written, hence the unevenness of the letters. I think it adds a bit of charm to it, although I could have made it a *bit* more even. I used two strands of black floss, but I think a dark brown could have worked very well too.

bouquet du jardin embroidery showing the embroidered title
part of the embroidered title in backstitch

 

What’s your favourite way to embroider letters? I like to use the splitstitch, too, and the satin stitch looks divine when the letters are big enough for it.

Oh, we are so close to being done now! I just think my stems look a little…empty. (I love the one jutting out lol, how did it end up like that?!)

 

embroidered bouquet stems

 

They definitely need a bow. This is a bouquet, after all. And because I love ribbon and it’s faster to sew on than to embroider one, I used a small piece of cream-coloured ribbon to create the bow. It’s hand-sewn where all the stems intersect.

ribbon bow added around flower stems to tie the bouquet

 

My friends…we did it!! There’s the bouquet all done! No more thread, no more needle!! Actually, that’s not true, because I used a needle and thread to back it into the frame…but no more embroidery!

 

Framing the Bouquet

It’s ready to be un-hooped and prepped for framing! Ahhhh!! I hear the timer going off in the kitchen, meaning the scones must be ready. Excellent timing! There is blueberry, or apple and cinnamon. Would anyone like a bit of jam to go with it?

When I un-hooped the fabric, I noticed that the left side (where I hold it while I stitch) was a bit yellowed. This was undoubtedly caused by my hyperhidrosis problem (excessive sweating of the hands), and I was a bit disappointed, but decided to carefully wash it. Normally, I wouldn’t really wash a project like that, but in this case I thought it better to try. I used a bit of warm water and dish soap and a clean brush to scrub very gently at the affected area. It helped somewhat, and in the end it’s not really visible in the frame, since it ended up being more the seam allowance that was affected, thankfully (I’m glad I used a big hoop!).

I ironed the piece very gently, good side down, not going over the embroidery. Because there’s stump-work and ribbon-work and all kinds of things, I definitely didn’t want to squish it, but the sides needed some ironing to remove the hoop marks. It’s much easier to smooth those out if you dampen the fabric slightly. Again, I did not dampen the embroidery itself, only the fabric on the sides.

And finally, the frame! Unfortunately, I did not have a pretty frame on hand, and no time to go buy one. I had to use what I could find in the house, but I think it works! It’s a very cheap plastic frame, but its thin black shape actually work very well with the embroidery! It matches the title, and doesn’t distract from the bouquet.

I used a needle and thread to secure my embroidery work around a piece of sturdy cardboard, leaving a good 2” seam allowance all around. I placed another piece of black cardboard in the frame first, to hide the back of the mounted embroidery. There is no glass or anything on the front, and a small cloth or lint roller can be used to occasionally clean the embroidery.

 

And…it’s done!! Are you ready to see it? The Garden Bouquet reveal at last!

 

flat lay view of the finished garden bouquet embroidery framed and surrounded by fresh flowers
finished garden bouquet, framed and surrounded by daisies and a lily
finished garden bouquet embroidery shown from the side, with fresh daisies surrounding it

 

And some close-up details:

close up of the finished garden bouquet embroidery showing wild roses and lily bud in particular
close up of finished embroidery showing more wild roses, currant branch, and lily
close up of garden bouquet details; wild rose and currant branch
close-up of wild rose bud on finished garden bouquet embroidery

 

This calls for another cup of tea, what do you think? And a cupcake with pink frosting and edible lilies. πŸ˜‰

I can’t believe I finished it!! Thank you so very much dear friend, for accompanying me through this needlework journey. I would love to know your thoughts on it! Did you have a favourite part? What technique do you prefer, or are interested in the most?

And what is your favourite flower? I have always been very partial to roses and was excited to include them in this project.

 

A Bit of Floriography

I thought it would be fun to discover what secret meanings lie behind my floral choices for this piece…If you’ve been following me for a bit, you probably know that I have a strong interest in all things Victorian floriography, and that I whip out my trusted Kate Greenaway pocket flower dictionary any chance I get.

 

So let’s see…

 

Dog Rose = Pleasure and pain

Hahaha, I feel like this sums up my experience with stitching them! I loved it, but the stress of doing one-strand embroidery under such a time-crunch was painful indeed.

Raspberry = Remorse

Did I regret my life choices several times during the making of this project? Yes, perhaps.

Currant = Thy frown will kill me

Hahahahaha ohhhh the drama! I wonder what currants ever did to anyone?! However, this is not the only definition. The dictionary also has an entry for

Branch of Currants = You please all

Now that’s more like it! Much more along the lines of the kind of message I should be sending to my grand-parents with this bouquet, lol!

Day Lily = Coquetry

This is the closest lily entry I could find to represent the pink one I made, which is neither imperial (majesty), or of-the-valley (return of happiness). A bit of coquetry it is then!

Garden Daisy = I share your sentiments

There was no entry for a yellow daisy, which to me should have a different meaning than the common white and yellow ox-eye daisy (innocence). So we’ll go with the garden daisy, since they certainly were from the garden!

wild rose in the garden
day lily from the garden
yellow daisy from the garden

We now have: pleasure and pain, remorse, thy frown will kill me, you please all, coquetry, and I share your sentiments.

 

I wonder what this bouquet is trying to tell me. This sounds exactly like a Victorian melodrama where the wife overspends on opera gowns and expensive furs, and over-decorates her parlour with needlepoint cushions and dried floral arrangements.

β€œWE DON’T NEED ANY MORE TASSELS, CAROLINE!”

If that unappreciative husband of hers gives her that disapproving frowning look one more time, she might just kill herself (and him too). (Sometimes he wishes she would).

Thy frown will kill me! Enough, I beg of you!

 

Needless to say, this Bouquet was NOT embroidered with the Language of Flowers in mind. But it was certainly a lot of fun to discover which secret meanings it held! I hope you enjoyed this little bit of floriography as much as I did. πŸ˜‰ I really want to know where the significance of the currant came from!

Which flower would you like to know the meaning of? Let me know in the comments and I’ll tell you!

view of the finished garden bouquet embroidery, framed and surrounded by flowers

 

It feels oddly appropriate that my library hold of the movie Enchanted April arrived just as I was completely immersed in the embroidery of this garden bouquet. It was the absolute perfect thing to watch while stitching! I had already fallen in love with the story last spring when I read the book for the first time (and wrote a post on it, with an accompanying project!). As it turns out, the movie is just as wonderfully charming as the book. I loved it so much that I watched it pretty much every evening while I embroidered, happily lost in my little world of flowers and thread. The soundtrack is also very beautiful.

What do you like to watch/listen to when you stitch (or craft)? Have you seen the Enchanted April movie?

 

I hope you had a pleasant time here at my Garden Bouquet Reveal Tea Party! Thank you ever so much for coming. It was certainly very pleasant to be able to sit down for a bit and chat about so many wonderful things with you, with a ready cup of tea! Do help yourself to more baked goods before you go, and take some with you.

Thank you so much for coming to see the Garden Bouquet Reveal, and I wish you a wonderful week! As always, I’d be delighted for you to share any thoughts or comments you might have.

 

Fondly,

garden bouquet final reveal for pinterest
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Easy Daisies: Garden Bouquet Part 5

     Anne      2 Comments

Hello dear friend,

We are almost done with the Garden Bouquet Project!! Can you believe it? I simply cannot wait to show you the final piece in all its glory. That will come soon, but first we have one more floral element to add to the Bouquet: little yellow daisies. They’re the easiest part of the bouquet, and we’ll be done in no time!

 

yellow daisies garden bouquet part 5

 

But first, let me catch you up! If you’ve missed any previous parts of the Garden Bouquet, you can find them below. Each element works as a standalone, so you don’t need to read all the posts in order. However, it is helpful to do so if you want to see the evolution of the project as a whole. Each post is published in the order that I stitched each element.

 

garden bouquet project part 1
Garden Bouquet part 2: wild roses
beautiful berries garden bouquet part 3
ribbon work lily garden bouquet part 4

Because I wanted my daisies more discreet and a little β€œhidden” behind some of the other elements, I only made very light markings on the fabric for their placement. I could have stitched them first since most of them were more in the background, but I wanted to work them around the main elements and not the other way around. Hence why we stitch these last. It’s a final little burst of sunshine upon the bouquet, a few happy little flowers to balance out the bigger ones.

 

thread key for daisies: stems & leaves DMC 3345, Flowers DMC 726, 728, 729, 743

 

Tutorial – Yellow Daisies

embroidery tutorial pin for stitching the daisies

 

  1. First, I worked the petals, which are made with lazy-daisy stitches using 2 strands of DMC #743 and #726. Simply work your stitches around the center of the flower (which should be blank for now), beginning at the edge of the center and ending at the tip of the petal. Each stitch is one petal. You can alternate between the two shades of floss. I like to start with one and work a few petals, leaving space in between to fill with the other colour afterwards. Originally I intended to stitch fewer petals, but I have a tendency to over-stitch when I do lazy-daisy petals, so here we are! I do like this look, so all is not lost, but you can definitely do fewer stitches if you want fewer petals (it will change the shape/look of the flower).

 

lazy-daisy stitches being worked to create flower petals
lazy-daizy stitches of varying sizes stitched all around the daisy, creating the petals
This is from a different flower, because I’m terrible at step-by-step photos. Sorryyyyyy.

 

2. Then, using 2 strands of DMC #728 and #729, I stitched 6-8 French knots in the center. Again, you can alternate between the two shades, there is no specific order in which to stitch them.

 

French knots added to the center of the daisy

 

3. And finally, using 2 strands of DMC #3345, I stitched the stems and leaves. I made very long stitches to create a sort of stem stitch for the stem. Instead of coming back beside the middle of the previous stitch, I came back up closer to the end of the each stitch. This creates less overlap, less of a “ropy” look, and more of a continuous line. The stem was just a bit too long to use one long straight, but this “looser” stem stitch worked very well. Then I added a couple of straight stitches around the flowers to create the leaves. I also added some along the stem (you can do this while stitching the stem instead of coming back to it). Yellow daisy leaves are very long and thin, so this stitch was perfect for it.

 

view of the bouquet to show the daisies stems
finished daisy flower with straight stitches around it to create the thin leaves

 

That’s it! Easy-peasy, compared to the rest of the bouquet! 😊 I made 4 daisies in total, scattered around the bouquet.

 

close-up view of bouquet showing finished yellow daisies

 

Next time, we will finish the Bouquet for good, and I can finally show you the final piece! We’ll add some final touches, frame it, and at last…the big reveal!! I can’t wait to show you. It feels like a while ago that I was working on this, since I’ve split the project into many parts to share with you, but in reality I embroidered the whole thing in about two weeks (it was MAD). Next week, we conclude!

I think such an occasion calls for a fancy tea party amongst friends, doesn’t it? Look out for your gilt-edged invitation soon, and prepare your most charming frock and your favourite cozy cardigan (for the weather is turning chilly). We’ll be chatting flowers, gardens, and needlework wonders and woes! And nibbling on the daintiest sandwiches and softest cookies, of course.

 

See you there soon!

 

Fondly,

daisy embroidery using only easy stitches
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Beaded Blackberries: Inspired by Regency Fiction

     Anne      Leave a Comment

Hello dear friend,

Today on the blog, I have something very special to show you: a beaded blackberries embroidery project. I’ve been planning it out for a long time and it’s inspired by one of my favourite books. It turned out even better than I expected and I have been so looking forward to sharing it with you all! To add to the excitement, my work was also featured on Hannah’s lovely blog The Bohemian Bookworm just yesterday! I highly encourage you to give her a visit. Her blog is full of charming bookish and period drama inspiration (not to mention it now features an amazing book review and embroidery project by yours truly!).

 

needlework inspiration from georgette heyer: venetia's blackberries

 

‘I mean to know you better, Miss Lanyon of Undershaw!’

‘To be sure, it does seem a pity you should not, after such a promising start, but life, you know, is full of disappointments, and that, I must warn you, is likely to prove one of them.'”

Georgette Heyer, Venetia

 

Ahhh, Venetia! What a complete delight of a book you are! (If we take out the parts with Mrs. Scorrier, of course. And Edward Yardley. He is most definitely not delightful.) I’ve mentioned it on my blog before, in my post called 10 Wonderful Classic Books to Read This Summer (although after revisiting it lately, I have realized that a large portion of it takes place in autumn, so…what better time to go read it than now?!). I also wrote a full gushy, incoherent essay on it over on Goodreads, if you want more of my fangirling thoughts on it.

 

My Thoughts on Venetia

flat lay view of Venetia book, plate of blackberries, beaded blackberries project, cup of tea and embroidery notions

 

One of Georgette Heyer’s most acclaimed works and a favourite among readers, Venetia is undoubtedly one of my favourite romances of all times. I assure you that you will seldom find a more perfect one. While Heyer’s Regency novels tend to be more comedy than romance, Venetia is certainly more romance than comedy. The signature funny, witty style is there of course, but it’s overall more serious and lyrical than her typical screwball comedy.

Taking place in the countryside of Yorkshire in 1818, the story is rather quiet (despite the passionate romance scalding off the pages) for a Heyer book. Although Venetia does go to London later in the book, this is not your usual romp full of glittering balls and soirΓ©es. It’s a more mature story, with an β€œolder” heroine (really, she’s only 25, but most Heyer heroines tend to be 17-20) and everyone’s favourite seasoned rake, Lord Damerel, kindly christened the Wicked Baron by Venetia and her siblings.

 

β€œβ€˜[…]your quotations don’t make your advances a whit more acceptable to me – and they don’t deceive me into thinking you anything but a pestilent, complete knave!’”.

 

A Beautiful Romance

There is no doubt that Venetia and Lord Damerel are among Heyer’s best-matched couples, if not the best. Most readers unanimously agree that they are perfect for each other, unlike some other couples. Their romance is ultimately grounded in solid trust and friendship nearly from the start (we shall magnanimously gloss over the aforementioned β€œadvances”). They laugh together, share inside jokes, understand each other, and best of all, they can’t stop quoting classic literature.

 

β€˜Item, two lips, indifferent red-’

β€˜Oh, no, you’re quite out, and have gone to the wrong poet besides! They look like rosebuds filled with snow!’”

 

Ahh. Their bond is undeniably strong, and unlike in other Heyer novels, you don’t have to read between the lines to see how attracted they are to each other, and how much in love they soon fall. It’s palpable in their every interaction. I might make it sound a little spicy, but fear not, this is a clean book. πŸ˜‰ Orgies may be mentioned now and again, but what’s to be expected from a novel so bent on referencing ancient Greece and Rome if not to throw in a little orgy (pardon me, a splendid orgy!)?

 

I’m kidding of course, there are no orgies in this book. It’s all in good taste, I promise. For all this talk about passionate romance, that isn’t exactly what makes their relationship so good. As mentioned previously, it’s the fact that they are so completely in tune with each other and become such good friends so quickly.

 

The Idyllic Setting

 

Somewhere in the garden a thrush was singing, the joyous sweetness of its note so much in harmony with [Venetia’s] mood that it seemed a part of her happiness. She was content for some moments to listen, not questioning the source of her happiness; but presently she came to full consciousness, and remembered that she had found a friend.”

 

Venetia book copy being held against backdrop of brambles and blackberries

 

I think this is probably the passage that touches me the most in the entire book, and trust me there’s a lot in there to delight you. But that sweet passage, the opening of Chapter 5, in which she wakes up to the delicious memory that she has found a friend in Lord Damerel is just so pure and heart-melting that I can’t help sighing contentedly.

The imagery conjured up is also very beautiful. Venetia awaking – probably wearing a charmingly embroidered white nightgown – to the first rays of sunlight on a golden autumn day, a thrush sweetly singing in the garden…Very romantic and period-drama-esque indeed.

 

Embroidery Inspiration

 

flat lay showing venetia book, beaded blackberries project, plate of blackberries, cup of tea, and dried botanicals

 

Georgette Heyer’s books are always lavishly detailed, usually describing people’s dress at length, providing a veritable treasure trove of ideas for historical costumers. In Venetia however, I found the setting and romantic tones of the book even more inspiring. I love to create embroideries inspired by classic novels, and the blackberry project came to mind from what is surely the most famous β€œfirst encounter” scene between the hero and heroine in all GH’s books.

 

β€˜Fair Fatality, you are the most unusual female I have encountered in all my thirty-eight years!’

β€˜You can’t think how deeply flattered I am!’ she assured him. β€˜I daresay my head would be quite turned if I didn’t suspect that amongst so many a dozen or so may have slipped from your memory.’”

 

Repeatedly warned by family and friends against the dangerously rakish Lord Damerel, Venetia nevertheless doesn’t scruple to wander about his grounds when she knows he is not at home. He’s not there, darn it, and his blackberries are going to waste!

 

It came, therefore, as a surprise to Venetia, serenely filling her basket with his blackberries, when she discovered that he was much nearer at hand than anyone had supposed.”

 

Venetia book copy and plate of real blackberries

 

Naturally, who should happen upon the charming picture of Venetia in an old dress and straw bonnet quietly picking blackberries but Lord Damerel himself (on his horse, no less)? Actually, he happens upon her as she is trying to disentangle herself from an especially encroaching bramble. He then starts (naturally) to quote classic literature, and after recovering from the shock of being ruthlessly kissed, Venetia starts (naturally) to quote back. I love this unforgettable scene so much, and have associated Venetia with blackberries ever since.

 

The Project: Beaded Blackberries

flat lay close-up on beaded blackberries project and plate of blackberries with embroidery notions and dried flowers

 

I’ve been dreaming of embroidering my own beaded blackberries after seeing beautiful photos on Pinterest and in the book Embroideries From an English Garden by Carol Andrews. What a perfect project that would always remind me of Venetia!

The design is my own, and I embroidered the piece using different techniques.

 

The Embroidered Leaves

I started by stitching the leaves and branch in needle-painting style, using the long & short stitch. I’ve talked about this technique before in my post Garden Bouquet Embroidery Part 2: Wild Roses. It was a little faster here because I used two strands for most of it, except for the veins and tiny thorns that border the leaves’ jagged edges. I used very small straight stitches for those.

 

close up of embroidered leaves in long & short stitch
close-up of leaves' tiny thorns being stitched with straight stitches

 

The Ribbon Flowers

Next, I created the flowers with small pieces of ribbon. I wanted them to have the round petals of a real blackberry flower. To do this, I cut out each petal out of a wide piece of ribbon and singed the raw edges with a candle. Then I ran a gathering stitch along the bottom to create a fold, and sewed each petal one by one to form the flower. I later added the center details using embroidery floss.

 

blackberry flowers made with white ribbon pieces gathered together
blackberry flowers close-up showing embroidered center details

I used polyester ribbon which wasn’t the best and it unraveled easily, but the candle flame and a bit of Fray Check glue did the trick. πŸ˜‰

 

The Beaded Blackberries

And finally, for the blackberries, I knew I wanted to use beads to make them sparkle and shine and look as good as real ones. I also wanted to raise them a little bit, so I decided to do a bit of stumpwork. Stumpwork is raised, or 3D, embroidery, and one of my favourite things to try lately. I used felt and pieces of cotton ball to create the blackberry shape, and then hand-sewed beads one by one to cover the shape entirely.

 

close-up of beaded blackberry in the making; beads are stitch on a padded piece of felt

 

And voilΓ , beaded blackberries! I’m immensely pleased with how it turned out! It was a lot of tedious work but I enjoyed it a lot and it certainly paid off. And now I’m reminded of Damerel and Venetia’s witty banter and swoon-worthy romance every time I look at my beaded blackberries. It probably didn’t help that I compulsively listened to the audiobook version narrated by Richard Armitage while I worked!

 

close-up view of finished beaded blackberries
beaded blackberry branch, completed

 

A Bit of Floriography (because I can’t resist)

Of course, I was very curious as to the meaning of the blackberry per the Language of Flowers of the Victorians. I have the handy pocketbook reproduction of the dictionary illustrated by Kate Greenaway (which you can see here), and while there was no entry for “blackberry”, there was one for “bramble”.

 

real blackberry branch in nature

 

Bramble = Lowliness. Envy. Remorse.

 

Well! Not exactly the most joyful thing, but in the context of what we know of Damerel’s character at that point in the story, lowliness would seem fitting! When he surprises Venetia tangled up in brambles, all she (and the reader) know of him is his unsavoury reputation as a degenerate hosting wild orgies during hunting season. Low indeed. Remorse definitely comes later as he starts falling in love with Venetia, but there is no sign of envy about him at all.

Very interesting, isn’t it? I would say the bramble’s floriography meaning is pretty spot on in the context of the story! Although floriography hadn’t really caught on yet in society in 1818, (and I’ve never heard that Heyer purposefully included references to it in her books) it’s always nice when the significance proves apt (or somewhat apt) anyways!

 

flat lay photo as seen earlier, with language of flowers dictionary by kate greenaway

 

Don’t forget to visit Hannah over at The Bohemian Bookworm! I’m very happy and honoured to have been invited to post on her blog and I hope that you enjoyed reading my thoughts on Venetia and seeing my beaded blackberries project. Thank you so much, Hannah, for inviting me on and letting me share my project! 😊

And to conclude, I highly, HIGHLY recommend that you read Venetia (and Georgette Heyer in general) if you haven’t already. You won’t regret it. It’s such an idyllic experience that you won’t want it to end (if you’ve read the book, you will understand this reference haha!).

Until next time, my friends! I should have the next instalment of the Garden Bouquet up on the blog this Saturday.

 

Fondly,

Beaded blackberries inspired by literature

Ribbon Lily: Garden Bouquet Part 4

     Anne      Leave a Comment

Hello dear friend,

It’s back to the Garden Bouquet embroidery this week with Part 4, the ribbon lily! I have been so excited about the lily since the beginning. I knew I wanted to dive back into ribbon-work, and I just had this beautiful vision in my head of a gorgeous lily in shiny ribbon, full of life and bloom.

 

garden bouquet part 4 ribbon lily

 

It’s a success, I think. I love my lily. It crowns the whole piece beautifully. Amazingly, this is the part that was the least time-consuming yet produced a most stunning effect.

 

thread key for the lily: stem and leaves = dmc 3346, 1.5 cm wide green ribbon. Flower = DMC 433, 734, 3779, 2.2cm wide pink ribbon, 1.9cm pale pink ribbon

 

I rummaged around for pale pink ribbon and found two different colours that go perfectly together in my stash. One is Celebrate It from Michaels, and I got the other one in a Dollar Tree years ago. The former is pretty wide, 2.2 cm large, and the latter is a bit smaller, at 1.9 cm large. They are both polyester ribbon.

The wider the ribbon, the wider your single-stitch petal will be. That’s the beauty of ribbon embroidery. You can use only one stitch and create a beautiful petal. The needle is admittedly harder to pull through the fabric than for embroidery, but you can also create a flower in a fraction of the time that embroidery takes!

 

Let’s Stitch a Lily

For ribbon-work, we generally use chenille needles. A chenille needle has a really big eye, thick shaft, and a pointy tip. You need a pointy tip to be able to pierce the fabric, unless you’re stitching on something with a really broad weave like Aida cloth. I’m using a cotton for my project that’s heavy enough to sustain ribbon-work, but the weave isn’t broad enough to use a blunt-tipped needle.

My ribbon was so wide that I couldn’t thread it completely through the eye of my widest chenille needle! But it’s ok, because I was able to thread enough of the ribbon so that it wouldn’t slip out. It just meant that I didn’t have a tail like you normally would with embroidery thread, but you don’t really need it in this case.

 

trying to thread the large ribbon through a chenille needle

 

As well, I didn’t knot or anchor the end of my ribbon in any way. Usually for ribbon embroidery, you thread the needle through the end of the ribbon so it forms a knot on itself. This wouldn’t have worked with so wide a ribbon here, and would have created too much unnecessary bulk. So I just left a small bit of ribbon hanging from the back after each stitch, which I eventually secured with a sewing needle and thread at the end.

 

How to Start

Once the needle is threaded as best as you can, it’s time to take the first stitch!! The ribbon is very bulky where it sits in the needle’s eye, so you need a pretty big hole to be able to stitch through the fabric. I used a small tailor’s awl to poke a hole through the fabric first, before making a stitch, and it helped tremendously. I also used a gripper to help pull the needle through, since my hands were sweating uncontrollably. If you have dry hands, you might not have as much difficult pulling, although you will probably need to wiggle the needle quite a bit to make it come through.

 

using an awl to poke holes through the fabric for the ribbon lily

 

I worked from the center of the flower to the tip of the petals, careful to leave a bit of space between the stitches in the center. You don’t want them all the same hole or too near the same hole, or they risk coming undone and you’ll likely pull the stitches out accidentally when making a new one.

Each stitch is basically just a straight stitch (it just looks so much more impressive because it’s wide ribbon!). You start at point A (flower center), and go back down at point B (petal tip). You can decide how much ribbon you want for each petal. The tighter you pull, the thinner the petal will look. The looser you leave it, the more the ribbon will arch to form the petal.

 

single straight stitch to form a lily petal

 

You can also place the ribbon however you want it before bringing your needle back down. For example, the second petal to the right (from the top) was folded on itself before I ended the stitch. This gives the flower more dimension and a more realistic appearance. I also alternated between my two ribbon colours to vary the petal shades.

 

lily ribbon petal folded on itself to create realistic effect

 

Next, I added a little flower bud near the leaves. I also used straight stitches to create it, one stitch overlapping the other to create the appearance of folded petals.

 

ribbon work lily leaves

 

I worked the two leaves with straight stitches again, but with a thinner ribbon (that actually fit through the needle’s eye!). The ribbon was from my stash, but it was exactly the shade of green I wanted. πŸ™‚

 

making a straight stitch with green ribbon for the leaves

 

Flower Details

Once I was satisfied with all this, I stitched the stem, using two strands of DMC #3346. I used long & short stitches with longer stitches than usual, and did a bit of whipping at the top where the stem was thinner. β€œWhipping” is when you weave your thread behind existing stitches without going through fabric. It creates a nice twisty look.

 

view of the full bouquet so far, to show the lily stem

 

I also added a few straight stitches (in floss) around the bud for the sepals.

 

close-up of lily bud to show embroidered sepals in embroidery floss

 

And finally, it was time to add more dimension to the flower and really make it look like a lily. I used one strand of DMC #734 and one strand of BrillantΓ© d’Alger #511 (DMC #3779 is a close match) at the same time (so two strands in my needle, one of each colour) to create the filaments. I started from the flower center and just made straight stitches into the upper petals.

 

lily center with embroidery floss and straight stitches

 

Then I used two strands of Anchor #357 (DMC #433) to make smaller, slightly curved stitches to create the anthers above the filaments. (Yes, I had to google all these flower parts :P)

 

Finishing Touches

To secure all my dangling bits of ribbon at the back, I un-hooped my work, threaded a sewing needle with matching pink sewing thread, and sewed down each bit to anchor it.

 

backside of embroidery work to show the ribbon ends to secure

 

I also did a bit of sewing on the good side, to really place my petals as I wanted them, anchoring a fold here and there. To do this, you want to take very small stitches underneath the folds you wish to create so that the thread won’t be visible. It was also necessary to anchor a few petals down. Their arching form revealed the pencil marks underneath (and unfortunately this isn’t a piece you can wash easily – if at all).

 

complete ribbon lily flower

 

VoilΓ !! Now you know the secrets to stitch a beautiful lily flower with ribbon. I used to do a lot more ribbon embroidery a few years ago, and hope to get back into it. Each stitch is so satisfying, so lush, so beautiful!

 

view of completed bouquet so far, showing embroidered roses, currants, raspberries and lily flower in ribbon

 

With the lily now complete, my bouquet is really starting to look like something! All we have left are the little yellow daisies, the title, and a few finishing touches. I’m already prepping Part 5 for you 😊.

 

If you need to catch up on Parts 1, 2, and 3, here they are:

garden bouquet project part 1
Garden Bouquet part 2: wild roses
beautiful berries garden bouquet part 3

I hope you enjoyed embroidering a ribbon lily with me! Which has been your favourite part so far? Do you prefer needle-painting, stumpwork, or ribbon-work? Let me know in the comments!

 

Fondly,

ribbon lily garden bouquet part 4
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