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Basket Weave Stitch Tutorial: Simple & Pretty

     Anne      4 Comments

Welcome to another stitch tutorial! The basket weave stitch is a really fun one. There are so many different ways to approach stitching a basket, but this method is rapidly becoming my favourite. You can easily change the look and texture of the basket by playing around with the number of strands you use.

 

the basket weave stitch embroidery tutorial

 

If you’re here following the Tea Party Mini-Quilt project, ready to stitch June’s Strawberry Basket, I used only 2 strands in the original design. For the purposes of this tutorial, I’m using all 6 strands. Up to you to decide which you like best!

If you’re new around here and you’d like to join in on the Tea Party, I send out a free mini-embroidery pattern each month, to turn into a hexie for a decorative mini-quilt. This month’s pattern is this adorable cottagecore strawberry basket.

embroidered strawberry basket in wooden embroidery hoop

If you’d like to stitch it too and catch-up on previous patterns, you can join my mailing list by subscribing here! I send out a newsletter every two weeks (usually, haha!).

 

Now, onto the tutorial!

 

Basket Weave Stitch Tutorial

1. First, assuming you are indeed wanting to embroider a basket, transfer or draw your pattern on the fabric. Mark the vertical lines of the basket’s weave.

basket outline drawn on fabric

 

2. Make straight stitches over those vertical lines.

vertical straight stitches

 

3. Then, come up on one side of the basket, just beside the first straight stitch.

needle coming up beside the first stitch

 

4. Weave your needle under and over the stitches, all the way to the end.

needle weaving through vertical stitches

 

5. Pull through, adjusting the thread if need be, by pushing it gently with your needle so it rests in a curved line at the top of the basket. Go down into the fabric.

pull working thread through
first row done

 

6. Coming up from the back just beside where you last ended, start weaving the needle again, in the other direction. You’ll want to do the opposite you did previously, so if you ended your stitch “under” the last vertical stitch, start by going over this time. Go all the way to the other end, end the stitch by going down into the fabric, and come up again just under where you left off.

second row complete
basket half filled

 

7. Continue to weave your needle over and under until the basket is filled!

basket filled with weave stitch

 

8. I like to finish with a nice line of stem stitch to hide the weaving ends, and stitch the handle.

stem stitch added around the basket base and handle

And there you are, the sweetest little basket!

 

As you might notice, the weaving looks different in this tutorial compared to my original strawberry basket. That’s because I used fewer strands and made my base stitches much closer for the latter. The basket in the tutorial used more strands, and the vertical stitches were further apart, creating a longer weave.

 

You can play around with this until you find the look you are best satisfied with! I hope you enjoyed this basket weave stitch tutorial, and I wish you lots of happy stitches and strawberry pickings. There’s nothing quite like a basket of freshly picked wild strawberries on a sunny June afternoon, is there?

 

Fondly,

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Spiderweb Stitch Tutorial & May’s Rosy Teapot Pattern

     Anne      Leave a Comment

It’s May already, and that means a new mini-embroidery pattern for our Tea Party Mini-Quilt SAL! It’s time to crown the Tea Party with its ultimate essential, the Queen of all tea things: the teapot. For this pattern you’ll need to know the spiderweb stitch to embroider the roses, so I thought I’d add to the Stitch Library and post a new stitch tutorial. It’s been a while since I posted one, and this is one of my favourite stitches. It’s so simple, but so pretty!

 

Of course, you could embroider the roses on the teapot pattern with bullion knots like we did for January’s Teacup pattern, but I decided to switch it up a bit and do spiderweb roses instead. It’s up to you! Initially, I was going to make the teapot a close match to the teacup pattern, and stitch it in the same blue, but then it just happened to turn pink. I’d pulled out DMC #3779 from the floss box and kept gazing at it, and next thing I knew, the teapot was pink. Just like Sleeping Beauty’s dress.

embroidered teapot on epp hexie

 

I loved the pink too much to change it, but honestly, I still think they do match. I would buy that tea set in a heartbeat if I saw it. 😉

teapot and teacup embroidered on epp hexies

Anyways, onto the spiderweb stitch tutorial!

 

Spiderweb Rose Stitch Tutorial

 

1. First, I recommend marking five straight lines in the shape of a star on your fabric. This will be the foundation for the “spiderweb”. Make sure they are of equal length.

pencil markings on fabric

 

2. Then, I like to use just a strand or two to make straight stitches over the markings. End the stitches in the same hole in the middle.

start-like shape stitched with straight stitches

 

3. Depending on how big you want your rose to be, use as many or as few strands as you like and come up from the back between two of the base stitches, just above the middle point.

needle coming up between two stitches

 

4. Skip over the first straight stitch, and slide your needle under the second stitch. Pull through, and go over the next stitch, and down under the one after. You can go clockwise or anti-clockwise to do this, depending on what you prefer. I like to go anti-clockwise.

needle going over a stitch and under the next
needle going under a base stitch

5. Repeat these motions, going under and over the straight stitches, and you’ll see the rose start to take shape.

needle going down under base stitch to make spiderweb rose
spiderweb rose stitch taking shape

6. Go around the rose several times, until the 5 straight stitches are fully covered. When you’re satisfied, simply bring your needle down to the wrong side, as close to the rose as possible. Anchor your thread on the back, and you’re done!

needle going down the fabric to complete the spiderweb rose stitch

 

You can choose to add a French knot or a seed bead to the middle, but often I like to leave it as is and let the 3D effect create the nice center.

spiderweb rose stitch complete

 

This stitch is very addictive, and also looks amazing worked with ribbon. I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and that you’ll give it a try.

Here’s the pinnable image if you want to save it for later:

how to do the spiderweb stitch

 

I can’t wait to see all your beautiful teapots! Don’t forget to use the hashtag #northernbellesal and tag me on IG (@northernbelle.atelier) with your lovely embroideries.

If you’re new around here and would like to stitch the pattern too, simply subscribe to my newsletter and you’ll find the pattern in your inbox next newsletter! I send out a newsletter every two weeks, and a new mini-embroidery pattern every month. At the year of the year, the embroideries will be turned into an EPP mini-quilt. 😊

For more information on the project, you can see this post:

mini-quilt project: epp & embroidery

 

And for an introduction to EPP (English Paper Piecing), you can see this one:

english paper piecing: how to cut and baste shapes

 

As always, thank you so much for reading and following along! Happy stitching, and best of all, happy tea-brewing in your lovely teapots,

 

Fondly,

epp stitchalong: May's rosy teapot
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My New Etsy Shop: Northern Belle Atelier

     Anne      Leave a Comment

Dear friends, it is with such excitement that I proudly announce the opening of my Etsy shop: Northern Belle Atelier! It’s been months in the making while I figured out what I wanted to do and learned how to develop patterns for my embroidery pieces. I’ve been experimenting a lot, and learning so many new skills. It’s been a great journey, but I am so ready for this new chapter!

 

Welcome to Northern Belle Atelier!

I have opened my shop with 4 downloadable PDF patterns for embroidery, suitable for different skill levels. Each pattern has first been hand-drawn by me, then turned into a lovely booklet full of instructions and photos. Here’s what you can expect when you purchase one of my patterns:

  • The actual pattern (and reverse pattern) to transfer
  • List of the materials & tools you’ll need
  • Thread & Stitch Key to show which colours are used where, with what stitch
  • Stitch tutorials with photos for all the stitches you’ll need in the project (you can also find more in-depth tutorials here on the blog!)
  • A section of info on how to prep your project, including how to bind a hoop, how to start & end your stitches, how to transfer your pattern, etc.
  • Detailed step-by-step instructions with lots of photos to guide you through each part of the pattern
  • Suggestions on how to care for & finish your embroidery

I’ve tried to make the PDFs as detailed as possible, but of course there is so much to say about embroidery that it can fill several books! You’re always welcome to reach out if you have any questions, and you’re also welcome to browse the various sections of my blog, where I’ve written several posts with beginners in mind, and to see samples of my work (and grab some freebies!).

 

The Patterns

Let’s have a peek at some of the designs, shall we?

 

embroidered umbrella with wisteria spilling out of it
Shop this pattern here!

 

If you’ve been following the blog for a bit, this one might strike you as familiar. That’s because I first designed it back in April 2021 after being so inspired by the wonderful novel The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. I first stitched it with a different colour palette and different lace, and wrote a whole post about it while praising Enchanted April to the skies (read it here).

I revisited the pattern later and decided to try a different palette, which I like even more than the first. The softness of the tones and the delicate lace really evoke the gloriousness of the leisure hours spent in the dreamiest Italian garden by the characters in the book. I hope you’ll love it as much as I do and that you’ll enjoy stitching it if you fancy giving it a go.

The pattern is not too difficult, but I do recommend having some previous knowledge of embroidery. None of the stitches are complicated, but it does feature a lace appliqué and requires you to stitch over other stitches. This can get a little frustrating if it’s your first attempt. Luckily the nature of the wisteria is very forgivable. Little mistakes can be easily covered up with an extra tumbling flower or two. 😉

 

Bonus:

If you want to try stitching wisteria but don’t want to commit to a full pattern just yet, I have a freebie version! A sweet branch of wisteria, perfect for practicing those lazy-daisy stitches. Find it here.

 

mouse holding a strawberry done in redwork
Shop this pattern here!

 

Also available in the shop is this cute mouse offering you a strawberry! I originally designed it for the center of an EPP hexie flower for a friend’s birthday. It was so sweet that I couldn’t resist adding it to the shop.

I stitched my version in redwork, but you could easily customize it! It’s a beginner-friendly pattern, although some might find the small details a bit challenging. It was designed to fit a 3″ hoop so it’s overall pretty small, but you can always make it bigger if you want. Most of it is done in backstitch, so not too hard at all. 😉

 

Visit Northern Belle Atelier on Etsy to see the rest!

I can’t wait to show you what I’m planning next! I have so many ideas, and not enough time haha. While I’m only starting with PDF patterns at the moment, I do hope to add physical goods in the near future. If there’s anything in particular you’d be interested in, please let me know. 🙂 Any feedback/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

For now, I really love the downloadable PDFs because you get instant access to them after purchase. No extra cost or wait on shipping! Plus, you get to use your own fabric, switch up the colours if you like, or use whatever you already have in your stash. A good win-win for everyone.

 

Freebies!

Before you go, don’t forget to have a look at the freebies section here on the blog! I have a few patterns that you can stitch if you want to practice, and you can download them for free.

I also send out a free mini pattern per month as part of the Mini-Quilt stitch-along included in my newsletter. You can subscribe here.

 

Alrighty, I think that’s enough info-dump for one post! I hope you have a great week and thank you for taking the time to read my blog today. I look forward to sharing more shop updates with you soon! Feel free to follow along on Instagram.

 

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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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.

 

“Bouquet 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. 😉

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.

“WE 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. 😉 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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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. 🙂

 

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. “Whipping” 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 Brillanté 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

 

Voilà!! 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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