Thursday 7 June 2012

Another Creative Catch-Up Post!

Am I the only Mum who inherits mobile phones from their children? Although I like technology, I resisted mobile phones for a long time as ...... well ...... people seem to become welded to them, and I fiercely resisted this! However, even I could eventually see their worth, but my first phone was a free one after applying for a credit card and I had if for ages!! It was bright pink and I got a lot of stick about it from my son!

It was very basic but eventually, when James was making one of his frequent phone changes, I inherited his old one and this pattern has continued ever since! My latest inherited phone is an iPhone but I decided it needed some some of case to protect it.

One blog I follow is Wendy Gratz's Shiny Happy World and I was inspired by a pattern on her blog. Also, recently I found a lovely embroidery book for sale in a local charity shop for only £1.50.

 The embroidered butterflies in this book are gorgeous! I was especially taken with the Orange tipped butterflies you can see on the cover. We've seen quite a few of these on our walks recently (when it hasn't rained!) and they just shout out 'Summer' to me.


The felt I had already bought some time ago. It is very thick woollen felt, approximately 4mm thick, that I got from Blooming Felt. The beauty of this felt is that, since it is so thick, you can do embroidery on the surface just by holding it in your hand; no hoop or frame is necessary.


You can see from the jumble of my supplies that I traced the male and female butterflies onto thick tracing paper. I then used the prick and pounce transfer method, using cornflour as the 'pounce'. It just about worked! I traced over the cornflour spots with a permanent marker, happy that all the pen marks would be covered by the embroidery.

I did the female butterfly at the top first. It has been a long time since I last did any freehand embroidery, so she was my trial run, if you like. She's not bad, although I can see one or two places where my stitching is not quite as accurate as I would have liked. The male looks better ..... although overall I'm pleased with how they've come out.

I then just used black cotton a broder to stitch the sides of the pouch ..... and now I have a very practical, girly, phone cover :)

4 comments:

Kandi said...

WOW! They are beautiful, I saw them on the Flickr group and thought they must have been done on an embroidery machine. They are beautiful you clever thing. Is it ok if I borrow the photo for a post later this week on the monthly makes. I'm Miss June :0) I'll be sure to link back here to you xx

Elaine said...

Hi Kandi,
Thank you so much for your compliments :)
Of course you can use the photo :)

Elaine said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Elaine said...

PS Forgot to say that I'm very flattered that you thought I'd done the butterflies with an embroidery machine!
Although from time to time I've liked the idea of getting a machine like that (if I could rustle up the money, 'cos they can be expensive!!), I think I prefer the look of hand embroidery, even if it does take much longer to do :)
In any case ..... it's not time I begrudge as I like doing it :)

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