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 :)