Stitched Ornaments

Well, the title pretty much tells it all.

I made some Christmas decorations. Embroidered, of course. I don't know what's with me and embroidery. It seems to have taken over my craft world.
First up, a pattern from WeeWonderfuls, the Elf Stitchette. I made mine about the size of a credit card. That's why the details are a bit bleh. Also the reason why the Elf has no hands.

The ornament is from linen, with a layer of red felt between. Cut with pinking shears for decorative effect. And to stop the fabric from fraying.

And for a Doctor Who fan on my list - a Cyberman. Actually, just his head. Right in time for this years Doctor Who Christmas Special, which features the Cybermen. That was kind of a spoiler for the episode, so if I've completely ruined it for you, I'm sorry.

Now I'm off to do some baking. Have a merry and crafty Chistmas!

Buttony

OK, OK, I did the sleeves :-)



Presenting my Buttony sweater, all finished. I only made some minor changes to the pattern, like adding a buttonhole on every 16th row instead of 10th. I also didn't decrease for the sleeves, which shows you just how lazy I am.

I admit, the sleeves are a bit too wide, but it only shows if I wear a short sleeved t-shirt under it, but considering this is a winter sweater, I don't really plan on doing that.

Here it is, with a nice view of my neighbors completely covered balcony.


The technical details:

Pattern: Buttony sweater
Yarn: GGH Davos, 8 skeins
Needles: 6 mm
Time it took: a month and a half

Mushroom Cupcake Embroidery

I'm still on an embroidery kick. These are my latest and greatest. Cupcake pattern is from Pimp Stitch, and the mushroom cottage is an annieoakleaves pattern. They're really small; the embroidery itself is about the size of a coin. That doesn't mean it was a quick craft. The mushroom took almost half a day of stitching. Ouch, my back.



I turned them into little ornaments, just to give them some sort of purpose.

Here are two little fimo keychains I made for my friends. First up, for a Doctor Who fan, a TARDIS pendant. I used scrap clay for it, then painted and varnished it. That's why it's so shiny. Too much varnish ;-)

Your basic polymer clay cake. No varnish here.


And a simple coffee cup. It took me ages to shape it, and it still doesn't look like I wanted it. It's about the size of a coin.

Dead Bunny Pinscushion

I'm still working on perfecting my embroidery skills. It's fun. So fun actually, that I'm totally neglecting my knitting. I'm way past my deadline to start knitting Christmas presents. Looks like this year people will be getting store bought stuff. Or embroidered stuff ;-)
My latest creation - dead bunny. Done is split stitch for the outline, and satin stitch for the heart.


Later it became a pincushion. Voodoo bunny.

Things I learned form sewing this:

1. It's hard to sew a bunny outline with a sewing machine.
2. Next time, sew a little farther from the embroidery, otherwise it'll be too close to the edge of the pincushion. Like shown on the picture below.
3. Choose a non-fraying fabric for the back, because if you don't, your stitches will come undone, and it will look crappy. Like not shown on the picture below.
   
4. Sew the opening shut using the same thread color as your front fabric. Don't be lazy and just use the thread that was already on the needle.
   

But still, a functioning pincushion for my pretty shiny pins. Maybe now I won't end up finding stray pins on the floor day after I'm done sewing something.