My stitch doodling book is made from an old pillow case, some creative cutting and planning.
The word embroidery comes from the French word broderie, which means embellishment. And I’m embellishing the material pages with embroidery stitches.
I thought long and hard about how to make the book and researched numerous sites to see how others had made similar books.
Wow, there are so many ideas out there. I chose a bit from several ideas and put them together in my head and on drawing on bits of paper.
Once the pillow case was cut there was no going back. Rather like the old saying, measure twice, cut once. But if it didn’t work there was still another pillow case to use.
I decided on a long rectangle of material, pinked around the edges and iron folded in the center.
I made five of these material pages and stitched them together at the spine.
With the opening at the top and bottom I am able to stitch on each side and the reverse side of the stitching won’t show. When finished I will use a decorative stitch on my sewing machine to stitch the top and bottom together.
I have lots of small pieces of stitching and cross stitch that I am fastening into the stitch book.
Have you tried the heat transfer pens? You can draw on your pattern/lines, stitch over it, then iron and the ink vanishes.
Perfect for transferring patterns or making sure lines are in the right place.
Edit: After doing some searching after some comments about the pen lines re-appearing I found that at 0 Celsius the lines will come back, and the solution was to hand wash the item to remove the ink totally.
I have an older book of embroidery stitches by Anchor and I plan to use it to brush up on different embroidery stitches.
The back cover of my stitch book right now has some previously embroidered pieces (cut from an old table cloth) that have been stitched on with white thread and outlined in yellow running stitch. I haven’t really decided what to add to the blank parts yet.
I did a lot of embroidery on the quaran’tea’n sewing project and this project is very similar. I embellished the spine of the book with some strips of lace.
I’m slowly working on one of the pages with various stitches and designs. The aim is to use up all the odds and ends of embroidery thread from various projects.
~embroidery thread projects~
- camera straps
- crochet bookmarks
- embroidered pillow cases
- Flossie Bird
- key fobs
- little felt birds
- quilted hearts
I’m sharing this project with The Really Crafty Link Party, Slow Sunday Stitching, Mosaic Monday, Creative Crafts, and Creatively Crafty.
LA Paylor
love the red flowers… all your embroidery really.
don’t know if it’s true but I remember a friend who like me entered quilts nationally, and when she shipped one she had used the heat pen on, the cold temps in the air plane cargo caused the pen marks to come back.
don’t know how to test it except remove them, then put the fabric in the freezer?
maybe it was a one off…but better to know.
Leeanna at not afraid of color…
Crafty Gardener
That is interesting about the heat pen, might have to try it out in the freezer on an old scrap of paper. Thanks for stopping by. Happy stitching.
Crafty Gardener
After doing some searching after the comments that the ink re-appears when it is cold, I found out that at 0 Celsius the ink will come back and to hand wash the item to make it disappear totally. Thanks for your help.
Diann@LittlePenguinQuilts
What a fun project! I enjoy embroidery – I’d enjoy working on a book like that and recording my stitches. Thanks for the inspiration!
Crafty Gardener
It is turning into a fun project, that changes all the time. Thanks for stopping by for a visit.
Karen
I have not used the heat pen – I have heard too that if it gets too cold the lines will come back.
Crafty Gardener
I will certainly be checking into this info about the heat pen. Thanks for visiting today.
Crafty Gardener
After doing some searching after the comments that the ink re-appears when it is cold, I found out that at 0 Celsius the ink will come back and to hand wash the item to make it disappear totally. Thanks for your help.
Karrin Hurd
Beautiful stitching and use of leftover threads!
Sherrie
Hi,
Your stitching is coming along. I’m making a quilt with some embroidery
stitching I’m doing. I get my stitches…what they are called and info on
the stitch over at Pintangle. Sharon has meme I participate in every
week. It’s called “Take A Stitch Tuesday…Sharon gives you a stitch to
work on for the week. Have a great day!
Crafty Gardener
Thank you for the info on Pintangle, I’ve gone there, signed up for updates and also to join the Facebook group. It looks like the perfect thing to learn and/or practice embroidery stitches.
Sherrie
Hi again,
I transfer my embroidery patterns using a light box. I put the page on the light box, trace it onto the fabric. If you don’t have a light box, you can use a window..I did that for years before I got my light box. Thanks for stopping by
Crafty Gardener
Thanks for that info, I’ll check into it.
Jenny Benton
Welcome to this exciting Sunday linkup. Your embroidered book looks wonderful!
Crafty Gardener
Thanks Jenny, glad you stopped by.
Debbie- Dabble
Linda,
Thanks so much for stopping by!! I appreciate it!!
Beautiful stitchery!! I love it!! Stay safe, healthy and happy!!
Hugs,
Deb
Meagan Trento
I am so impressed with your embroidery. It is so beautiful. I can not even sew a button. Thanks for sharing. Have a good week.
Kathi Clower
I love your idea of making this book Linda! Thanks for making this pic heavy tutorial on your method too! Me and my bestie are planning books with some linen/cotton based fabrics for our “pages”!
Have fun!!! Kathi