Hey there!
Here it is, our first ever guest post, and our first ever 'In the Making'! Exciting for us, and hopefully lots of fun and excitement for you too.
What exactly is 'In the making'?
Well my friends, we have asked creative Queenslanders to sit down and nut out something wonderfully crafty for you all to make, and then here on the bloggy-blog we share it with you all, so that you can get involved
in the making and feel all crafty and wonderful too.
We are hoping to make 'In the Making' a regular feature here, as we can't think of anything more super-dee-dooper than getting hoards of the public involved in the joyful activity of making stuff! If you would be interested in creating a guest post for this spot, we would just love to have you, so email us at contact.the.common@gmail.com and let us know.
And now, let me introduce Little, who is our guest here today, the owner of
Pipette children's handmade clothing and accessories, and the creator of today's In the Making post. Thanks so much to Little for taking the time to create and share, so that you can all be joyful and crafty!
The supplies lists, patterns and instructions are all here, but if you want, we have created some Etsy listings so that you can purchase a complete kit for $10.00 (excl. postage) which includes everything you need to get crafty-cool! You can find the kits in the
The Common People Etsy store
And now, lets get on getting our craft on!
What you will make, if you participate is this little fellow here, how Elephantastic!
And here is all the info, including the embroidery techniques. We would love to see your finished creations over at
The Common on Facey, so once you're done, upload some pics for us to look and like at....
Thanks again to Little Pipette!
Supplies you need
- 2 pieces of 15x15cm felt in first colour
- 1 piece 5x5cm felt in contrasting colour
- 1 packet of Embroidery Floss
- Embroidery Needle
- Small amount of stuffing/polyfill
- Sewing Needle
- Sewing Thread
- Sew-on Brooch Backing
- Pins
- Scissors
How to make your Elephant Brooch
- Cut your pattern pieces out and pin them onto the felt, then cut them out as follows:
Cut 1 body piece on the right side of the felt
Cut 1 body piece on the wrong side of the felt
Cut 1 ear piece from the contrasting felt
- If you want to decorate your elephant with things like beads or trim, now is the time to do this. Stitch your decorations onto the right side of the front piece, making sure your thread starts and ends on the reverse side of the felt so that all knots will be hidden. It is best to use a normal sewing needle and thread for this bit as embroidery thread is too large.
- Pin the elephant’s ear in place, a few millimetres from the top edge of the body piece. Blanket stitch around the edge of the ear, running your thread through both the ear and the body pieces of felt. Start and finish your stitches on the reverse side of the body piece.
- Stitch the elephant’s eye. Decide where you want the eye to be, and create a French knot, starting your thread on the reverse side of the body piece.
Attach the brooch pin backing to the outside of the back piece of the body. Start and finish your stitches on the wrong side of this piece, so that all your knots and ends will be hidden. It may be easier to use a normal sewing needle and thread to do this.
- Starting at the back of the front leg, blanket stitch the body pieces together around the edges until you reach the front of the back leg.
- Without cutting or removing the thread, stuff the elephant. You may need to use a pointed object to get the stuffing all the way to the end of the trunk.
- Stitch up the opening, making sure your last stitch goes between the layers of felt and out through the back of the elephant. Pull it really tight, and cut it as close as possible to the felt so that it will slip back inside and be hidden.
DONE!
Embroidery stitches you will use
Blanket Stitch:
- Thread your needle and knot the tail end. Start between the two layers and poke your needle down through the bottom layer. This will put your knot in between the two layers.
- Poke your needle down from the top layer so that the needle comes out the bottom at the same spot where you started, creating a loop.
- Put your needle under the loop stitch you just made (poke the needle under the stitch going sideways along the crack of the two layers)
- Poke your needle down from the top over from where the thread first came up, then bring your needle up from the back, and through the loop of thread, then pull it tight.
Do this all the way around until you get back to the beginning and then…
- Slide your needle sideways underneath your first stitch, and pull your thread tight.
- Loop your needle through that stitch again, but before pulling it tight, send your needle through the loop to make a knot. Then pull it tight to complete the knot.
To hide the knot and the tail ends, slip your needle between the layers of felt and then out through one side.
Pull the thread tight, then cut the tail off as close to the felt as possible. The tail will disappear between the layers.
French Knot:
- Start the same way as blanket stitch, putting your needle through the felt where you want the stitch to be. Hold the thread firmly between your left index finger and thumb and away from the fabric.
- With the needle pointed away from the fabric, wrap the thread over and around the needle with your left hand. Wrapping twice will give you a smaller knot, three times will give you a larger one.
- Holding the thread tight with in your left hand, turn the needle downward and start to take it to the back a few millimetres away, not into the same hole.
- With the tip of the needle inside the hole, slide the knot down the needle onto the fabric pulling the thread tight with your left hand at the same time. Beware! If you pull the knot too tightly, the eye of the needle won’t fit through the knot as the thread goes to the back. If it’s too loose you’ll get a sloppy knot that won’t lay flat.
