And now I have a video showing how to prepare your embroidery for framing in any standard frame.
If you use this method you don’t need to cut into the fabric at all, and you don’t need to use potentially damaging glue or tape. It’s a great way to display – while still preserving – any fabric art you like.
So dig out some of your favorite embroidered pieces (or applique – this technique works for all fabric art) and display them proudly in a frame. Hang them somewhere you’ll see them every day so they can make you happy. 🙂
Here are all the posts about finishing embroidery projects.
Here’s a super simple Easter embroidery pattern – easy enough for even the littlest kids to stitch.
I originally published this back in 2011 – but now it’s updated with new images and links to video tutorials. I can’t wait to see the new chicks you make!
Back when I released the chickens embroidery pattern, people said they especially liked the little egg-shaped chicks with big feet.
I told you they’d be back again and here one is – sized a bit bigger – as a free pattern. 🙂
It’s lots of fun to decorate that egg-shaped body for Easter!
Of course, you can fill in the shape with all kinds of stitching in any design you like – but there are a couple of other options that are a lot faster.
For a really fun option, you can color the egg with colored pencils before you stitch. There’s a video here showing that technique in complete detail. In a nutshell, fuse some freezer paper to the back so the fabric behaves better, then color it in just like paper. If you’re going to hang the finished chicks on the wall you don’t need to worry about heat setting the pencils or anything like that. Stitch the outline after you’re done coloring and hoop it up for framing.
Look at the cute little Easter chicks my daughter made that way! (The other two chicks are from the chickens embroidery pattern.)
I love framing each tiny chick in its own hoop. They make a really cute Easter decoration hanging in a cluster.
Remember – it’s a cute Easter embroidery pattern – but chicks are cute all year long! You can stitch this to a baby onesie, applique it to a receiving blanket, stitch it on a tea towel or baby bib and more. Have fun with it!
In that video I showed how the batting layer needs to be bigger all around than the top layer, and the backing needs to be bigger than the batting.
One of the main reasons for that is because – even with basting – the fabric layers can shift a bit when you’re quilting. If you start with all the edges perfectly lined up, you can have a situation where the batting or backing shifts to be smaller than the top – and then you have a problem on your hands.
The other reason to have the other layers be longer is so that you can hoop it up for hand quilting and stitch right up to the edges.
Let’s take a look at my current hand quilting project – the Controlled Chaos quilt. (It’s a free pattern.)
I’m working on one of the edges here.
You can see that the quilt edge is the edge of that narrow grey border around the blue block. It’s mostly quilted here – right up to the edge.
The batting extends beyond that edge – enough to be captured in the square frame I use so it gets held tight for quilting.
The backing is the grey fabric that extends beyond the batting – also held in the frame.
Having the batting and backing layers extend several inches past the edge of the quilt allows me to hoop them up with the actual quilt still within the quiltable area of the frame. Everything is held nice and tight for easy hand quilting.
Here are all my posts about layering and basting your quilt, and the final round of quilting.
Here are all my posts about hand quilting and Big Stitch quilting. I don’t use these techniques with fusible applique or Quilt As You Go, but I LOVE using Big Stitch Quilting with my cheater fabric.
Sort of. True laminated fabric has a very thin layer of polyurethane film permanently stuck to the right side of the fabric. The resulting fabric is waterproof, but still has a nice drape to it.
It’s terrific when you can find it – and more and more manufacturers are making it. But it can still be pretty hard to find, and when you do – the print options are usually fairly limited.
So what about when you find a lovely fabric collection like this one. . .
And you want to make that raincoat and boots out of laminated fabric because your kid is smart and they know regular cotton is not waterproof?
You make your own laminated fabric!
I used a product called Pellon Vinyl Fuse and it worked great. Heat & Bond also has a couple of laminating products (including one that brushes on!) that I’ll be testing soon. I’ll update this post after testing.
It’s very easy to use – you just iron it on. The package has very clear instructions.
After that you treat it almost like any cotton fabric – with a few key changes.
Tips for Working with Laminated Fabric
Do not iron it from the vinyl side of the fabric! Save the backing paper you peeled off when you applied the vinyl and use that as a press cloth if you absolutely must iron from the front. I found the stiffness of the fabric meant all I ever needed to do was a quick finger press – no iron needed.
The resulting fabric is stiffer, with less drape than a true laminated fabric. Choose a simple pattern without pleats of gathers.
Some people recommend sewing over a piece of tissue if you need to sew with the vinyl side down – for fear of the feed dogs scratching the vinyl. I sewed with the vinyl side up and down – with no tissue – and had no scratching or grabbing problems. But your machine may be different! I recommend sewing a tiny test.
If the laminated fabric crinkles a lot when you turn it right side out, you can hit it with a hot hair dryer and smooth things out really easily.
Use clips instead of pins to hold the pieces together. Pins will leave permanent holes in laminated fabric.
There’s a new outfit available for the Dress Up Bunch – a doll raincoat pattern!
It’s still snowing here, but soon it will be rain showers and flowers! Your dolls need to be ready for those rainy days so they can splish splash in puddles!
Of course you don’t just get a raincoat pattern. Let’s look at all the parts. . .
A new dress! It’s a short-sleeved dress with three front snaps and some optional fancy trim around the bottom hem. That butterfly print is perfect for spring!
Here’s a view of the raincoat from the back – with the hood down.
It’s a nice roomy hood – easy to make and easy for little hands to flip up and down over that big Dress Up Bunch head. 🙂
Want a closer look at those adorable boots?
They have a little flap on the front with velcro to make them easier for little hands to put on without any help. Plus the little bugs and caterpillars are so cute. I want boots like these!
You can use laminated cottons for the outer shell of the raincoat and boots – but I really wanted to use these prints so I laminated them myself using Pellon Vinyl Fuse. It’s easy – just follow the directions on the package and then treat it like regular fabric. Just don’t try to iron it! And clips are better than pins because pins will leave permanent tiny holes.
Want to learn the basics of hand embroidery with an easy online workshop – totally free?
Sign up for Embroidery 101 here. You’ll learn how to get started, the tools and supplies you’ll need, the four most basic stitches, how to transfer your pattern and how to display your work.
If you already know the basics – sign up for Embroidery 201. It’s also free! You’ll learn how to stitch on specialty fabrics like felt and stretchy T-shirts. Plus you’ll learn lots and lots and LOTS more stitches – all my favorites!
You know how I talk ALL THE TIME about how much I love handwork because it’s so portable?
Would you like to see just what I keep in my handwork bag? I’ll show you what tools are inside and how I keep everything organized so I can pull out my work whenever – and wherever – I have a few minutes to stitch.
All right then!
I’m currently working on two projects – hand quilting the Controlled Chaos quilt (not portable – I do this on the sofa)
The quilt won’t fit in it 🙂 but the 7 inch hoop does. I work on both projects on the sofa – but I also carry the hoop with me for random moments of handwork.
I love having a metal tin so I can store sharp objects inside without fear of them poking me or poking through my bag. Here’s what’s inside the tin. . .
My bag is always packed and sitting at my sofa spot, ready to grab and take along in case I’m going anywhere I might have a few extra minutes for some handwork.
I usually crochet my rounds in spirals: which means that I go around and around continuously. It’s an easy technique.
The main downside, though, is that if you’re crocheting stripes, you get pesky little jogs in the color changes.
The solution is to crochet in joined rounds. That means, at the start of each round, you chain one, and then slip stitch into that chain at the end of the round.
Update – If you want to keep crocheting in a spiral but minimize that pesky jog in your stripes, there’s a video here showing a different technique.
It’s pretty easy to accidentally add stitches using joined rounds… which makes a chevron shape instead of a nice, flat join. Oops.
The trick to avoiding accidental increases is to know your stitches! Here’s a little graphic of the stitches involved:
So, when you’re crocheting, you don’t want to single crochet into the slip stitch of the previous round. It’s funny because it feels like you’re skipping a stitch. But that’s the trick.
Yay!
Here are handy links to all the posts about changing yarn color in crochet. . .
This one post will give you all the links you need to get to all of my different posts (and there are a lot of them) about how to applique. I love applique!
First, there are three major applique techniques.
Needle Turn Applique
This is beautiful and soft and lovely – but it’s a hand technique so it’s sloooooow. It’s still doable though! My very first quilt was enormous and full of needle turn applique.
The only tools you need are a washable marker and a needle and thread.
Freezer Paper Applique
This is also beautiful and soft and lovely, but it’s a machine technique so it’s much faster than needle turn.
There are four videos for this technique, because you use different techniques for different shapes. I’m listing them here in order from easiest to hardest.
There are lots of different brands of fusible adhesive. My favorite is Heat & Bond. I use the Lite weight for all my quilts. There’s also a super strong version called Ultrahold that is a nice option for tiny eyes and other small pieces you might not want to have to sew.
I get a lot of questions from people asking how durable the applique is if you just use straight stitching. I answer that here – showing some close-up photos of a quilt that my daughter has been using for some time now. That means it’s been washed and dried a lot. 🙂
It’s finally here! The video showing you how I do big stitch quilting – a super easy and fun hand quilting technique!
Big stitch quilting is my new favorite way to hand quilt – I’m not sure I’ll ever go back to traditional hand quilting. It’s just so much fun! I love the chunkiness of the stitches – and the style really seems to demand the kind of slight irregularities and wonkiness I love so much.
I should note – I’m not trying to be irregular here. I find that if I try to stitch a perfectly straight line, going slowly and carefully, but not actually marking or measuring it in any way – I get just the amount of wonkiness and wobbliness that makes me happy. It looks like it was sewn by human hands. 🙂
Here are all my posts about hand quilting and Big Stitch quilting. I don’t use these techniques with fusible applique or Quilt As You Go, but I LOVE using Big Stitch Quilting with my cheater fabric.
That means the people who love babies need a go to, easy baby bib pattern.
This is it!
It’s a simple bib shape – very easy to make and customize with any appliqué (or other fancification) you like. This pattern includes that sweet bear. 🙂
Make it out of regular quilting cotton for a basic bib. Back it with laminated fabric for heavy droolers. Make the whole thing out of laminate for those learning to eat solid foods. (The fabrics I used are from Timeless Treasures. The crosshatch is my beloved Sketch collection and the swirly fizzy dots are from the appropriately-named Pop collection.)
Cut two bib pieces (one front and one back) on the fold.
Step 2
Print or trace the bear appliqué pieces (the last page of the baby bib pattern PDF) onto fusible adhesive. This is the brand I use.
Roughly cut out each shape and fuse them to the back of the fabric, following the instructions for the brand you’re using.
Step 3
Cut out the pieces neatly.
Cut right on the solid lines. Leave a little extra seam allowance past the dotted lines. See the extra at the bottom of the ears? That bit will tuck behind the head.
Step 4
Hold the face up to the window so you can see the markings through the fabric and mark the position of the eyes.
I just use a fine tip Sharpie – nothing fancy.
Do the same thing with the muzzle, marking the position of the nose and the key points of the mouth.
You can also trace over the whole line of the mouth, if you prefer.
Step 5
Peel off the paper backings and layer the pieces together so that the ears tuck behind the head and the bottom of the bear body is lined up with the bottom of the bib.
Here you can see it a little closer.
Fuse the pieces down according to the instructions of whatever brand adhesive you’re using.
Step 6
Stitch around the edges of all the pieces.
I like to use black thread and a simple straight stitch. You can use a zigzag or other decorative stitch if you prefer. If you want a little help knowing where to start and in what order to stitch the pieces, this post should help you out. And this one will help you with managing those tight curves. 🙂
Step 7
Embroider the eyes and mouth.
I did it by hand using this stitch for the eyes, and following the instructions for the mouth in the free Warren the Charity Bear pattern. I used a single strand of this thread. That’s the equivalent of two strands of DMC floss, but I love using a single strand of thicker thread so I don’t have to worry about the strands separating on that long stitch connecting the nose to the mouth.
You can also sew the face by machine. That’s what I did for this cat bib. You can find info about how I did the eyes here. The mouth and whiskers are just a simple straight stitch, going over all the lines twice to make them a little thicker. (For those I traced the whole line of the mouth and whiskers in Step 4, not just the endpoints.)
Step 8
Cut a 1-inch square of hook & loop tape (or use snaps or a button).
Sew it to the bib as shown. Both bib pieces are shown right side up. I attached the loop side to the bib front and the hook side to the bib back, but it doesn’t really matter.
Step 9
Layer the bib front and the bib back right sides together.
Using 1/4 inch seam allowance, sew all the way around the edge. Leave a few inches open for a turning hole in the straight part of one of the sides.
Step 10
Clip the seam allowance in the concave curve around the neck.
For more on the the how and why of clipping curves, watch this video.
It would be fun to make a whole set of them with lots of different faces!
Have fun with this pattern! I’d love to see what you make – and I’d really love to see them on some adorable babies. 🙂 Post photos in the Shiny Happy People group so we can ooh and aah over them.
Here are several free patterns that work with my basic 10-inch applique squares – no resizing needed!
Here are several free patterns that work with just some simple resizing. This post about making coasters has info about resizing an applique pattern that can be applied to any of these projects.
