#967 – Let’s Try Stitching!!!

Hello and welcome! We have a new challenge up at Seize the Birthday and the optional Topping this time, chosen by Barbara, is to ‘Use Faux or Real Stitching‘. Since the topping is optional, as long as your project is birthday-related, you can join the party!

And here’s what I made –

I finally dipped my hands into cross-stitching!!! Yay!!! My sister was a major inspiration, after all, I’ve been seeing her use the needle and thread for years now! 🙂

I’m glad to also have used the Simon Says Stamp Stitching Panel, for what I think, is the intended way of usage (no, I am not saying you can’t just just use it as a background, it looks wonderful either way!). On this, card, since I didn’t want to waste embroidery thread with my amateur stitching, I used normal sewing thread instead, since I had access to plenty of it from my mother’s stash! Also, I did choose colors on my own this time – I usually have a couple of colors in my mind and use my color inspiration board on pinterest to pick the rest of the colors – but this time, I chose all of them, and I am super happy that they worked so well!

I did have a great time stitching. I did all the amateur mistakes – felt so bad when I had to cut off a lot of thread because I didn’t pull it right, made the top stitch come out from the wrong side, stitched over one hole, measured wrong – the whole shots – but I truly did enjoy the experience. In fact, I would like to make more (and maybe use embroidery threads this time? What say sis?) if I am not time constrained!

All that story, since I didn’t have much to write about the card itself!!! 😀

Anyway, coming back to the card – Once I finished the sewing, I cut out 2 sets of the frames using dies from Simon Says Stamp Stitched Squares and Waffle Flowers Nesting Squares, along with extra pieces from scrap cardstock to stack them for dimension. I then adhered these using liquid glue and then mounted that over a square Beige card base. The sentiment comes from Neat and Tangled Hand Stitched stamp set, which I thought suited the card to a T. I also added a thin strip of copper foil washi tape on the sentiment strip, since I wasn’t going to add any other embellishment – sorry you can’t see the shine here.

And I’m joining the following challenges as well –

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #324: All About Occasions

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps and More challenge #414: Any Occasion

And that concludes my report of my new crafting adventure! 😀 Checkout more stitching inspirations from our Surprise Party Guest Jenny Martin and of course, our fantastic crafting team at the Seize the Birthday blog!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

#767 – A Handbag Experience

Hello and welcome! I have something other than a card today – a handbag! This is the second handbag I’ve made – stitching them is still an ongoing experiment.

I didn’t use any pattern or tutorial on this one – it is completely self taught and self thought! That’s the only thing I am happy about. That being said, I must admit it became crazy difficult in the end. I wanted the bag to look as professional as possible, taking my amateur talent into consideration. I did try stitching straight, but the results are so apparent – in fact, the only place where the stitching is straight is where the machine did the job without me leading the cloth!! 😀 😉

Though I had more or less planned the entire thing, I still ended up lost in the end – I had to spend a lot of time thinking of how to finish it. And because of my lack of experience, the width of the base and sides, which I thought would be enough, turned out not to be so, and the bag ended up thinner than I would have liked – almost half the size, in fact! I even ended up breaking the needle, since I was trying to stitch through 4 layers of thick cloth…not a good idea, I knew, but I didn’t have any other way..

Anyway, the bag isn’t exactly as bad as I thought. And I think I’ve learned a few things from the whole experience too. Hopefully, the next one will turn out better! 🙂

Thank you very much for stopping by! 🙂

#742 – A Tote Bag

Hello! Its been quite some time since I posted about something other than cards. Today, I am posting about my humble attempt at creating a tote bag.

I love stitching, as much as I love making cards. But I seldom find anything to stitch! Purses are something that I can make and enjoy using too, so they seem to be the best choice. I have made a couple of purses earlier, but they were made of cloth without any interfacing, so they haven’t come out that well. I used to love the designs and the cloth, but lament how they never would look like purses, and look totally lame.

But now, I finally got my hands on some interfacing, and tried to make a simple tote bag. It was also my first time adding a zipper, so I was pretty excited about it. Since my stitching is also not that great, I had to stitch pretty slowly to get the lines straight…but they are still wonky in some places. 😛

But I am pretty happy with this project. It has given me confidence to try out some more, and since I have a few more pieces of cloth, and my sister, who also wants to join in with lots of wonderful ideas of her own, I hope to make a few more projects in the future! 🙂

I am joining the Simon Says Stamp National Craft Month with this project

Thank you very much for stopping by!