day twenty four: blanket stitching

my blanket stitch heart

day twenty four and its time for something new! well a new stitch for me, blanket stitching :)  i have pinned a number of things to my wall which i would love to try and make and many of them require blanket stitching!  luckily i have also pinned to my general crafts board at pinterest a tutorial on blanket stitching from the delightful website the purl bee.  the tutorial uses blanket stitching to make scarves for mum for mothers day.

i have a number of gorgeous scarves that i have been given as presents (lucky aye! my sister and mum know i have a soft spot for them) so i didn't feel particularly keen on attempting one ... i mean lets face it, this is my first venture into blanket stitching so the stitches are likely to be uneven and well ... plain wonky!  i'm ok with that and i knew someone else who would be to .... barbie of course!  pollyanna's barbie i am absolutely sure could do with a new bed cover and i felt that was the perfect place for my first blanket stitching venture to end up :) luckily pollyanna, my sweet daughter, agreed.

the complete barbie blanket!

a dear friend showed me how to use the blanket stitching to attach a cloth shape onto another piece of fabric, and then i used the blanket stitching on the scarves to go around the outside of barbies new bed linens.  both blanket stitches were done with embroidery floss (2 strands for the heart and 3 strands for around the outside of the blanket).  the other thing i did today which i had never done before was use an embroidery hoop while blanket stitching on the heart ... very cool.  i have cross stitched quite often over the years but never used a hoop, but man does it make things easy when attaching fabric to fabric ... i can now highly recommend the benefits of embroidery hoops!  i used a tacking stitch to attach the heart to the calico before blanket stitching it on.  i am reliably informed you could use steam a seam or heat n bond and attach it that way instead of tacking.

doesn't she look happy!

outcome: i can blanket stitch!  ok not so neatly yet (sorry barbie) but it is so cool and so rewarding, it happens so fast compared to other stitching! the instructions are really easy to decipher and the photos are awesome for understanding 'how to'.  can't wait to try something else using this cool stitch and even though it's not perfect barbie seems really happy don't ya think ;)

thanks to the great site the purl bee for the wonderful visual tutorial on blanket stitching, it rocked and i am so happy to recommend this site to anyone crafty as their are heaps of projects and tutorials to get you started.

photo fun challenge day 19: winter

my young man cutting kindling for the fire, it was hot work!