Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Sweet Dreams

A couple of months ago, I ran out of hand sewing to work on in front of the television in the evenings.  I can’t stand to be without a hand embroidery project or something like that.  My hands have to be busy.  I actually started thinking about this dilemma before it actually happened so that maybe I could avert the disaster of NO.  HAND.  WORK.  Disappointed smile  And this is what I came up with …

March 13, 2011 009

A set of pillowcases.  I whipped them up in about an hour or so, dug out one of my Aunt Martha’s embroidery transfers that I hadn’t used yet and ironed it onto the end of each case.  Lovely, I thought.  I made them from some pink pima cotton that I had in my stash.  I decided that for these cases I wanted to do all the embroidery from floss that matched the fabric, so I trotted down to the fabric store and bought a few skeins of DMC 818 which was a perfect match.

 

Six weeks later ………

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And there you have it.  I used some back stitch, lazy daisy stitch, palestrinian stitch, coral stitch, satin stitch, buttonhole stitch, some handmade eyelets (see them there on the skirt and along the brim of her hat?) and lots of bullion roses.  When all of the embroidery was done, I ordered some matching DMC pearle cotton and crocheted a delicate fan around the edges of the pillow cases to finish.  I was really pleased with how they turned out.  And I’m especially pleased with the way they look on my bed!  I really enjoyed this project and am wanting to do another one like it …… but not exactly like it.  I’m thinking about some white pillowcases with flying bluebirds and ribbons and flowers.  I know what I’m looking for, but I can’t find a transfer pattern, so I may have to draw it out myself.  I’ll keep you posted.

 

Hugs,  Prissy