Hooked on Needles


Friday, January 24, 2014

Grace's First Irish Step Dancing Dress ~ Embroidering Again!

It has been quite a few years since I've done any Irish Step Dancing dress embroidery, but I'm back at it now! This time it is only for my own daughter's dress as I no longer have the time to hire out my services. A few years ago here at Hooked On Needles, I shared all the steps I take, from beginning to end, to embroider these Celtic designs onto velvet using a hoop to maintain the tension on the fabric, but without hooping the velvet itself. If you are interested in learning my method for embroidering on velvet, click HERE and read through the post. Links to each step, with video or picture tutorials, are included for you to follow.

So would you like to see my current project? Keep on reading...



I have laid out the tear-away stabilizer with design traced on it and centered it on the bodice of Grace's velvet dress. I had to un-pin the crocheted collar from her big sister Elizabeth's dress and lay it onto the neckline to make sure the embroidered design would not be placed too high on the bodice and get covered up by the collar. That Irish lace collar was also crocheted by me and I wrote briefly about it HERE and HERE. Grace will be using this collar for her dress now.

The three skeins of embroidery floss are the colors that will be used for the designs that Grace gets on her dress this year. The lighter green is for the bodice design. The soft yellow will be for the big design on the front of the skirt, and the darker green will be for the pretzel designs along the hem of the dress.


Here you can see that I have pinned the design onto the velvet. My secret for pinning onto the flat dress is to slide an acrylic cutting board inside the bodice of the dress so that I can pin the design onto the bodice without also pinning the back of the dress!

Next I basted the design onto the velvet, and then basted the velvet onto a piece of heavier tear-away stabilizer that I had already put into a spring hoop. This is shown in my step-by-step tutorial to which I referred at the top of this post, and which can be found HERE.


This is the completed design. I think the soft green embroidery floss used in this design is such a nice contrast to the emerald green velvet and really makes it stand out.


A closer look...


...and an even closer look!

This design may appear to be lopsided on the dress, but in fact it is the way it is meant to be. The design itself is just a tad lopsided and no amount of measuring, straightening, or adjusting can make it look different! Believe me, I've tried! I have probably embroidered this design onto a dozen dresses over the years, and have tried and tried to make it look straight, but with no success. After much frustration, I decided to do some measurements to see if maybe it was the design, and not the way I was stitching it, that gave it this lopsided appearance. Much to my relief, I discovered that it is indeed the design itself and that's just the way it is!

That is as far as I have gotten on this project, and will be putting it on hold until after the talent show at school next week. Grace wants to do a little step dancing for the show and wants to wear her new velvet dress. I know I won't be able to finish the next larger design in time for the show, so I will leave it as is for now and continue embroidering on it after the show. She is very excited to be able to wear it for the talent show.

For those of you interested in my educational adventure that I began in the fall of 2012, I have begun my fourth semester at my local college just this week. This semester I am taking three courses: Health and Wellness, Art 101, and Statistics. Besides the two class sessions for Health and Wellness, I also will be spending at least an hour in the fitness center at the college each week. I'm actually looking forward to the opportunity to move a little more! Also one night a week for two and a half hours, I will be learning how to paint in oil. I am very excited about that course, which is my humanities elective. And then there's statistics. What can I say about that? I need it if I want to get my BSN, so I'm taking it! Wish me luck!

Happy Stitching!

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Saturday, January 18, 2014

Strange visitors and winter weather

Nothing even remotely needlework related to share with you today, but I just had to share a picture of what we found wondering our neighborhood this morning. Take a look at this...


This was taken at about 9:30 this morning and we were just starting to get a light dusting of snow. The weather forecast called for flurries today. There was no mention of emu visitors, but it was quite thrilling to see this big feathery creature walk right up to me. We were eye to eye and his feet were bigger than mine! His legs were much thinner and the knees bent the other way, but I am pretty sure my backside was smaller than his! Sorry no pictures for comparison!


By 2:00 this afternoon, this is what our flurries had turned into. Wet heavy snow is sticking to everything. It surely is beautiful looking out every window in the house though.

It is the perfect day to get the laundry moving along and then settle into my cozy chair with a little dress hemming project. My youngest will be dancing in her first velvet Irish step dancing dress this year, so I must get it hemmed and then start embroidering the designs on it soon. March will be here before we know it, and I start school again next week so I want to get a jump on it while I am still relaxed! I'll share pictures when there is something to see! If you'd like to see some of my earlier work on Irish step dancing dresses, or learn about my process for embroidering on velvet, click HERE and check out that post with lots of links to the different aspects of the process and to pictures of some of my finished work.

Happy Stitching!

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Monday, January 6, 2014

Caramel Corn Puffs ~ No Needlework Necessary!

Holiday treat recipes, or recipes of any kind for that matter, are not the usual fare here at Hooked On Needles. But sometimes something of the non-needlework sort comes along that is just too good not to share! This caramel corn puff recipe is just one of those things! Take a look at this deliciousness...


Have you ever seen anything so golden and scrumptious looking?

Sweet and crunchy, light and buttery, and very hard to resist!

Here's the recipe, so you can give it a try, maybe for your Super Bowl party or next family game night or other fun get together.

Caramel Corn Puffs

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup light Karo syrup
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 - 7 or 8 ounce bag corn puffs, plain or butter flavored (Think Cheetos Puffs or Pirate's Booty, only not cheese flavored. My local grocery store has a store brand. Yours probably does too.)

Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Spray a large roasting pan with non-stick spray. Dump bag of corn puffs into pan. In a large saucepan, melt butter, brown sugar and Karo. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat, then add 1 teaspoon baking soda and mix well. It will foam up and increase in volume. Quickly pour over corn puffs and mix well so all puffs are covered in caramel. Spread out caramel covered puffs evenly in the pan.

Bake at 225 degrees for one hour. Stir every 10 minutes. Spread out on waxed paper and separate the puffs from each other while they are still warm. Allow to cool and store in an airtight container...or just eat them all!

Coming up soon, I'll share with you my progress on the entrelac knitting project you've already seen HERE, and the beginning of my return to sewing with velvet and embroidering Celtic designs on Irish step dancing dresses!


Happy Stitching!

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