The Stockings Were Hung by the Chimney with Care...

There is a special kind of charm about family Christmas stockings sewn by someone special and embroidered with each person's name, hanging by the fireplace every Christmas year after year after year. My friend Kathy's family has carried on this tradition now for several generations, as evidenced by the remaking of Bumpa's stocking to be used by the new Grandpa of the family. Now it is time for the next generation to get their own stockings, and other family members as well.


Using one of the old stockings as my guide, I worked up pattern pieces and sewed five more stockings for this wonderful family. Here they are in the picture above, hanging on my fireplace where my own family's knitted mittens usually hang. If the names had worked out better, I might have thought about keeping them!


Each name is hand embroidered using 3 strands of DMC embroidery floss and my very favorite embroidery stitch, the chain stitch.


Donna's stocking got a little bit of a feminine touch with pretty light green organza ribbon, very sheer and has a little sparkle in it too.


Riley's stocking needed a little change from the pretty packages which are on the other stockings. Can you guess by the fabric and the quilting that Riley is the canine member of this family?


Using the very best free-motion quilting that I could muster with my walking foot, I free-handed the word "Woof" and a dog paw and a few dog bones on Riley's very cute red fabric with brown doggy paws all over it.


All the stockings have the same off white trim on the cuff and the toe, but the men got the ric-rac for a more manly touch.


And here is baby Paul's stocking, the first of the next generation, but hopefully not the last! God willing, there will be siblings, maybe even a new uncle or two, and some cousins who will be needing stockings in the future.


I decided to make Riley's stocking first, copying as best I could the construction of an old stocking that Kathy let be borrow to make the pattern. After putting it together, I decided that there had to be a better way to make the inside look more finished...


...so instead of layering the outside of the stocking with the batting and the lining before sewing the stocking together, I saved the lining to insert on its own, thus hiding all the seams and giving the inside of the stocking a much more finished appearance. I also used fusible fleece batting for these stockings, fusing it to the decorative outside stocking pieces, so I felt that quilting through all the layers really was not necessary. I was much more pleased with this outcome, and this is how I will construct any future Christmas stockings.

My Christmas preparations are well under way here, cleaning, baking, decorating, gift making, school projects, wrapping, all the fun of the season. I hope your stockings are hung by your chimney with care too, and that you have a very blessed Christmas season.

Happy Stitching!

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Christmas Stocking Redo

It seems that lately I've been neglecting Hooked On Needles, but I have a good excuse. Really I do! I've been quite busy down in my sewing room, so busy in fact, that my poor old sewing machine is probably wondering what has happened to it! I haven't worked this old machine so hard for a very long time!

Would you like to see one of the small projects I finished recently? It's a little renovation of an old family Christmas stocking belonging to my friend Kathy. You see, Kathy's parents were known in the family as Nana and Bumpa, and they have both passed away. Kathy and her husband are now grandparents themselves so she thought it would be nice to continue using Nana and Bumpa's Christmas stockings. Kathy is called Nana also, but her husband is not called Bumpa, so the old Christmas stocking would need a little redo. That's where I come in! Take a look...


This is Bumpa's Christmas stocking, made with simple fabrics and trim, and a very neatly embroidered name on the muslin cuff. The main body of the stocking is made from double sided pre-quilted fabric. Nana's stocking has the reverse side showing which is an off-white background with the same small floral print. Her stocking also has red embroidery and trim instead of blue. Nana and Bumpa were a good looking pair!


Here you can better see the eyelet trim along the bottom edge of the cuff, and the very neatly embroidered chain stitch lettering. I could not simply pick out the old stitching and stitch Grandpa on the old muslin as that would have left a mess of blue fuzz and holes from the old stitches that had been in the fabric for so many years...


...so I took apart the entire top cuff, preserving each piece to use again.


The muslin was used as a template for cutting the new muslin...


...and marking the location of the writing.

Then I traced the new name onto the new muslin and embroidered it using my very best chain stitch and the same color navy blue embroidery floss that was used on the original.


Using the original trim pieces, I put the stocking back together.


Now this old family Christmas stocking is ready to be enjoyed by a new generation of grandparents and grandchildren. I think Bumpa would be very happy about that!

George the mailman has been very good to me in the past week, so I have lots of fun things to show you. Besides this Christmas stocking project, I have also finished a rather large sewing project which I will share with you, and another smaller project too. A few crochet tutorials will be making an appearance here at Hooked On Needles soon as well. See, I haven't really been neglecting you! I've just been so busy DOing that I haven't had time for SHOWing!

Happy Stitching!

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Crocheted Border - Simple But Pretty!

A crocheted border on a knitted or crocheted afghan can give it such a nice finishing touch. Depending on who will be receiving the afghan or baby blanket, either a simple border of single crochet or a foofy frilly ruffle border might be appropriate. Of course there is always a Something In Between type of border that could be just the thing too.

The most recent Oddball baby blanket I completed was Forest Greens on which I knitted the last section in a basket weave design. On that blanket, I was also on Border Patrol so I came up with a simple but pretty -- and easy -- border for this one. Here is a close-up of a finished corner...


Working a round or two of single crochet around a knitted piece is a good way to get a border going. It stabilizes the edges and provides crochet stitches into which you can work the decorative border for the last round.


This is the whole blanket all finished and ready to be delivered. The colors in this picture are much closer to real life than the colors in the corner picture above.

Would you like to use this border pattern on your own knitted or crocheted blanket? Here's the pattern:

Work 2 or more rounds of single crochet (sc) around the entire piece, making sure to work 3 sc in each corner so the piece will lie flat.

For final decorative round, * sc in each of next 3 stitches. Chain 3. Sc into same stitch as last sc was worked.* This will create a little loop of chain stitches coming from the same sc stitch.

Continue working from * to * around the piece. Join with slip stitch. Cut yarn leaving a tail of about 10 inches to weave in. Draw tail through last loop to secure. Weave in ends.

Borders are fun to experiment with. Use your imagination and creativity to come up with variations of other borders you have tried from patterns. You can crochet a different border on every afghan you make, creating a truly one-of-a-kind work of art!

Happy Stitching!

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Learn to Crochet -- Slip Knot and Chain Stitch Video Tutorial

Let's start at the very beginning...I believe someone famous used those very words in a song once! This next set of video tutorials is for those of you who have always wanted to learn how to crochet, but didn't have someone to show you. The first, which is presented below, shows how to make a Slip Knot which is the beginning of knitting and crochet alike. It also shows how to work the Chain Stitch, which is the beginning base of a crocheted piece.




Over the next week or so, I will present more crochet videos for the basics such as single crochet, half double crochet, double crochet and triple crochet stitches. I'll also show how to increase and decrease. After that, we'll get into some fancier stitch patterns that can be used for many crocheted items. If there is a stitch that you are having particular trouble with or would just like to learn, write a comment and I'll see if I can do a video on it for everyone.

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Irish Step Dancing Dress Embroidery: How-to Package

The Irish Step Dancing group that my daughter danced with is Anne O'Connell Boucher's Irish American Step Dancers who practice regularly at St. Leo's Parish auditorium in Leominster, Massachusetts. Anne's dancers do not compete, so their dresses are not what you will find at an Irish Feis or Competition or at a Celtic Dance Shop. They dance for the love of dancing, to share the Irish tradition, and to entertain all the different groups of people for whom they perform every year. The dresses that Anne's dancers wear are all handmade by moms or grandmas or aunts or friends and the embroidery is mostly done by hand by the same dedicated people.

This technique that I developed for myself over the many years that I embroidered dresses is something that many of the moms have asked me about. That is why I decided to put it together here for anyone to use. Hopefully it will be helpful to you in achieving the same results with your embroidery.

Now that I have posted information on all the stages of my method of embroidering an Irish Step Dancing dress, I can wrap it all up into a neat package so that anyone else who is interested in creating such a dress can see how it's done. Here are the steps:

Tracing the design and preparing the fabric for embroidery is covered HERE.

Preparing the stranded embroidery floss for stitching is shown in THIS VIDEO. This is a very important step and should not be skipped if you want your stitches to turn out looking their best.

Threading the needle is shown HERE. Of course if all else fails, HERE's a great tool you can use!

How to embroider the chain stitch is shown HERE.

If you would like to see some of the results of using this method to embroider on velvet, here are a few links showing finished dresses and details of the designs:

Brooke's dress
Bridget's dress
Elizabeth's dress
Katie L's dress
Katie K's dress

If you have any questions about any step in this process, or anything else you find on this site, please feel free to leave a comment for me. Comments are moderated so I see them before they get posted to the site. If you do not want your comment posted, just let me know and it will remain private.

Or you can email me at HookedOnNeedles (at) gmail (dot) com.

Happy Stitching!

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How to Embroider Chain Stitch - Video Tutorial

You've seen many of the Irish Step Dancing dresses I made and hand embroidered for my daughter and many of her friends. I also shared with you my technique for embroidering on velvet using a hoop. The most recent two posts have been about how to separate embroidery floss strands and how to thread your needle. So now I am going to complete the package and show you how to actually work the chain stitch, which is what I used for all of the designs on the Irish Step Dancing dresses, except for the initials on the sleeves.

The chain stitch is a very versatile stitch which can be used as an outline, as a filling, on straight lines and around curves. It can be worked short or long and there are many varieties of the chain stitch. This is the basic chain stitch worked in very short stitches with six strands of DMC embroidery floss on velvet that has been sandwiched between a hooped piece of stabilizer fabric on the bottom and another piece of stabilizer fabric onto which the design was traced.

Here is the video. I hope you find it helpful.



If you want to see how this Celtic monogram S turned out, there are some pictures of it at the end of the post on how to embroider on velvet with a hoop. I still haven't decided how I am going to finish the piece. Perhaps frame it with a crocheted edging around it, make it into a small pillow, or applique it onto a tote bag. Oh, the possibilities!

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Embroidering on Velvet with a Hoop

The first time I embroidered a velvet Irish Step Dancing dress, not knowing any better, I put the hoop on the fabric itself and, much to my chagrin, discovered that the hoop crushed the pile of the fabric and left permanent marks on the dress. Brooke's mom was not in the least concerned about the hoop marks. She was just glad she didn't have to do the embroidery herself! But I learned my lesson and set to work trying to come up with a way to embroider on velvet while still using a hoop.

In my previous posts about Hand Embroidered Irish Step Dancing Dresses, which can be found listed in the Hand Embroidery Links Page on the sidebar, I referred several times to my method of embroidering on velvet fabric using a hoop.

This is how I did it:

First I gathered my supplies.

For this example, I am using a leftover piece of velvet and a Celtic monogram of the letter S. I also used a hoop, straight pins, basting thread, ultra fine point Sharpie, and two pieces of Stitch N Tear Tearaway embroidery stabilizer which can be found at any fabric store.


I pinned a piece of the tearaway stabilizer fabric over the monogram so I could trace it.


Then I traced it using an ultra fine point Sharpie permanent marker. Even though I knew I was only going to stitch one line of the knot design, I still traced two lines so that I could more easily tell where the lines went over and under each other.


Then I pinned the tearaway stabilizer with the traced design onto the velvet fabric and basted it all around the edge.


I picked out an embroidery hoop that was big enough to hold the entire design.


I put the hoop onto another piece of tearaway stabilizer and neatly trimmed the edges.


Then onto the hooped stabilizer I basted the velvet fabric which already had the design basted onto it. This makes sort of a stabilizer sandwich with velvet filling. Yum! But you can see that the hoop is only on the underside piece of stabilizer, not on the velvet.


I started stitching the knot design using 6 strands of DMC embroidery floss, separated so that it would lay flat and stay smooth.


The stitching goes through all three layers: the hooped stabilizer, the velvet and the stabilizer with the design traced onto it. This shows the back of the work.


This is a detail of the knot design showing the stitches going under and over each other which is characteristic of traditional Celtic knot designs and very important to stitch correctly.


Here's the green knot line all finished. You can see the basting thread in this picture pretty clearly. When I baste the design onto the velvet, I stitch just around the outside of the design. Then when I stitch the velvet onto the hooped stabilizer, I baste closer to the outside edge and then also on the inside of the design, in this case along the shape of the S. This ensures that the stitching will be smooth and not leave any puckers in the velvet.


Here is a detail of some of the points along the knot line. When the line reaches a point and takes a sharp turn, I always anchor the last stitch at the point, then begin again in the same stitch to go in the new direction. This keeps the points of the design sharp.


This detail shows how nicely the chain stitch takes to curves.


Here is the complete design with the stabilizer still attached to the front and back.


This is a detail of the completed design showing the purple stitching appearing to go underneath the green. In fact, the purple stitches are anchored before the green and started again after the green.


Once the design outline is finished, remove the basting stitches and simply start tearing away the stabilizer from around the design. It's sort of like a very satisfying punch-out project, like paper doll clothes or something similar! Always start from the outside and move towards the inside when removing the stabilizer. Use a pin or sharp needle to help lift the inside sections away from the stitching being careful not to pull any of the stitch threads or the velvet.


Keep at it until all the stabilizer is removed from around and between and underneath all the stitches.


At this point, with the top stabilizer removed and the hooped stabilizer still attached with the chain stitch embroidery, I could fill in the purple S or add some other stitching. Removing the stabilizer after filling in a shape with solid stitches is very difficult. Always do the outline of a shape, then remove the stabilizer, then do the filler stitching.

For my purposes, this design is complete, so I removed the stabilizer from the hoop and trimmed it away around the outer edges of the stitching on the back of the velvet. Leaving the stabilizer on the back gives the stitches and the velvet some extra support.


This is Katie L's step dancing dress with the design basted in place. As you can see, the dress is a little bit more daunting project than a little monogram on a scrap piece of fabric, so using a hoop is necessary in order to keep the stitches neat and even and smooth. The results are well worth the effort.

Now you know my secret for embroidering on velvet while using a hoop and without crushing the pile of the fabric! Do you have any good embroidery secrets to share?

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Time to Get Organized -- Hand Embroidery

Here we go with another administrative task. This page will keep a running list of links to any posts on Hand Embroidery projects, patterns, classes, helpful hints and the like. It will be available on the sidebar of the Hooked On Needles homepage for easy reference.

Hand Embroidered Irish Step Dancing Dresses

• Chain Stitch Embroidery - pictures
• Brooke's Step Dancing Dress
• Bridget's Step Dancing Dress
• Katie L's Step Dancing Dress
• Katie K's Step Dancing Dress

Embroidery How-To Posts

• How to embroider Chain Stitch -- Video
• Embroidering on velvet with hoop
• Separating Stranded Embroidery Floss -- Video
• Blue Wren's Nest Mattress Pin Cushion
  

Original Embroidery Designs

• Angel Swap gift -- Tote Bag with Angel Embroidery

Other Embroidered Projects

• Embroidered Scissor Holder
• Religious Embroidery
• Sweet and Rosy Needle Wallet
  

Children's Summer Embroidery Class

• Getting Ready
• Finished Sample
• Ready to Go
• Children's Finished Projects
• Sam's Finished Project

Paper Embroidery

• Embroidered Paper Bookmark
• Embroidered Notecards
• Hand Embroidered Card
• Embroidered Christmas Cards
• More Embroidered Christmas Cards -- Snowman and Tree
  

Embroidered Craft kits

• Christmas In June -- Dimensions Long Legs Craft Kit
• Christmas Tree Skirt
• Merry Christmas Wall Hanging
  

Counted Cross Stitch

• Cross Stitch Kits Vacation Loot
• Irish Counted Cross Stitch in progress
• Irish Counted Cross Stitch finished and framed
  

Handy Helpers

• DMC Needle Threader
• Thera-Glove

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