Our Brand New Cross Stitch Kits

I really, really hope that you love these cross stitch kits as they are the first that we have brought out and are excluse to Craft Fairy. You can buy them at the Craft Fairy site

Christmas Ribbon Rosette

Have you noticed how rosettes of all shapes and sizes are becoming high fashion itmas and are being worn by so many people, crafty and otherwise? This is why I've chosen to do my latest project of a ribbon rosette and I've made it in Christmas colours so that it is in time for the coming holidays.

What's even better, is that I've put together an offer for you over on the mothership ( AKA http://www.craftfairy.co.uk/ ) so that you don't have to search around for each product and you will also get a discount by buying the lot! Even better. Click here for the offer.

So let's get on with it. You will need:

16mm red with green dots grosgrain ribbon. This should be cut into 4 x 15cm lengths.

16mm willow green grosgrain ribbon cut into 6 x 10cm lengths

1 piece of satin edged chiffon in a 30 cm length. No need to cut this in to short pieces.

1 red button

1 length of strong green thread.

1 strong needle. I know that I've said this before, but when you have to sew through several layers of grosgrain you will not be able to manage with a thin needle. A thimble is also a good extra to have.

Thread your needle and lay out the cut lengths of willow grosgrain as shown.

Secure the legths of ribbon in the centre with a couple of stitches to stop them moving when you sew the next layers. Your needle should now be on the right side of the work.

 

 Take one of the 15cm strips, form a loop and center the bottom of the loop on the underneath as shown in the image. The edges should overlap about 1cm. Push the needle up through the bottom of the loop, trying to get as closely centered both lengthwise and width wise as you can.

Pull first loop down the thread to sit on top of the bottom ribbons, then repeat process for remaining 3 loops. When all are threaded, arrange  them so they are evenly spaced in a nice circular arrangement. As you will see below.

Nearly there.

Now concertina fold the satin edged chiffon so that the folds are slightly narrower than the ones below and thread the needle up through the centre. Fan the folds out and stitch into place. It is at this point that you will be glad that you have a strong needle. Sew the button into the centre of the rosette.

Last of all you will need to trim the bottom layer of ribbon

on a slant. Then seal the edges with the flame of a tea light, This is by far the safest way to do it. The open flame of the gas hob is a bit too erractic. Finished.

Poinsettia Wreath for Christmas

Some of you may remember the poinsettia flower that I did as a tutorial a few weeks ago. I pondered and pondered about what I could do with it and finally this wreath is what I came up with.

If you want to make one then you will need some red felt to make the wreath and some kapok to stuff it. I cut out a circle of felt. I used a large ribbon reel but feel free to improvise and use whatever you have in the house. The centre was marked with a reel of beading wire that I happened to have handy.

The wreath is sewn together using good old blanket stitch and stuffed with kapok just before it is completely sewn together. Sew the poinsettias to the wreath.

I uesd a 38mm satin ribbon in teal to make the bow and the hanging ribbon. You can buy it from Craft Fairy here.

Everlasting Corsage of Roses for a Winter Celebration

How many of you have paid for a beautiful fresh corsage only to have it collapse during the day?  This post, I hope will help you to avoid this and show you how to make your own corsage.

Here is the finished article and I guarantee that it will look this good next week and next month.
So, to get yourself started you will need:

1 really large rose
2 curly roses
barrel roses
small rose buds
medium rose buds
Ribbon





  If you look above you will see what I used. Now, apart from the larger roses, you can vary the others a little. However, you will need lots of sizes. You will not get the same effect if you use all of the same size flowers so be warned.

I layered the smaller roses as shown below.

 

Start with the barrel at the top and gradually work down.Twist the stems together as you go.

Put the large rose in the centre and then twist the wires together at the back of the corsage so that they lie flat. At this point, this is what you'll end up with.

Add any of the barrel roses that you will use and twist in to place. You will see that there are barrel roses on one side and small buds on the other. You need that to balance out the design.

 

Do not be tempted to add the really large rose too soon. Get everything into place first and then twist in the large rose.

 

 Now add the last of the small roses and twist. Add the last of the large curly roses. twist into place.

To make the bow, fold the ribbon in a figure of eight shape and then go over the figure for a second time. Wrap the wire of one of the pearls around the centre of the ribbon and use the remaining part to wrap around the corsage and secure it in place.

Now you have youe corsage that you can wear, but have you thought about making several corsages and using them as table decorations? They make your table look superb.

Ribbon Poinsettia Tutorial

Do you like it? I really hope that you do as I am getting a tutorial ready for you.

The ribbons are available on Craft Fairy and the beads are from my stash.

If you want to make one then all that you have to do is get the follwing ready to play with.

a needle

thread

16mm single faced scarlet ribbon

16mm single faced teal ribbon

scissors

measuring tape.

Start by cutting 5, 7cm pieces of scarlet ribbon and 5, 5cm pieces.

Fold a 7cm piece in half and pinch. Where the pinches are sew together as shown.

Below you will see the two stages together so I hope that this helps.

Now fold the petal on the right side and you will have a pointed petal. If you want really sharp points then you can iron it flat. Repeat with all five petals and lay out side by side on your work space.

Sew along the edge of all of the petals as seen.

Pull the thread tight and the petals will form a circle.

Now repeat the above with 5cm pieces of ribbon and you will get a smaller flower.

Place one flower on top of the other and sew together.

Sew some gold beads to the centre and sew two pieces of teal ribbon to the back for the completed flower.

How to make a punched flower

I hope that you liked the card shown in the last post and I can't believe that it has been so long since I published that.

So, if you want to make one you will need punches from Kuretake. You will see them in the photo below.
I also used two pigment pads for colouring and some adhesive.

Start by punching out lots of petals and two circles.

 Below you can see how I coloured the petals.

 Then I punched out a circle.

Next I stuck the petals to the circle, overlapping as I went. Continue until the whole of the cirle is full and then add another layer offsetting thm over the first ones.

Cover the top of the center circle with another circle and this will cover the mess that you may have made. Basically your flower is now made.

To make it look better you can add a ribbon leaf as I did below. Now attach to the card.

Vintage twisted ribbon roses

I've noticed that these twisted roses are appearing on many cards and sewing projects lately so I thought that I would bring you all a project and a video on how to do them. I've used fairly bright, well, very bright ribbon to make them as they can be shabby chic, but they can also be vivid and fashionable.

What You’ll Need:

Ribbon – at least 16mm wide

The one that I used here is the 23mm wide swiss dot grosgrain.

16mm satin ribbon in willow

a needle and thread
Cut a length of ribbon, about 30 to 45cm long. The longer (and wider) your ribbon, the larger your rose will be.
Tie a knot at one end of the ribbon, this will be the center of the rose.

Knot the end of the thread and secure it to the base of the knot.

Start twisting your ribbon and stitch it into place around the knot.

Carry on twisting the ribbon and sew it onto the rose that is developing.
Below is what it should look like from the front at this stage.
Keep on twisting and sewing until you have the size of rose that you want.

Once all the ribbon is wound up and secured, tuck the ends underneath and sew them into place with a few small stitchesKnot your thread, trim it, and you’re done
Now for the leaves. They are really simple too.

Take a length of the green satin ribbon and sew along one edge as shown. The longer the length the bigger the leaf. As a rule of thumb, your ribbon should be about two and a half times the width of the finished rose.
Pull the thread gently until you have gathered the ribbon as shown below.Stitch the ribbon together along the middle and then stitch it to the back of your rose and there you have it. Now you can make a card or far better brighten up a jumper or a hat.