LEARN NEW TECHNIQUES WITH SIMPLE EMBROIDERY STITCHES IN SPARKLY GOLD THREAD
YOU WILL NEED
■ Fabric A: 1yd
■ Soft interfacing: 1yd
■ Felt A: 1yd x 5in
■ Felt B: 1yd x 5in
■ Felt C: 1yd x 5in
■ Felt D: 1yd x 5in
■ Felt E: 1yd x 5in
■ Tear-away stabiliser fabric:
71/2in square
■ Wooden dowel rod: 201/2in x 1/2in
■ Jute craft twine: 47in
■ One (1) copy each of Flower Templates A–F and the Number templates
FINISHED SIZE
■ 181/2in x 251/2in
NOTES
■ Seam allowances are 1/4in,
unless otherwise noted.
■ Press seams open, unless
otherwise instructed.
■ RST = right sides together.
FABRICS USED
The fabrics in this project are undyed cotton fabric from The Cloth House and 100% wool felt from Cloud Craft.
CUTTING OUT
1 From the background cotton fabric cut:
■ Two (2) 19in x 271/2in. Then, for each piece of fabric, mark 197/ 8in down both long edges and halfway (91/2in) along the bottom edge. Join the two points on each side with the bottom marking and cut out to create the ‘v’ of the bottom of the calendar.
2 Repeat the process in step 1 for the interfacing with just one 19in x 271/2in.
3 From Felt A cut:
■ Four (4) 31/ 8in pocket squares.
■ Using a heat erasable pen, draw around Template A and cut out on the drawn line (Fig A).
■ Using a heat erasable pen, draw around Template D and cut out on the drawn line. Repeat so you have two (2) Template D.
4 From each of Felt B and Felt C cut:
■ Five (5) 31/ 8in pocket squares.
5 From Felt D cut:
■ Five (5) 31/ 8in pocket squares.
■ Draw around Template B and cut
out on the drawn line.
■ Draw around Template F and cut out on the drawn line. Repeat so you have two (2) template F.
6 From Felt E cut:
■ Five (5) 31/ 8in pocket squares.
■ Draw around Template C and cut
out on the drawn line.
■ Draw around Template E and cut out on the drawn line, repeat so you have two (2) Template E.
7 For the Flower tops ( Templates C and F), mark the central point and tip of the five lines of each flower. To do so,
you will need to break through the paper with the pen. Once the felt is marked, join up the points with a pen and ruler to create the five lines on these top flowers (Fig B).
MAKING THE NUMBERED FELT SQUARES
8 Transfer the numbers from the numbers template provided onto the tear-away stabiliser using a pencil. Cut a rough square shape around each number, to create 24 individual numbers (Fig C).
9 For each square of felt, mark a point 1/4in in and 1/4in up from the bottom right-hand corner (Fig D).
10 Place the bottom right edge of each number on the marked point of its corresponding felt colour square, using the picture of the advent calendar to guide you. Tack to attach the stabiliser to the felt (Fig E).
11 To embroider each number, use two strands of embroidery thread in yellow gold and use a whipped backstitch. To start, first cut a 15in length of the thread which is created from six finer strands of thread. Separate two fine strands from the six. Thread the needle and knot the end (Fig F).
12 To embroider a whipped backstitch, first create a row of backstitches. Starting at the top of each number, take the needle from the wrong side to right side, then from the right side to the wrong side, approx 1/ 16in along (Fig G).
13 Come back up wrong side to right side another 1/ 16in along, then place the needle into the end of the first stitch from right side to wrong side, thus going backwards. Repeat, making back stitches to the end of the number, finishing on the wrong side.
14 Next take the needle wrong side to right side at the bottom tip of the number and weave the needle and thread under the last stitch from bottom to top. This creates the ‘whipped’ part of a whipped backstitch (Fig H).
15 Repeat the process in step 13, weaving the needle under each stitch, taking the needle right side to wrong side at the top point of the number. Weave the end of the thread through the stitches at the back of the felt and snip off any remainder (Fig I).
16 To remove the tear-away stabiliser, first take out the tacking stitches. Then carefully tear the stabiliser from around and under the embroidered stitches of the number with one hand, whilst keeping hold of the stitches with the other (Fig J).
17 Once all the numbers have been embroidered to the felt squares, mark a point 3½in from the top edge of the background cotton fabric and halfway along the width (9½in).
18 Place the number 3 felt square so that the centre of the top is lined up with the marked point from step 16. Pin the square in place.
19 Next place and pin felt squares 1, 2, 4 and 5 so that the bottom of the squares are lined up with felt square 3 and there is a ¼in gap between each square. Make sure they are in numerical order from left to right (Fig K).
20 Using matching thread, machine stitch the first row of felt squares to the backing fabric 1/ in from the edges along the sides and bottom, leaving the top of each square unstitched (Fig L).
21 Continue pinning and sewing the felt squares of rows 2, 3 and 4, leaving a ¼in gap in between each row.
22 For the fifth row there are only four squares. The centre two squares (22 and 23) are placed 1/ 8in away from the centre line. The outer two (24 and 25) are then spaced at the usual ¼in.
ADDING THE FLOWERS
23 The centre flower is constructed with the felt flower pieces from Templates A, B and C. Place the larger ( Template C)
piece centrally and approximately ½in below the fifth row of felt squares. Place the Template B piece on top of the A piece, and then the Template C piece on top of both. When stacking the pieces, rotate each piece so that the petals lie in the middle of the gaps (Fig M).
24 Repeat step 22 for the smaller flowers ( Templates D, E and F), which should be placed either side of the centre flower. Line up the flowers with the gaps between felt squares 21 and 22 and felt squares 23 and 24 respectively.
25 Machine stitch the flowers in place along the marked lines of all three flower tops (Fig N).
26 To embroider the centre of the flowers, use two strands of embroidery thread in yellow gold to make French knots. Make one French knot in the middle and ten more around this middle knot (Figs O–R).
FINISHING THE CALENDAR
27 Press the front of the calendar with a hot iron to remove any markings made with the heat erasable fabric pen. Avoid pressing the French knots as the iron will flatten the stitches. Press the back of the calendar.
28 Place the calendar pieces RST and place the interfacing on top. Pin in place, leaving a gap of about 5in along the top seam. Sew the pieces together with a ¼in seam allowance.
29 Snip the corners and turn the calendar the right way out, through the gap. Press all seams flat and top stitch 1/ 8in from the edge around the sides and bottom edges (but not the top).
30 Neatly hand sew the opening closed at the top edge seam.
31 To create the channel for the dowel to go through, turn the top edge down by 1½in at the back of the calendar, pin and then machine stitch in place ½in from the edge, to leave a 1in wide channel (Fig S).
32 Feed the dowel through the channel at the top. Wrap and tie the ends of the string around the dowel ends to finish.