Alphabet playtime
A fun addition to a nursery or playroom
Make an educational wall hanging for little learners using just two simple embroidery techniques. The best thing about this project is that you can choose shades of thread to match any playroom or nursery colour scheme. Alternatively, go rainbow on your choice of threads for a playful colour palette like ours.
EMBROIDERING THE DESIGN
Step one Transfer the alphabet template onto your fabric, making sure that the design is in the centre. 1
Step two Cut the fabric into a banner flag shape. To do this, fold the fabric in half, lengthways, right sides facing. Now take the bottom corner ( where the corners of the fabric ends meet) and fold toward the centre, creating a 45- degree angle. Press to crease this line. Unfold and cut along the 45- degree line with scissors or a rotary cutter and metal ruler. Do the same with the coloured back fabric piece. 2 Step three Choosing your embroidery thread colours at random, or using our photo as a guide, begin embroidering the alphabet using a simple backstitch. 3
Step four Embroider the bee, plane and whale using a satin stitch. Keep your lines of stitching as straight as possible and finish one colour before starting another. For the bee we used yellow and black. For the plane we used orange, red and black. For the whale we used dark blue and light blue. With the whale, your satin stitch will be longer and the thread may snag, so go slowly to start with. 4
Step five Using white thread, French knot an eye onto the whale. Then with black thread, French knot a pupil in the centre of your white French knot. 5
MAKING UP THE BANNER
Step one Make a tassel. Cut a 9cm square piece of thick stock cardboard to wind the yarn round. Wrap yarn around the cardboard until you reach the desired fullness. Cut the working end. Slip the yarn off the cardboard carefully.
Step two Using both ends of the yarn, tie a knot in the middle of the wound yarn so that it looks like a bow. Cut the loops at both ends of the bow, keeping hold of the knot in the middle to gather all the smaller yarn lengths together to form the tassel skirt. 6
Step three Cut a new length of yarn 30cm long and wrap it round the top of the tassel skirt, about a third of the way down, to form the tassel head. Tie a knot to secure and keep the long ends. Thread the yarn ends into a tapestry needle and weave round the back of the tassel head. Trim the tassel skirt to finish.
Step four Place the two fabric pieces right sides together, placing the tassel at the bottom inside. Ensure the tassel is at least 3cm from the edge. Pin in place. 7
Step five Pin the fabric pieces in place. 8
Step six Starting approximately 15cm from a top corner, hand or machine stitch around the edge of the banner, with a 1cm seam allowance, taking care to secure the tassel. Once you get close to where you started, remember to leave an opening to turn it. 9 Trim the tassel yarn ends.
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Step seven Turn the banner right sides out, using a knitting needle to gently sharpen the edges.
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Step eight Fold the top of the banner over ( around 2cm), pin in place then sew, leaving the ends open. This will become the tube for your dowel so that you can hang your banner.
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Step nine Press flat, and if desired, stitch along the edges of the banner for a neat finish. Slide the dowel in place and use baker’s twine or yarn to tie to both ends of the dowel to hang. As an optional extra you can add a bright yellow pom pom to each end of the dowel.
Designed by Nina Dyer