Turning Embroidery into a Pillow - Part 2

And now....the cutting.  Fingers crossed, and all seems to have worked well.

I did have some difficulty ensuring that the rectangle I cut out of the embroidered cloth was not crooked...my cloth was not evenly cut, so I had to pull off the loose threads on the 3 non-selvedge sides until I found one thread that spanned the width of the fabric.  Then I was sure that the next thread was straight.  From there, I remeasured to get a straight rectangle.  That's the reason for all the little chalk dots I made before I was brave enough to draw a line!

Then, I applied a little trick I learned in a sewing class at The Needle Shop here in Chicago and angled the corners inward about 1/2 inch.  This gives a nice tight, crisp corner with plenty of pillow stuffing in it, and avoids floppy rabbit-ear corners.  These are the marks showing where I'm going to trim on this corner:

Now, before I pin it all together...I need to go buy a sewing machine!  I've been putting that off forever, and actually have 3 or 4 sewing projects lined up, so I think it'll be a good investment.  I've been looking for an oldie but goodie on Craigslist, but haven't had any luck.  So...impatience prevails and I'm off to the store.

Next time...we sew!

Turning Embroidery into a Pillow - Part 1

Hi everyone,

I've finished the embroidery for the CFL lightbulb pillow, and am really happy with how it looks:

Now I want to turn it into a pillow cover for a 12"x16" pillow insert I bought at my local craft store.  The embroidery fabric is solid enough that you can't see the white pillow through it, so it won't need to be lined.  I'm going to re-use a pair of velvet jeans that I found at the thrift store for the back of the pillow cover. And, I am going to use an envelope back to the pillow so that I can remove the cover if needed, but won't need to install a zipper.  Not that I'm scared of zippers...

First I sketched out the dimensions.  Since this is a rectangle, I won't make an elaborate paper pattern, but did want to think through the dimensions before I start cutting!  The front is a simple rectangle, with finished size of 12" x 16".  The back has two pieces with a 2" overlap.  The dotted green line shows the top edge of the bottom piece.  The solid green line is the bottom edge of the top piece.

Adding an inch on each side for seam allowances, I get a front piece that is 14" x 18" and two back pieces that are 9" x 18":

Next, I measured my backing material and used a white sewing pencil to mark the cutting lines. Finally, I measured my embroidery material...making sure that the lightbulb would be placed where I want it on the pillow, and marked the cutting lines.

Next time:  The Cutting!  Nervous yet?  And a little trick I learned to make nice tight pillow corners.

Padded Satin Stitch - Fixing Big Area Blahs

After I filled all of the areas of my light bulb with satin stitch, I differentiated the little pieces at the bottom using padded satin stitch.  But, the main body of the light bulb still looked dull and listless.

The satin stitch looks really great where the stitches are shorter, like these curly parts of the bulb.  Those stitches were about 1/2 an inch long.

But on the main body of the bulb, the stitches are over 2 inches long.  You can see them on the right.  Boring and Flat!

So, I tried to use padded satin stitch again to liven things up.  This time, I made my stitches angled. That's the beginning of the padded satin stitch, on the left.

I didn't want to fill the whole area in with stitches that just went up and down.  Instead, I wanted to give the piece some depth.  So, I tried to cover the area with several adjacent bits of padded satin stitch set at different angles.

It almost worked!  I was hoping that the angles would make the piece look round...not quite, but it does add some depth and definitely looks more interesting than the flat stitches that were there before.

So, it's not perfect.  But it looks pretty good from a few feet away (is this a theme in my work?  oh well, I'm just beginning here!)

Next time, I'll show you the finished embroidered piece and turn this into a pillow.

Padded Satin Stitch - Making Little Details Pop

I'm working on my light bulb pillow project, and have completed filling in the whole area of the pattern with satin stitch.  But, some of the details aren't popping out at all.

The pattern has a lot of little details at the bottom of the light bulb.


I stitched these areas in long satin stitches that went from left to right...in alternating colors of white and gray.  They ended up looking like ...well, I forgot to take a picture, but it was just an ombre stripe thing that did not scream "I'm the screwy end of a light bulb!"

So I made a teeny tiny padded satin stitch on the parts that represent screw threads.  A padded satin stitch is just a satin stitch with another satin stitch over it in a different direction.  In this case...I made short vertical satin stitches over long horizontal satin stitches....it did the trick!  Now the screwy end of the light bulb looks like the real thing.


Next time...making the body of the light bulb less blah.

Energy Efficient Light Bulb Pillow – Satin Stitch!

Hi everyone,

The light bulb pillow has been fun to stitch.  I have three shades of embroidery floss:  white, and two shades of light and medium gray.  I started by filling the whole pattern with satin stitch and then adding some gray touches for shadow and to differentiate the lower parts of the bulb.

This was my pattern.  Notice all the business at the bottom.  It's going to be hard to make those little pieces look different from one another.  But, that's a problem for another day.  I'm starting at the top!

Satin stitch is super easy.  You just fill in a space with long straight stitches.  The stitches all start at the same end, so the back looks like the front.  It uses a lot of embroidery thread, but creates a nice solid look.

I used a tiny satin stitch for the shaded areas.  Then I used back stitch to outline the design.

But, the design isn't finished.  More next time!

Energy Efficient Light Bulb Pillow - Transferring the Pattern

For this project, I made my own embroidery pattern by drawing a CFL lightbulb onto a piece of paper.  I'm going to transfer the pattern to my cloth using embroidery tracing paper.  Mine is made by DMC and comes in 8 1/2" x 11" sheets that are yellow or blue.  I'm going to use the yellow to make a visible line on my dark blue cloth.

I don't draw well freehand, so traced directly from my pattern.  Since my pattern is only 5" by 2", I started by conserving tracing paper!  I cut out 1/4 of the tracing paper sheet, which just fit my pattern.

Tracing Paper

Then, I taped the pattern to the back, non-colored side of the tracing paper.  The pattern should not be reversed.  So, when you're looking at it from above, it should look just like it will when it is on the cloth.

Next, I spread my cloth out on a hard, smooth surface and taped the tracing paper, yellow side down, on to the right side of my cloth.  With my particular cloth, there really is no right side and wrong side, but I checked to be sure...didn't want to put the pattern on the wrong side of the cloth!

I used clear tape to attach the paper, which work well for my small pattern.  Something larger might require more secure taping - masking tape might be better.  I didn't want to pin it because I was afraid of puckering.

Lastly, I traced over my pattern with a pen that I could really bear down on (and still went over every line 2 or 3 times).  I peeked underneath after a few lines to be sure that the marks were going through.
And, ta da!  A perfect little CFL on my dark blue cloth:

Finished Tracing on Embroidery Cloth

That's the edited version of this learning experience.  I learned that the pattern shouldn't be reversed by making that mistake and getting a backwards CFL!  Oops!  Luckily, since my cloth is the same on both sides, I just flipped it over and tried again.

When I was done, I saved my tracing paper...there's still plenty of yellow on it for tiny projects.

Next time:  Another new stitch!

Energy Efficient Light Bulb Pillow – Materials

For the pillow, I needed a few items.  So, at my local crafty store, I acquired:

- 12” x 16” pillow form – I am using a brand that’s made from polyester and bamboo rayon.

- 2 skeins of DMC embroidery floss in Blanco

- 1 skein of DMC embroidery flow in … for shadows

- 1 skein of DMC embroidery flow in … for shadows and the metal SOCKET of the bulb

- ½ yard of navy linen-look fabric that is 51% linen and 49% rayon.

I’m going to use re-purposed velvet for the back of the pillow.  I found a great pair of cream-colored velvet jeans at the thrift store for $2.  They didn’t fit, but the fabric was so pretty that I bought them anyway.  They’ll make the perfect pillow backing. 

I use a free clip art drawing of a compact fluorescent light bulb for the pattern.

This will be a fun learning experience.  I’ll need to transfer the CFL design to the fabric and will use some new stitches.  I’ll probably use satin stitch for the bulb and stem stitch for shadows and details.

Next time:  transferring the pattern!

New Project: Energy Efficient Light Bulb Pillow

I’m really looking forward to my next project.  But, it means that I must admit the depth of my geekery.  When I’m not being crafty, I work in energy efficiency.  It’s a wonderful line of work – it’s interesting, there’s no shortage of work to do, and it makes the world more comfortable, more affordable, and cleaner.  And it will now, perhaps for the first time, be immortalized in embroidery. 

Since energy efficiency, despite its wonderfulness, is in need of a good dose of humor, I thought I’d make a little tongue-in-cheek craftiness for my new office.  The guest chair needs a little pillow.  And it’s going to have a compact fluorescent light bulb embroidered on it.  Because that’s how I roll.  Oh yeah. Everyone in the office is going to want one.  Just watch!

Chain Stitch and a Completed Tote Bag

The last stitch on the new tote bag is chain stitch.  It is used to make the little yellow flower centers.  Basically, chain stitch just requires you to make a little loop and then tack it down with another little loop, which you tack down with another little loop...till the last stitch, which you tack down with a tiny straight stitch.  This is what it looks like when you're done:

Ok, mine's a little wonky in spots, but you can't tell from a few feet away!  As with the stem stitch, it would have been better if I had practiced making chain stitch in a straight line first.

And...here's the completed tote bag, ready for duty!

This has been a fun project.  I've gotten some good practice on three very basic stitches, and have a pretty tote to show for it.  (And some extra embroidery floss in these pretty colors.  Martha Stewart's kit was generous.)

Next:  a new project!