Spring Time Embroidered Cushion Cover

This Make project is featured in the latest issue of Image Interiors, but I wanted to also share it with your lovely selves!

Changing the cushion covers in your home for spring is a lovely, simple way to rejuvenate your house. You will need: A medium sized embroidery hoop, embroidery needles, threads and yarns, tailors chalk, scissors, pencil, paper and some relaxing time for production.


The first step is to learn a few embroidery stitches. This is the only tricky part. It will be worth it I promise, as you will have these stitches under your belt for all your future projects! These are the stitches I used.


Decide on your design and draw it out. Use any patterns or shapes you like as inspiration! Do remember to keep your final design shapes simple and strong to make them effective and easy. Planning out the whole placement of the design on paper first is a good idea as it saves from making mistakes later.


Cutting up your drawings and making a stencil is a great guide to keep to your design. Draw your design with tailors chalk (or pencil) onto the fabric. Tailors chalk is very safe to start designing with as it rubs off! Break it up to get a sharp edge.


Plan what colors and threads you are going to use and have them to hand. Try using a mix of sewing threads, embroidery threads and thin to medium yarns.
Keep your fabric uppermost in your hoop. Secure and slightly taut. Sit down, relax and start stitching! (Optional glass of wine)


Remember to keep everything at the back of your fabric neat and secure. No long trailing threads. This way it will last longer with wear and tear.
By choosing colors that all work together, you can relax while your stitching and simply reach for closest yarn!


Working on outlines can be very successful if you want a quick project. And running stitch is a great effective stitch and not too simple to use for your cushion cover! Mix up your stitches and threads to keep it contemporary and try overlapping your designs.

Above all enjoy relaxing and switching off!

Tea Time Centerpiece

Nearly all my 'Make' posts to date have been centered around the kitchen and food! And here is another kitchen themed 'Make' post, a small centerpiece to rest your favorite tea pot on. When I have friends over for a cup of tea or 2 (or more), I try to make it slightly special. Be that using my favorite teacups and teapot, nice teas or even some flowers! With some felt, threads and your trusty needle this centerpiece can be whipped up for all such occasions. It's made with felt so its very simple and feasible- no hemming or fraying involved!

Felt has a tendency to mainly be available in quite bright colors so I toned this down a little by using more subdued threads and yarns. Pin together 2 layers of felt so its nice and sturdy, you could have a different color for the underside. Draw out your simple shape on one side. I wanted mine to be a flower shape so I used a hoop to trace around for a circle and then drew the petals around that. Using pencil is the easiest option on felt, just keep it light and accurate as you are going to stitch directly on top of it. Then cut out your shape, keeping the 2 layers pinned together.

Try using a mixture of embroidery threads, sewing threads and thin yarns to give it a rich and varied texture. As well as running stitch why not try some other stitches to add to your center piece. These are nice and easy and you can use them for all sorts of projects. Running stitch alone can very effective also!
Even though you won't have the underneath showing it's nice not to have any knots on that side so carefully begin your line of stitches between the layers, near the edge- but not too near! Remember to keep an eye on the underneath/back at all times as tangles can creep up on you.

Give yourself enough thread to reach from one side of the piece to another, a good guide of how much thread should be on your needle is to measure it from the tips of your nicely manicured nails to your elbow. A lot more than this will end in disastrous tangles on the back of your piece. Not fun.

Once you have sewn to the middle of your piece you can then change your stitch. Below is fly stitch with a sewing thread.
If you want to start a line of stitching from the center of the piece you would pass the needle between the layers and work it up to the center, passing though the top fabric at that point. If you are doing this in a tight space, you can place a pencil in between the layers and work the needle up next to it.

Buttonhole stitch. One of my favorites.

For the final step, stitch around the edge of your piece or close to, to prevent the 2 layers of felt being frayed separately and to make the piece more sturdy. I emphasized the 'petals' of my piece around the edges. Use a slightly stronger thread than sewing thread for this final stage.

Now for the best part- tea time.

Valentine Stitches

It's Valentines morning! Just enough time to whip up a quick card for a loved one;)
This embroidered card honestly won't take long at all and there is something immensely satisfying about stitching through card, it feels so purposeful!
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I chose a nice bright red and decided on a square shape because it suited my design. Practice some ideas on paper first, try a good few as then you can choose your favorite!
You can look to so many sources for inspiration- design sites or blogs you like, images or cards you've kept. Patterns start popping up everywhere once you look for them. You can make the simplest of designs very effective. The design for this card is so simple- it's the stitches that make it.
Draw your design with pencil lightly onto your card- this will be your guide. I've drawn mine so lightly that it's hard to spot!

I used four embroidery stitches- your everyday running stitch, buttonhole stitch, feather stitch and seeding stitch. If this seems very daunting you could solely use running stitch and it will still be very effective. Or even set yourself the challenge of just learning 1 new stitch?
Go slowly as you're stitching through card, you don't want to make lots of unnecessary holes. As it's sometimes hard to tell if your needle is going to come out where you are hoping it will, before you pass it through the card lookout for the pressure point. So if its in the wrong place don't push the needle through!

After using running stitch around the edge of my design I used buttonhole stitch for the next square. Buttonhole stitch is one of my favorites as it's so adaptable for different designs and projects. You'll be seeing it popping up again soon in future posts! Because this stitch is trickier than running stitch remember to take your time.
Then fly stitch next around the inner square. Similarly to the buttonhole stitch take your time. I used an embroidery thread that was dip dyed- so it changes color from one end to the other. But you can easily achieve this by using a mixture of threads!
Remember to keep the back of your card neat and secure, this way you won't have to cover it- which can look bumpy. The back of whatever project you are stitching can often be very interesting and give you future ideas!

Keep all the threads and yarns you've chosen to use to hand. Try using a mixture of embroidery threads, sewing threads and thin yarns (wool or similar). The embroidery threads you can split it half, like so, so they won't be so thick.

Seeding stitch for texture for the middle of the heart. Seeding stitch is phenomenally relaxing- yes it's very easy! Short stitches of the same length in different directions. Make sure you work within your shape so when you rub out the pencil it will be easily recognizable.

Keep the seeding stitches side by side so there so no long loose pieces of thread at the back- maintaining it's neatness:)

Your lovely handmade card is finished! Your embroidered cards can be used for any occasions. So these skills will stand to you! Have a most lovely Valentines. X