Some more baby shoes. These ones I have called Bug Shoes. I have knitted with this wool before, and just love all the different shades in it. I have no idea where it came from, and am a bit sad I only have the tiniest bit left. The bugs were my daughter's idea, at least the ladybird on the leaf. Then I thought it would be rather cool to have a different bug on the other shoe. I'm not sure that caterpillars are considered quite as cute, but I really like them, and it had to be something really small to fit on the shoe.
I then thought for these little pink shoes I would go back to my little bumble bee, and a sprig of white blossom. For these I used a wool that is 100% cotton. The pink in the photo is really accurate, and I love the gentle shade.
My neighbour told me this morning he has a few snowdrops in his garden. So for the last pair I have made a new pair of Snowdrop Shoes. Previously I have made these in yellow and green, but I thought a light blue would look good and wintery.
These shoes are all knitted from my Baby Bee Shoe pattern, and are off to my Etsy shop. Although the embroidery may look tricky, there are tutorials for all the stitches you need in embroidery corner in my right sidebar.
I've been so busy crafting for Christmas I have nothing very new to show this week. I am a bit craft-faired out, and am going to get back to making something just for the sheer fun of it next week.
So I just thought I would put together a compilation of all my minibeasts and bugs. Patterns for all the above are on ravelry (some for free), and on the others I have a Minibeast promotion: £1 off if you buy any two of the above patterns together.
All summer I have been intending to have a go at machine embroidery, as I see such lovely things on other people's blogs. But things (or little people) always seemed to get in the way. Also I had the idea that I would have to buy a special foot for my machine, and I thought this might be difficult, as my machine is not very modern.
Finally have managed to get my act together. I found the manual for my sewing machine, which directed me to this magic little switch at the back, which I had never noticed, which lowers the feeders. It said I could embroider with no foot at all!!! Bit scarey. I managed to find my embroidery ring, which I knew I owned but just couldn't find.
So here is my first attempt. It has taken me all afternoon, but I have to say I am a bit pleased with it (I know that sounds smug). I thought I would try a subject I am familiar with, but something organic so it wouldn't matter if it was a bit wobbly.
At first the whole thing was a bit scarey, with my needle swinging around rather wildly. I have also probably used a whole reel of black thread. After a bit I realized that it was actually easier if I got a bit of speed up. I started off using the embroidery ring, but by the end found the whole business of getting it under the needle a bit of a pain, so I abandoned it for all the fine lines.
I had got a book out of the library on machine embroidery, but soon realized it was much too advanced for me. If anyone could recommend a fairly basic book on techniques, I would really appreciate it. I have lots of ideas for projects, but still need to learn a bit. I really wanted much bigger black areas on the tips of the butterfly's wings, but couldn't make my stitch any wider. Perhaps I should have used more applique, or found a way to fill those areas in. I did the little spots by hand, as I do like a bit of hand sewing, especially french knots.
But now I have to think what to do with my monarch butterfly, which is just on a small square of hessian. I think the best thing may be to incorporate it into a cushion. Any ideas?