A little hand stitching

The sun is shining, the garden is blossoming and from where I’m sitting in my workroom, I can hear the birds singing their hearts out. A normal early spring day..? Sadly, no. We’re on Day Two of home schooling and we’ve been told to stay at home. I would usually be frantically cutting felt shapes and loading my thread cards ready for my school clubs so I thought I would share them here in a virtual sewing club instead. Maybe these embroidered eggs could be a little project between ‘proper’ lessons for your children, to add a bit of fun and creativity?

I don’t know about you but we have an Easter tree at this time of year, which consists of some pretty twigs or willow in a jug with brightly decorated eggs hanging from them. It’s a lovely symbol of the coming of Easter and new life springing forth. Something that seems more important than ever just now. This year I will be hanging some of these eggs from it too, perhaps even some made by my boys (depending on just how bored they get!)

I’ve used a simple daisy chain stitch to make the flower, with a French knot in the centre. The stitch can be used to make many different variations of decoration, from flowers to chains and even blanket stitch follows the same principle but a daisy with 6 petals seemed a good idea for today. I’ve used craft felt and three strands of embroidery thread for my project.

Firstly, I marked six dots in a hexagon shape around a central dot, then brought my needle up on the central dot to start my first stitch.

Holding the thread to one side, insert your needle back into the same hole you brought the needle up through, bringing it out on one of the dots in the hexagon. Next, pass the thread behind your needle before pulling the needle through.

Carefully pull your needle until you’ve formed a loop. This is the first petal of your flower.

To ensure the loop stays in place, make a little stitch over the loop at the tip, taking your needle through to the back.

You can now start again from the centre point, creating each petal in the same way until you have completed all six petals using the dots you marked in a hexagon. Obviously if you’d like more petals you can start with more dots or fill in the spaces between petals in the same way. Finish your sewing off on the back of your work with three little stitches, one on top of the other.

To fill the centre of your finished daisy, you could work a little French knot. There are different ways to do these but here’s how I do mine...

In a contrasting thread, bring your needle up on that centre point again, it might be getting a bit congested by now!

As you did before, hold the thread out of the way while you insert the needle back into the centre point but this time just pick up a tiny bit of the felt and leave your needle in your work.

Take the thread and wind it round the needle three times then carefully pull your needle through. Slowly push all the knots down to the surface of your sewing while you pull the needle through.

Then in take your needle through to the back of your work right next to where you’ve worked your French knot. This holds it all in place. Finish your sewing off on the back of your work with three little stitches, one on top of the other.

Once you’ve finished your decoration you can stitch your two egg shapes together. I used a running stitch and trapped a ribbon loop between the layers at the top so I can hang it from my Easter tree.

Add some stuffing, a little bit at a time and finally a matching bow or a button to finish it off.

Now you can fill your house with flowers to remind yourselves that Spring is on it’s way. Don’t forget to let me know how you get on with your makes, I would love to see them!