Monday, April 7, 2014

Something New

I  decided to try finishing off one of the mini projects that have started to pile up waiting on a proper finish. I had seen the little stuffed mini pillows on a number of sites and really love the idea. So I decided to give it a go.

What took me so long to try it? I HATE hand stitching (like joining seams and the like, not cross stitching obviously :D) and I'm really not very good at it because I have very little practise. Well the cure to that really is, try it some more and practise I suppose.

Anyway I decided to do my Margaret Sherry Hedgehog into a nice mini pillow. I routed around in my fabric squares for something just right and decided on a backing fabric. I had a look through my collection of ribbons and pulled out my machine.

Once I had everything just right I put it all together, then stuffed it and did the bit I was dreading. As I didn't even know what would be the best type of hand stitch, I did some research in my Complete Guide to Sewing and decided on an Overhand stitch. I have to admit it doesn't look fantastic but I got better towards the end of the piece which suggests that with a little time I could get better and maybe not hate it so much.

So here is the complete, first time mini pillow finish:

 And in the interest of full disclosure here is a close up of my hand stitching. As I said not great but I'm glad I gave it a go.

The stitches on the left are the ones I did last and are a bit neater than the ones on the right and in the centre.

I'm very happy with how this came out and I look forward to doing more finishes of this type.

22 comments:

  1. You should be proud of yourself. It looks awesome:)

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  2. What a great finish! I have a few bits to be finished off too, hope they come out as good as yours!

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  3. It looks great! You should be proud :)

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  4. Wow so beautiful
    Well done dear x

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  5. It looks great! Love how you have finished with some of the fabric showing on the front. Is that very difficult? I would love to be able to finish pieces like yours.

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  6. Hey don't put yourself down!!! It looks lovely!!! Next time, why not try the ladder stitch or slit stitch to close your cushion... Have a look for some tutorials on you tube. This is where I learnt & I'm now always using it as it is invisible :) Go on, give it a go!! Hugs xxx

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  7. The more you sew, the easier it will get and better will be the result :) but you did a great job!! Well done sweetie!
    I would sew with the machine, not sure if I would be able to sew by hand as you did. Not easy! You did a great work! :)

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  8. Lovely finish.

    Greetings, Manuela

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  9. It's a lovely finish, well done!

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  10. Cute finish! You picked the perfect fabric and I think your hand stitching looks great.

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  11. A lovely finish,and your hand sewing is very neat.
    I find it hard to make totally even stitches all the way along a seam,my hand sewing could use practice,I have to concentrate very hard:-)

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  12. It turned out great! Really cute finish.

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  13. You did a fantastic job on the finishing. I'm to chicken to try.

    Linda

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  14. You did a great job. it's a lovely finish :) Congratulations :)

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  15. How cute is that! It looks great - congrats on your finish!

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  16. It's very adorable and I think you did a fabulous job with finishing. I usually use the ladder stitch, which literally disappears!! Took me a few tries to get it down, but a pretty easy stitch to use for finishing !

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  17. That Looks great! I've got absolutely no creative talent and have no idea sometimes how I manage to cross stitch! Your stitches look good to me (although I will confess that I've not really any idea how they should look!) and you should be proud!

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  18. great work :)
    this pillow is adorable !
    small pieces are sometimes so difficult !
    no , you can be proud and happy, it's beautiful :D
    if you should see my first pillows ! awful !!
    and then I discovered this video...and it changed my life...and my pillows one ;)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHWD1qjNrqs

    I look forward seeing many cute small pieces here ;)
    xxxx

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  19. What an adorable stitch! I love the fabric you paired it up with, that makes one cute mini pillow - well done! I think all things come with practise, it's just moving out of our comfort zone... Have a great week,
    Helen

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  20. Great job!! The pillow looks very sweet:)

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  21. It looks beautiful and you should be proud of it and yourself. (You can always send it to me if you don't want it...just an idea...lol)

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Would love to read any comments you would like to leave. Thanks for brightening my day :)