Saturday, June 9, 2012

Scissors Fobs and Blanket Stitch

On my other blog, 365 Sewn Hearts, I am currently in the middle of a challenge to sew one heart every day for a year.  I've been scouring the internet and wracking my brain to come up with new hearts, and last week I had an idea:  scissors fobs.  They're small and cute and useful and relatively quick to make; but the best part is that they can be decorated a million different ways (and I only need about 200 more!).  They are made of wool felt, embroidery floss, baker's twine, and polyester stuffing, and they are finished with a blanket stitch around the edges.

Here are the 8 fobs I've made so far:


The lovely Lime Riot, who is an amazing crafter and embroidered, actually asked ME if I have any tips about the tricky part of the blanket stitch edging:  finishing the last stitch.  Since I do have a standard method that I always follow, I am happy to share it with her, and you.

This is the fob I am using for this demonstration:


Oh, I should mention...I am left-handed.  So if anything looks backwards or upside down to you, that's probably why.

Okay.  I always start sewing the back to the front in the same spot:  midway on the right-hand side, and I work counter-clockwise around the heart.  In the picture below, you can see that I have started the first stitch by putting the needle into the inside of the back piece, and pulling the thread through.


Next, I insert the needle in the outside of the front of the heart, and push the point right into the first hole you made when setting the knot (above).

That's your first stitch.  For this stitch only, I run the thread under the stitch, and pull it out on the right-hand side.


Now I continue sewing the blanket stitch in the regular way all around the heart.  (I just noticed that there's a long, stray filament of the stuffing material right in the middle of the picture!  Please try to ignore that!)



When there's only about an inch left to sew, I stuff the heart, then continue sewing.




When I have sewn the last stitch, I pull the thread through the first stitch I sewed, and tie a small knot there.




Then I tie another knot about 1/4" from the last stitch and pull that inside the stuffed heart to anchor the thread.  Pull the needle up anywhere on the back and trim the end of the thread flush with the felt.


All done!  (I can't believe that stray filament is still there.)


I don't know if I shared any new information, but I know it can be helpful to see how someone else does things...there may be some small detail here that is new to you--and possibly eye-opening.  I hope so!

7 comments:

Kay said...

Leslie, I love that you are left handed. Being left handed myself it is often frustrating to always find instructions for sewing and embroidery stitches for right handed people. I have never had any problems starting but my ending has been a problem. I never thought of tying a knot. Sometimes simple things are just not obvious. Thank you for this super helpful tutorial.

Leslie Andersen said...

Oh Kay, thanks so much for your comment--I'm excited that my left-handedness is helpful to you, and that I was able to offer you a helpful tip!

wendiek said...

I'm right handed, but I have no problem following your tutorial at all!

I think I work around the other way, but other than that I do it the same way. Which made me happy, because your work always looks so neat and if mine doesn't at least I know it isn't the method, hahaha!

Thanks Leslie!

Helen said...

thank you so much for this Leslie - starting and finishing blanket stitch is always a pain, but think I'll be doing better now I've seen this! :)

Strangely, although I'm right handed, I stitch round the same way you do! Just shows that we all have own way of doing things, and it doesn't necessarily depend on 'handedness' but more on what you were taught!

Leslie Andersen said...

Thanks for your comments, Wendie and Helen!

Helen, I'm so happy this has been helpful to you! It is funny that we both stitch in the same direction!

LimeRiot said...

Thank you so much, Leslie!! This is such a fantastic tutorial. The photos are very helpful. I am going to do some practice tonight using your technique. Your start/end point is invisible!!

I'm going to post this link in the felt badge swap discussion too :). Hope that's okay with you!

MicroJivvy said...

Thank you for that -- I've just started working with felt and it's nice to have this very tidy finishing method early on. And as yet another left-hander, it's nice to see pics from a point of view I can understand. ;)