Notes on a Pattern

Here's the second iPhone case I made.

I decided not to include any words on this one and just let it be more subtle! I love the way her hair came out!!! :) :) :)

Here's a comparison of the two iPhone cases side by side. The black one is Leese and the red one is from ZuGadgets. The cross stitch designs are my own of course :).

After my mom's needlepoint case, I had this crazy plan to buy a million Cross stitch iPhone cases and cross stitch something for all of my friends for Christmas. Cool idea...in theory. In practice, I would have had to think of this back in June to get everyone done along with all the other things I'm trying to do. So I settled on making 2, one for a friend and one for my boyfriend's mom! 

The black case was the actual Leese case that I bought from a seller on Etsy. I used 2 or 3 strands- can't remember at the moment but definitely no more than 3 because the holes aren't that big! 

Here's after I miscalculated the neck and had to redo the entire face and neck. Grr.

Here's the corrected neck and shoes!

My friend wears glasses so I thought I'd give his little mini-him some funky green glasses but it ended up looking a little too nerdy/Green Lantern-y (which in retrospect isn't bad).

I decided not to cross stitch black eyes since the case is black. It's a little difficult to see the dark brown hair but here's the final product:

After getting the hang of designing and cross stitching my own pattern, I wanted to make something a little bit larger and more complex. With Christmas around the corner I decided to make something special for my Grandma-a cross stitch family portrait. She and my Grandpa had 6 children, 2 that have unfortunately passed as did Grandpa. This was my homage to when our family was whole. 

Notes: 

I used a 14 count Aida cloth but stitched as if it was 7 count meaning instead of one full cross stitch being a 2x2 square it was 3x3. It took a little bit of time to get the hang of this especially when measuring and positioning the piece onto the cloth. But you get used to it and it gives you some extra design features in that you can make really nice half stitches. You can make half stitches with a regular 2x2 stitcg but I don't think it reads as well and they can all come out different.

This baby took FOREVER! I started back in October of 2012- October 12, 2012 to be exact. The women were mostly done by October 30th but then I didn't pick up my stitching again till December. I stitched literally day and night from the 22 till Christmas day to finish! I almost ran out of skin color thread which would have been really bad but I got lucky. 

I had planned on giving my grandma and one of my uncle glasses but I really didn't like the way they looked. Not sure if it's something about the size but I'm happy I kept them out. Here's grandma with and without glasses. I think she looks more feminine without them.

  Cool details I like: my uncle's widow's peak and my other uncle's pony tail :).

Stuff I would change: 1. My grandpa's sweater color is too close to the Aida cloth. It was hard picking a color for the aida because I wanted you to be able to see all the details of pattern like my grandma's white hair. I generally prefer the dark oatmeal/muslin color though. 

2. The lettering: I like it overall except I think the o's can be easily confused with a's.

  During the first half of my project (the women), I worked on each person till completion leaving the little details like earrings or glasses till last. During the second half (the men) I decided to proceed by thread color so that I wouldn't have to constantly change thread. I like this method a little better because you don't have a bunch of random thread colors lying about- you continue using the color till you're done with it and then you can put it away. This method does require more counting though since you're working with unfinished people. For example, once I finished my grandpa's face I had to count a certain number of boxes to the right to get to my uncle's face. Count well and as many times as you need-nothing like messing up the spacing and having to undo everything and start again. 

Note: I decided to keep wide toothy grins for everyone instead of lips. I didn't really find the right shade to match the skin color.

I used 3 threads. For the first part I used a 12 inch hoop. I bought a 14 inch quilting hoop but my piece of Aida cloth wasn't big enough for it. During the second half- I forgot my hoop so free handed it. It came out fine.

Here's a picture of some of the back stitching. I forgot to take a picture of the back at the end of the project. oooops!

I stumbled upon the amazing Purlbee website and have to say I am in LOVE. Next time I'm in NY, I am definitely checking out their store!! Their Needlepoint iPhone cases were featured at the top of their blog and I really liked the look of them so I decided to try one out and gift it to my mom! http://www.purlbee.com/needlepoint-iphone-cases/ 

I chose the Yellow Scotch Stitch case because I thought it looked brighter and more like sunshine :). Here's the link to the free pattern: http://www.purlbee.com/needlepoint-scotch-stitch/ 

In terms of cases I bought a couple of different cross stitch iPhone cases: one from ZuGadgets on Amazon and a Leese case from Etsy. I used the ZuGadgets version for this pattern which might have been the cause for some of the problems I was having.

Notes:

Don't be alarmed when you pick up the DMC embroidery floss. Colors #444 and #445 might not look as bright as the colors in the picture but it will look fine! Trust me (and check out my photos). I started off with different colors but wasn't really feeling it-see below. When I removed these teal colors I noticed that forcing the floss through the holes had caused the color to stain the white case (you can also this in the first pic below)! Mehhhh. 

Needle size: I could not use a size 26 needle because it was WAY too big for the case. I used size 28 and it still ended up getting warped out of shape.

# of Floss Threads: The pattern calls for all 6 but I found that INCREDIBLY difficult aka impossible so dropped down to 3. 

Pattern Picture: I ended up printing out the picture of Purlbee's completed case to follow as a guide since the little grid they give you at the end of the pattern is more of an example than it is what you should follow for the iPhone case. 

I worked in the top color till I finished the case and then went on to the next color. 

It's a HUGE pain to work on the stitches at the ends of the case- but worth it. 

The thread at the end of the needle would start to shred from all the friction so I made sure to stop and thread a new piece once that started happening. You can kinda see it in the picture below (bottom right).

I wish Purlbee would have included images of the back of the case- who doesn't love to see what the stitching on the back looks like! Here's mine!

Also it would be nice to see what the case looks like on an actual phone from farther away. I unfortunately could not include this as I finished the case in front of the post office and sent it off immediately. Getting to the post office seems to be a difficult task for me. :)

Purlbee's case (brown background) vs my case (not brown background)

Aren't these drawstring bags awesome?! Click the image above to be redirected to purlbee.com.

After taking an "Intro to your Machine" class at my local Stitch Lounge, I was ready for my first solo project (I have done other projects under close supervision). I had tried using my Necchi 4575 once before and I was convinced that the backstitch mechanism was faulty because it kept tangling and getting stuck on the plate. Well it turns out that my needle was never fully lifted and was mid stitch. Oops. :) Now that I actually know what I'm doing (well kinda), Necchi and I are in business.

First project: Drawstring bag. Check.

Purlbee.com is my new favorite place to be! Please click here for the free pattern for this drawstring bag.

Here are my notes on the pattern:

This is the BEST first project for beginners. The tutorial provides clear pictures and the directions are easy to follow. The materials are straightforward and non-fussy. I didn't have any trim so I made two very thin straps out of some extra fabric I had on hand. 

I really appreciate Purlbee providing directions for different sizes as well as an image that gives a good size comparison (see first image in this post).

I did not have an iron and made do with my hands. Pinning would have been a fine substitute except my pins were too far away. The drawstring didn't suffer too much for my laziness but some of the corners would have been neater had they been held down properly.

I really like the gusseted corners. I made a box bag with similar corners except we had to cut out a square in each corner first, match up the diagonal corners, then sew. Didn't really like that way but it could have been because of the pesky interfacing.

It literally took me longer (at least an hour) to figure out how to turn my straps inside out than it did to complete the sewing section of this lovely bag. I used a combination of this technique (sewing) and this one (safety pin) to turn the straps inside out. Made by Rae has a pretty ingenious trick for BEFORE you sew the straps. See here. I tried it out but my safety pin kept opening up and it just didn't work for me. I would definitely recommend a sturdy safety pin or better yet actually using trim :).

Note: The only thing I would change about this pattern is that I would include final pictures of the drawstring bag in all of its glory a.k.a from all different angles. A picture of the bottom, the side, and the inside would be great to make sure everything came out right. Here are some of my pics.

For size comparison. I made the x-small bag.

    Inside out view of the side.  

  Outside view of side.

My first very own cross stitch pattern!!!

I would have normally asked Wee Little Stitches to custom design a pattern for me but she was on vacation so I being the impulsive person I am, decided to try and design a pattern myself. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. 

My pattern is based off of a photograph of my mom and I. I purchased the MacStitch program online after using a Demo version. It can be a little buggy at times...randomly closing and not saving the last thing you did but over all it's a pretty nice program for cross stitching. Making the pattern was a lot of trial and error, seeing what looks right and adjusting accordingly. The hardest part was trying to get my bun to look like an actual bun :). 

I tried to use one of the backstitch alphabets on MacStitch but wasn't really impressed/the sizing was off so I ended up just using pen and paper to form the lettering. It was much easier than doing this on MacStitch. The Backstitch tool I find to be a little of a pain. It doesn't split boxes right down the middle (which doesn't really matter) and it seems to often stop a little too far past the desired edge (which again doesn't really matter but can be annoying/look off). In any case, I just pretended to be writing in cursive normally but kept my lines within the grid and voila!

I LOVE the sparkle from the metallic DMC thread I used for the jewelry but I HATE working with the metallic thread. It frays and knots really easily and seems weaker than traditional embroidery floss. I should have listened to DMC and used shorter lengths of thread to avoid the knotting. I think next time I'll use one strand of metallic thread and one strand of cotton and see if that combination results in a more enjoyable experience. Needless to say, I didn't even want to attempt a french knot.