You will need

16 count, white Aida

Embroidery thread – DMC 224, 368, 827, 3042 and 3078. Or pastel pink, green, blue, purple and yellow in your choice of brand.

A size 26 tapestry/cross stitch needle

A pattern (available to download)

A 5 inch hoop or frame to hold your fabric while you’re stitching and to frame it.

Scissors

A pen or pencil

A comfy spot to sit and stitch (preferably with good light).

Optional extras

A needle minder

Pom pom trim (approx. 16 inches/41cm)

A bag or box to keep your supplies in

A warm drink and yummy snack.

Starting your hoop

You always start stitching in the centre of your fabric and you can find the centre by folding your fabric/aida in half, length ways and width ways. Where they meet is your centre square and you can find the centre of your pattern by following the arrows. Then pop your aida in the hoop, trying to keep it centre. Pull the aida as tight as you can get it; this will make it much easier to stitch on.

Snip your thread ready to use. A good rule to measure it is to pull it from your finger tips to your elbow. Or a handy hint; if you take the full skein and snip all the loops at the bottom end you should be left with strands of thread the perfect length!

For this pattern I recommend using the knotless loop method to start. Take 1 strand of the 6 on your length of thread and fold it in half. Thread your needle where the 2 ends meet, and you should have a loop at the bottom.

Come up the top left hole of the square you are starting on and leave the loop sticking out of the back. Then go diagonally across into the bottom right hole and put your needle in the loop at the back. Pull your thread gently and you should have made a knot. Then continue your stitching.

Making your “X”

Each square on your aida is one full X stitch from your pattern. As I said above, for your first stitch come up the top left hole of the square you are starting on, then go diagonally across into the bottom right square.

Next, come back up the top right hole and back down into the bottom left. Repeat this until you come to the end of the thread or colour you are using.

There are of course other ways to do this. Some people prefer to start from the right hole first and down into the bottom left. And some people do lots of half cross stitches one way and come back over them the other way. Go with whatever you find easiest; the important thing is to be consistent and do each stitch the same.

Tying off your thread

When you come to the end of your thread or you need to swap colours then you need to securely tie off your thread. To do this, you just simply take your needle and thread it under some of the stitches on the back of your hoop.

If you have quite a bit of thread left when you come to the end the you can snip it off and keep it to use again or “park it” (slip it through an unused part of your fabric such as the aida outside of the hoop) to use later.

Backing your hoop

For backing your hoop you can choose to add felt or not. I don’t always add felt to my hoop if I’m hanging it on the wall, but if you are displaying it somewhere else you may want to add it.

And you also need to decide if you are adding pom-pom trim as you will need to glue this on before backing. To glue it on, craft or PVA will work fine. Glue it on slowly and in stages, holding each part down for 10 seconds so it doesn’t move as you continue around the hoop. Then snip any excess off before gluing the last part down.

To measure your felt, take your inner hoop and draw around the outside of it and cut your felt circle out.

For backing you hoop you will need to use 2 strands of thread. Start by doing a running stitch around the edge of your fabric. This is simply a normal stitch going in and out of your fabric. When you have gone all the way around pull gently and your fabric should bunch together, then tie a knot to secure it.

Next, come up through the edge of the fabric next to your hoop and place your felt at the back. Your felt may have pencil lines on from when you cut it. If this is the case then place the side with the pencil lines down so they are hidden.

Now you do the blanket stitch. Put your needle in the felt about an inch away from the edge of the hoop.

Come out right next to where you first came out and make sure your needle is in front of the thread. Pull gently and you will have made your first stitch.

For your second stitch put your needle in about an inch away from your first and an inch away from the edge again. Come straight up by the edge of your fabric and again make sure the thread is behind your needle. Pull gently and you will have made your second stitch. Repeat until you reach the end.

Ta-dah!

Your Easter hoop is ready to display! Thank you so much for this brilliant tutorial, Hannah – there are some really helpful tips here (I had no idea about snipping a skein to get the right thread lengths!). You can follow Hannah on Instagram for more lovely stitchy goodness, or listen to her podcast via her website. If you’re feeling inspired to get cross-stitching, why not treat yourself to a kit? You can also find Hannah Handmakes on Etsy and Not On The High Street.

Hello! Hooray! for Hannah Handmakes

I said earlier that this was a blog post swap, and these are the hoops that I designed! I ended up with two because I had two ideas and I couldn’t decide which one would be best, so I made both. The colours that I have chosen are inspired by mini eggs, which are my favourite Easter treat! I love the colours and thought they would be a perfect colour palette. These colours have inspired my latest post for #craftycolourpalettes which will be live on my blog later today. You can find the templates and tutorial for both of these hoops over on the Hannah Handmakes blog – and they are super easy to stitch so you can make a last-minute Easter project. Yay!

We would LOVE to see your creations if you make our hoops – so do tag @hellohoorayblog or @hannahhandmakes if you share on social media

The post Happy Easter Hoop from Hannah Handmakes appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

The felt that I used is made from recycled plastic bottles, so it’s vegan-friendly and good for the environment too! I was really surprised at the selection of colours – they are so vibrant, and the felt is lovely to work with. It was important for me to work with materials which fit with the ethos of the magazine, and together with the design I think it compliments it well (I hope you agree with me!). You’ll find all the details along with downloadable templates on the Bibelot Magazine website. If you missed my interview with them a few weeks ago, you can read that here.

A really big thank you to Chloe Owens and Bibelot Magazine for featuring my work. I have been a big fan of Chloe’s for a really long time, so it feels amazing to have created this retro floral felt hoop with Bibelot Magazine in mind.

For more creative inspiration you can check out the crafting category on my blog. And do let me know if you have a go at making this project – I’d love to know how you got on, and to see your brilliant design of course!

Post updated 12th February 2020.

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You will need

A selection of Liberty fabric squares – I used these 5″ squares and cut them into 4 pieces

Some lining fabric (I used white cotton)

White cotton thread

An iron

1 metre of ribbon

Needle and pins

Sharp scissors

Step 1

Arrange your fabric pieces to decide on the best layout, splitting your squares into two piles – one for the front and the other for the back. I decided to sew horizontal rows first, and stitched the first two squares with roughly half a centimetre seam allowance.

Open the squares and then stitch the next square along, again with a half a centimetre seam allowance. Repeat with the rest of the squares in the row, and then press the seams open.

Step 2

Stitch the rows together, still using a half a centimetre seam allowance.

Don’t worry if all the seams don’t line up – this just adds to the feel of the scrappy patchwork!

Step 3

Repeat the first two steps to make the back piece. Then use a ruler and a rotary cutter to neaten the edges.

Step 4

Place the patchwork pieces right sides together and pin along the bottom edge. Take the top edge and fold over once, using your ribbon as a guide as to how deep the gap will need to be – this worked out at just under half a square using this size of scraps. Then I cut 1.5cm along the seam I had sewn at the bottom of the first square and folded it in (see below). This is to make sure that the openings for the ribbon don’t meet when the side seams are stitched. Press and then fold under the top seam.

Step 5

Next, pin and stitch the side seams, starting at the top of the top hem and working around the corners that have been pressed out.

Step 6

Now to make the lining. Take your lining fabric and fold it in half, and place it on top of the inside out patchwork bag. Pin where the lining will need to be stitched, using the hems of the patchwork bag as a guide. Press over the top hems (a couple of centimetres is enough) and then stitch the side seams of the lining.

Step 7

Turn the patchwork bag the right way out (you could press it here if it isn’t laying flat). Trim the seams of the lining bag and then place it in position inside the patchwork bag. Make sure that the pressed hem of the lining covers the folded hem of the patchwork bag, but leaving enough room for the ribbon to pass through the gap. Take your time getting this in the right position, and then stitch.

Don’t worry if you miss out any bits – you can always catch them by hand afterwards.

Step 7

Thread your ribbon through the gap at the top of the bag – you can put a safety pin at one end to help you pull it through more easily. Make sure that it hasn’t twisted at any point and then hand stitch it to join it securely.

Ta-dah! I’ve put a few of my sewing bits and bobs in here already

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Out of the other things that I roughly sketched, this little fox was my favourite. I wanted to do something a little different for the actual feature, because I know that foxes are everywhere right now! But every time I opened my sketchbook, there he was, and I just had to make him. The making principles for the fox brooch are the same as the bird, although there is a little less embroidery on the fox in terms of different stitches. I kept the border of this brooch a little simpler, but you could do a scalloped edge like I did on my bird brooch if you prefer.

Materials

Felt Fox Brooch templates – click to download

A brooch back and a small piece of plasticard

You’ll also need a needle, possibly a pin or two, as well as some sharp scissors.

The felt I used for this brooch is from Wool Felt Company in orange and turquoise.

The threads I used are: Anchor 433 (blue), Anchor 333 (orange), DMC 712 (cream) and black thread too. Just make sure that you match your thread and your felt, whatever you make on your brooch!

Get stitching!

For the most part you’ll need to follow my tutorial on the Craftseller blog, but here are a few additional tips to help you with this design, relating to stitching the fox on to the front felt piece:

• You’ll need to position the body over the tail piece, and then neatly stitch them on to the circle of felt (the bird felt piece doesn’t have to be neat as it gets covered up!). Once they are secure, stitch the head on.

• Stitch the nose on using black thread and satin stitch, then stitch the cheeks (do foxes have cheeks?! You know what I mean, anyway!) using the same stitch but with cream thread. Outline this first as shown on the bird brooch tutorial.

• I stitched the eyes last, using some small French knots.

• Once the fox is stitched, follow step 6 of my bird brooch tutorial to finish it, and then it will be ready to wear!

This is my little bird brooch – be sure to let me know if have a go at making this, the fox, or your own version of a felt brooch! Share them with me via Facebook, Twitter or tag me @hellohoorayblog on Instagram. I’d really love to see what you make!

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So here’s my bag before I got started:

It has a large main pocket, with another one at the front and one at the back. I cut out the main pocket, leaving a couple of centimetres of the lining at the top where it was sewn in. Once this was done, I did the same with the other pockets.

You’ll need to cut out the pockets that you need to replace – don’t throw them away just yet, because you’ll need to use them as templates. I unpicked the old pockets so that I had flat pieces to work with. Lay out your new fabric and place the pieces on top, cutting around them leaving a little excess around each edge. I used this fab Amy Butler fabric from the Hapi collection.

This first piece had a zip pocket in – you don’t have to put one in if you don’t want to though! First, I measured where the zip should go based on the template piece. I marked where it should go with a dressmaking pencil.

Then I used a seam ripper to open it up, and cut diagonally at the either side of the opening to be able to fold back and press to create a rectangular opening.

I stitched the zip in on my machine, and then began attaching a pocket on the back. I made this using a rectangular piece of fabric, which I folded (right sides together) so that the top was a couple of centimetres higher than the bottom. Then the pocket can be made by machine stitching down each side.

To attach the pocket, I stitched the bottom to the bottom zip tape, and then repeated this with the top.

With the other half of the large main pocket, I made a simple side pocket by stitching some bias tape over the top of a rectangle of fabric. Then I stitched this onto the side piece, making two pockets out of it by stitching a line slightly off centre.

My bag also had a long strip of fabric to create the bottom of the main pocket, so I pinned it and then stitched it all together.

Next I made the final two pockets, which were far easier in comparison to the first! I cut out rectangles using the old pockets as templates, pressed about 1cm back on both top edges and stitched down the side edges with right sides together. As with the previous pocket, one side of each pocket was higher than the other to be able to attach them to the bag.

The next step was to pin the pockets to the bag. I started with the smaller pockets because they had to be stitched in before the main one. I used a small running stitch and pink thread to attach the top of the pocket to the original fabric I left attached in the bag.

Once attached, it looked like this:

I repeated this with the other pockets, making sure I didn’t sew right through to the front of the bag. Ta-dah!

If you’re wanting to have a go at this, you might need to adjust some of the steps depending on the size and shape of your bag. I bought 1 metre of fabric for this project and that was plenty – the zip was 7″ long. Although it seems like a tricky project, as long as you use your old pockets as a template you should be fine. It’s a great way of updating a bag that may otherwise be thrown away because of a damaged lining. Yay!

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