EG Dotee Doll Workshop

At our monthly Embroiderers Guild meeting we had a little workshop making Dotee Dolls.
We had such a fun time and most ladies had their dolls almost complete by the end of the evening meeting. I'm sure you will agree that they all look fab!

Signature Bag

I'm a member of the EG Fife branch & recently we were fortunate to hold a workshop being taught by one of our own very talented members Margaret Lapin. With only small list of items to bring, sewing machine, threads & and embroidery hoop, we all met on Saturday 19th January for our first all day workshop of the year. We were not disapointed, Margaret provided us with everything else we needed:

Scraps and strips of ribbon and fabric
A calico base to work on plus extra for a handle if needed
A piece of cotton to line the finished bag
A piece of loosely woven muslin

What a fantastic workshop! I had such a great day & learned a lot. My sewing machine is not the best for free machine embroidery, I didnt have a darning foot and after Judy kindly let me try her darning foot on my machine I could already see the difference it would make. Even though lacking a darning foot limited me, I was still working on the parts that I could on the day, building up ideas in my head of how I would continue at home once I had found myself a darning foot for my machine. I found a great little foot on ebay the next day which promptly arrived first thing on the Tuesday morning...wow! I cant believe I have gone so long without this little attachment!On Tuesday 4th evening meeting everyone brought in their bags. Some of us have finished some still working on them. It was wonderful to see how each one was so different and unique!

Front ....

Detail

Back view....

Click on the pictures for much larger views

Embroidered Casket

I have finally finished my little casket !

I started this at an 'Embroidered Caskets' workshop by Janet Edmonds which was organised by our local Fife branch of Embroiderers Guild.

It was great get my sewing machine out and have fun with it again. I tend to want to hand stitch everything but I had to admit as I was stitching away I was already planning a different shape for the next one.

I choose a blue/green shot poly cotton for the base fabric and added blue/pink shot taffeta squares and triangles. The squares were then edged with a beautiful ribbon I bought at a stitching show a couple of years back. It's a variegated hand dyed ribbon with an iridescent edging which suggested the next colour to use almost instantly ...... Pink!

The bead closure is made from a machined fabric strip which was then rolled and stitched together & glass seed beads to finish.

The taffeta triangles are sprinkled with bright pink bugle beads.

Pink silk thread tassels & feet. My 'YM' initial monogram on the bottom.

looking down from the top it looks like a starfish!

These little puffs are made from a very thin hand dyed silk & hand stitched silk thread onto a teal crushed velvet background which was stitched on top of the taffeta squares.

Each of the 5 puffs has a different coloured crystal bead in the centre.

Variegated dyed ribbon which has an iridescent edging & turquoise gimp are stitched with a variety of threads.

This was great little piece to work on why not have a go. This same 'Pentagon Box' design was featured as a project in the EG stitch magazine