New Patterns

I’m pleased to say that I’ve got another two new patterns in my Etsy shop! The first is Catwalk, a cat’s paw print design, which I’ve created especially to raise money for the UK’s Cats Protection charity. For every Catwalk pattern sold – even if it’s chosen as a freebie in my 3 for 2 offer – I’ll be donating £2 :)

 

And if you’re a long time reader of my blog you may remember this design from some time ago. I thought it was about time I got it made up into a proper pattern! I’ve also changed the name to Vortex :) You can find both Catwalk and Vortex in the Make It Yourself section of my Etsy shop.

Dear Old Blighty

I originally designed this peyote pattern for one of our challenges on OTTBS last year but I ran out of time and could only manage to work up one of the motifs! With a bit of ingenuity I turned it into a bracelet with lengths of waxed cotton cord, which you can see here on the blog. While the British flag is always popular, with the Queen’s Jubilee fast approaching I thought I would get my skates on and make myself the full version.

The pattern uses three colours (I’ve used funky turquoise here instead of the traditional blue) and because of the geometric design of the flag, I found that once you get going it’s quite intuitive as to where the next bead is going. Saying that I did make some mistakes due to not concentrating so I spent a fair amount of time unpicking and replacing my tattered thread! Even so, it only took me three evenings to make. If you want to fly the British flag and make one of these bracelets for yourself, you can find my Blighty pattern here in my Etsy shop. Don’t forget, all of my tutorials and patterns are permanently 3 for the price of 2 :)

Green Giant

Here’s what I’ve made with my giant 2″ button - a whopper of a piece which I’ve worn a few times already and absolutely love! I started off with the ceramic button which was made by the very talented Tania Grey of Tan of Course and as soon as I saw it I put it on my wrist and knew it would be perfect for a cuff.

It took me some time to decide how to mount this beautiful button, in the end I went with a strip of herringbone in Japanese seed beads which I’ve stitched to a cuff blank covered in fern Ultrasuede. I’ve used just three colours – dark green, medium green and turquoise - to echo the colours in the glaze.  While I was making the base, I was thinking which way would be the best way to affix the button - stitch it on before attaching the cuff to the base or stitch in on afterwards? I thought it would be tricky to stitch the base on where the button extends over the edge. It turned out that this would probably have been easier than stitching it on afterwards! But hey, you live and learn. Hope you like it :)

Sunchild Cuff

This is my very first attempt at a bead embroidered cuff! I’m really happy with it but at the same time there are several things I need to improve on. I need to plan ahead more and colour the interfacing before I start stitching – I don’t like seeing the white foundation fabric around the edges and is the reason I won’t be putting this piece for sale. Also I didn’t account for the cuff measuring slightly longer after putting the Ultrasuede on so my embroidered piece was slightly too short!

But it’s not all bad and there’s plenty of things I love about it too. I kept the design very simple with curved rows of seed beads emanating from the cabachon and instead played with colour and texture. I used many different colours and finishes…silver lined topaz, butterscotch lustre, cream  lustre, metallic gold, peacock gold AB, burnt orange, matt chocolate, silver lined gold…to name just a few! I also love how this cuff feels, it’s a very substantial piece and really sturdy with it’s hidden brass cuff blank. I can’t wait to make another.

And here’s a sneak preview of what I’m working on at the moment. This gorgeous ceramic button was made by Tania Grey and is a green giant at 2″ wide!