Tag: sewing

Pattern Release – 3 Cross Stitch Patterns

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You may have seen me working on this Tri-Color Rose cross stitch:

A finished and framed cross-stitch of a flower with yellow, pink, and blue petals in a thick black square frame on a table with a green and white striped tablecloth.

And that I was making it several times over in order to figure out what number of stitches in each color would best balance the amount of threads versus retaining the most detail. I settled on version 3 which uses 75 colors, made sure there weren’t symbols that were too much alike in the same area, and it is now listed in my shop.

A finished and framed cross stitch of cascading hearts in rainbow colors in a thick black square frame laying on a wooden table.

While I was preparing to list the rose, I realized I didn’t have two other patterns listed here that I thought I did. The first is this rainbow hearts pattern, which comes in a bundle with the square and circle versions of the chart, both finishing at 4 x 4 inches on 14-count Aida.

A circular version of the rainbow cascading hearts pattern finished in a wooden embroidery hoop with a loop of orange thread at the top for a hanger.

And I wanted to offer this final chart as a little freebie that would make a great last-minute gift as it only uses 4 colors:

A cross stitch of a cartoon line drawing of two hands being held in a heart shape with a red heart outline in a thick black frame laying on a wooden table.

Using so few colors both makes it work up faster, and makes it easy to substitute colors for a unique gift. It’s charted as coming up to 5.3 x 5.2 inches on 14-count Aida, but this example is done on 22-count Aida and came up to 3.5 x 3.3 inches. If you want to change the Aida used for any of these patterns and figure out what size it will be, I would suggest this calculator from Thread-Bare.

If you do pick up any of these patterns, please tag me on Instagram (@caseykayb) because I would love to see your projects. My goal this next year is to release all the patterns I’ve had sitting in a “charts in progress” folder on my desktop for several years, hopefully one a month.

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Finished Object – Firefly Bralette

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I was looking to make another sports bra/bralette, and the Firefly Dress and Top from Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop dropped into my email on sale with a bralette option, so I figured it was meant to be.

Pattern pieces of a bralette cut out of gray fabric with Pikachu printed all over and a strip of black elastic laid out on a white counter.

I had just enough of this Pikachu fabric to cut the outer pieces, and I had a bit of plain gray fabric to match for the lining. Instead of the 1-inch elastic that was called for in the pattern, I had this 2-inch waistband elastic, so deviated from the pattern slightly in the finished product.

The front view of a bralette with a printed pattern of Pikachus all over and a band of black elastic at the bottom on a white counter

All steps of this, from taping the pattern pieces to completely finished garment, took less than 3 hours (spread randomly throughout the day). The instructions are very easy to follow, and the finished piece fits so well with no runaway bra straps.

The back view of a bralette with a printed pattern of Pikachus all over and a band of black elastic at the bottom on a white counter.

I used the stretch stitch on my Singer Fashion Mate (stitch 14 if you have the computerised one) for everything except the one line of basting you do before attaching the elastic. You could also use a twin needle for the top-stitching, but I like the look of this stitch on the outside.

Finished Object – Roblox Pillow

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(Note: I swear I published this back in September of last year, but it was still in my drafts folder and the link lead nowhere when I pasted it into a private window, so here it is. Originally written to be posted September 12, 2022)

The littlest turned 10 a couple of weeks ago and had a simple request – a Roblox pillow with the logo on a black background.

Friends, they do not make Roblox pillows at all, so it was time to make one. At first, I was going to cross-stitch the name on one side and the logo on the other. Never mind the fact that I was starting this less than a week before his birthday.

I showed him one of my cross-stitched pillows as an example to make sure it was what he wanted, and he said it was, or it could be a soft pillow like his favored pillow he won at a carnival game at a theme park this summer. That would be much easier than cross-stitching two whole sides of a pillow anyway.

My original thought was to punch needle the logo side so it would be soft, but I didn’t actually have the appropriate fabric, and what I had that I thought would work did not. In the end, I ran up to JoAnns, bought an 8th yard each of black and white fleece, and appliqued it together using my sewing machine on the zigzag setting on the shortest stitch length.

I was also originally going to cross-stitch the entire back and line it with the fleece, but I messed up the colors (don’t color match after dark, friends) and had to start over when I was almost done with the lettering, so I abandoned that idea as well and just did enough of a border to be able to also applique that piece to the black felt.

Sewed everything together inside out, turned it right way around, stuffed it with pillow fluff and the scrap threads, and managed to give it to him the day after his birthday. Bonus points, it turned out the exact perfect size for the little dog’s head, so he lays on it every time he hops on the bed and it is adorable.