One More Children's Embroidery Project Finished

When I made arrangements with the local library to offer a Children's Embroidery Class, I decided that six children at one time would be a good number so that's how many registrations they took for the class. I was a little disappointed when one didn't show up for the first session and not one of the girls on the waiting list was available to come. I discovered that five was actually a good number for a group of beginners so I ended up with one set of supplies leftover.

Yesterday my friend's daughter Samantha spent the day with us and she is a very crafty girl. She was very interested in making her own hand embroidered book cover, so we got set up downstairs after breakfast and went to work.

Sam was a very good and patient student. She picked up on the techniques very quickly. Like many of the other girls in the library class, Sam also became good friends with my handy dandy needle threader in short order! What is it about keeping that thread in the needle?

Anyway we had a good time stitching and talking and learning new things. I made good use of the time I was sitting with Sam to work on my Filet Crochet piece for my daughter's dresser and made some good progress.

By lunchtime Sam had finished the rainbow and most of the clouds. Then after lunch and getting my little one down for her nap, we went back to work and she finished the sun, raindrops and blanket stitch.

Here's the result of a fun day of stitching:



I thought Sam did a great job. She was a fast learner and very enthusiastic about her new found skill. I warned her parents to lock up their clothes or they may find them embroidered with all kinds of fancy things next time they wear them! I think Sam will use her new embroidery knowledge for some very creative things.

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Children's Embroidery Class -- (Almost) Finished Projects

The last session of the Children's Embroidery Class I taught at our local library is finished and I have some pictures of the embroidered denim book covers that the five girls stitched. Not all of them are complete, but they will be able to finish them off at home and have their very own hand stitched book cover to use and show off. I think they are all proud of their efforts, as they should be.

Since this was my first time teaching a group class like this, I learned a few things along the way. One of them, and I think the most important, is that it is imperative to schedule enough time in the class so that the students can practice their stitches on a practice sampler before working them on the project fabric. We did not have enough time in the four 1-hour sessions of this class to do that, and I think some of the finished pieces reflect that. Still I think they were all happy with what they did.

Take a look --


This is Amber's book cover which she will finish at home with the rest of the blanket stitch edging. Amber seemed to enjoy herself and was a lot of fun to have in the class. Once she got the hang of the chain stitch sun outline, she did a very nice job on that. I wouldn't be too surprised to see Amber continue doing some creative things with embroidery now that she's had a little taste of it. She said this was her very first ever attempt at embroidery. Good job Amber!



This is Joclyn's book cover which she will also finish at home. As long as Joclyn kept her needle threaded, she did a great job on her piece. She liked my DMC needle threader so much that she went out after the first class and bought her own! Joclyn's stitches, as you can see, are quite small and even. Her rainbow turned out quite nice. Her chain stitch sun and outline stitch clouds are also very nice. Joclyn stitched a little "J" in the sun too. Nicely done Joclyn!



Here is Lauren's book cover. Lauren picked up all the stitches very quickly and did a nice job on all of them. I like how she worked her little straight stitches in the rainbow almost horizontally and the little bit of a different look that gives to the rainbow. Lauren used her time well between the third and fourth classes which were almost a week apart. She cut up an old pair of jeans and designed a bag for herself with a flap on it and a shoulder strap. She sewed it up by hand and did some creative embroidery designs on it too. I wish I had thought to take a picture of that too so you could see just how creative Lauren is. Keep it up Lauren!



This book cover was done by Melissa. Once she saw each stitch done, Melissa got it and went to work. She was the first to complete her cover. Melissa discovered that l - o - n - g stitches take much less time to work than short stitches do! Very clever! She stitched her initials on her cover too.



And last is Sarah's book cover. With some help from her mom, Sarah did a nice job on her piece and I think was happy with the finished product. Sarah did most of the chain stitch sun outline one her own and I think she did quite well. Good job Sarah!



So there they are, the finished book covers from my very first Children's Embroidery Class at the library. I had a good time doing this and will hopefully do more of the same in the future. Of course that all depends on the budget of the library since they did reimburse me for my expenses, thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the Library.

It was nice to be able to pass on a skill/artform/talent to interested young people so that they can hopefully experience the same pleasure from it that I have enjoyed for most of my life. Perhaps someday they will pass it on again. Now that would be rewarding!

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Children's Embroidery Class -- Ready to go!

The Children's Embroidery Class I've been preparing for is finally all together and ready to go! And with a whole week to spare!

Registration for the class started while we were gone on vacation, but I checked in to the Library website using the very s-l-o-w connection we had available at the cabin. The day after registration opened for the class, all six spots were filled and the waiting list was also full! I may end up running another session of the same class this summer. I never thought there would be that much interest. Although now that I think about it, the class is funded by the Friends of the Library and is free to the participants, and it is being held in the evening when kids will be home from their daily activities. So I guess it makes sense. Anyway, here's what it looks like all packed up and ready for next week...


I set out what each child will have for the beginning of the class.

They will each get their own hoop to keep, the notebook which will end up covered in the denim that is already folded and pinned and marked with the design, enough DMC Pearl Cotton to complete the design and a needle.



I cut fun foam into small squares and in the blue I cut a hole about the size of a quarter through which I knotted the embroidery cotton. I think using a large plastic ring like what I purchased for my Vintage Crocheted Shade Pulls would have worked fine too, but the blue fun foam is much more colorful. Into the green squares I stuck the needle so it will be easy to see and hopefully not so easy to lose!



Then I put everything into my handy dandy little box which is just perfect for carrying all this stuff to and from the library.

I also included extra needles, extra thread, my very favorite DMC needle threader which I LOVE, my own hoop and sample fabric that I will use to demonstrate the stitches. On top I left my glasses and scissors which I Must Not Forget but that I will surely need before heading to the library next week.

So there it is. I am very excited for the opportunity to share my love for needlework with these children. I will be sure to let you know how the class worked out and what I learned from it. Hopefully I will also have pictures of the finished book covers to share after the end of the class. It's always fun to see how other people's projects turn out, especially those of children.

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Children's Embroidery Class Sample Finished -- Yeah!

Well hip hip hooray! I finished the sample book cover for the Summer Embroidery Class I will be doing at our local Children's library this summer. I love the colors and the cheerful design. Check it out and see what you think.

Here are a few close-up shots so you can see the stitches.

The clouds were stitched in white, naturally, using the outline stitch. The sun is done in chain stitch for the outline, back stitch for the rays and random little straight stitches which are also called seed stitches in the middle.



The raindrops were stitched in a light blue using lazy daisy stitch.



The top and bottom edges were stitched in the same light blue as the raindrops using the blanket or buttonhole stitch. A description of the rainbow can be found here.



And here is the finished sample. I think we should be able to get through all this in 4 one-hour sessions, and each of the children will bring home a nice journal with a hand embroidered cover that will last longer than their favorite pair of jeans!

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Summer Embroidery Class for Children

We have a beautiful new children's room at our local library where I take my own children at least once a week for storytime or just to play and pick out new books to bring home. They always have fabulous programs for the children with music and magic and all kinds of fun things for all ages.

I spoke with one of the librarians a few months ago to see if they might be interested in offering some kind of needlework class for some of the 'older' children. I suggested knitting, crocheting or embroidery, and she picked embroidery.

So this week I have been working up my sample embroidered journal cover which the children in the class will do over four one-hour sessions later this summer.

I purchased seven square spiral-bound journals at my local Michael's store for $1.00 each. That will be enough for each student and one for my sample. I decided to start out with a maximum of 6 children, ages 10 to 12, in this class.

I wanted the fabric to be heavy enough so that the thread and the cute design already on the journal front would not show through, so I chose this blue denim and purchased 1 1/2 yards. I laid out the journal on my cutting mat to determine the dimensions necessary to make an old fashioned brown-paper-bag-type of book cover. I figured out that I would need to cut the fabric two inches larger on the top and on the bottom and four inches larger on each end.


Then I set to work drawing up a design. I thought children of this age group would enjoy something cheerful, and I'm also not a very good artist, so the design had to be simple! So this rainbow/clouds/sun/rain design is what I landed on. I drew it on white paper and poked holes in it at appropriate places so that I could transfer my design to the fabric with a fine point Sharpie by making dots on the fabric through the holes. It worked out great!


This is what the cover looked like pinned in place on the notebook with the design transfered with blue Sharpie for the lines and black Sharpie for the dots.


I chose DMC Perle cotton in bright rainbow colors for the rainbow, white for the clouds, light blue for the raindrops, and the sun will be done in the same yellow as in the rainbow. I thought the Perle cotton would be good to start out with so the children won't have to worry about separating their floss.


I unpinned the fabric from the journal and hooped it with an 8-inch spring hoop, big enough so that the whole design fits inside. Each of the children will get a hoop to use for the class project and keep afterwards. For the rainbow design, I chose a fun and funky zig-zag stitch which will be easy for beginners and show instantaneous results. I stitched small straight stitches at evenly spaced intervals in red on the first two lines of the rainbow design.


Then from the front of the fabric, I stitched through each of the straight stitches, alternating between top and bottom row, to form a zig-zag.


With the orange thread, I stitched the third row of straight stitches. Then from the front of the fabric I stitched through the straight stitches, alternating between the orange and the lower row of red to form the orange stripe of the rainbow.



I continued this same technique with the yellow...


and the green...



and finally the blue and purple. I know rainbows end with indigo and violet, but for my purposes, I thought purple was sufficient!

I hope to finish up the sample this weekend so I can share it with you and bring it to the library to be displayed. Hopefully I'll have a full house for my little basic embroidery class for children and the art of embroidery can continue on with the next generation!

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