Although I haven't been blogging there's been plenty of crafting going on and I'll be showing you more of my makes soon!
Lets begin with a new skill for me, freehand machine embroidery. My sewing machine hasn't been right for a while and I decided to spend my leftover Christmas money on a new one. I chose the EJ09 from Tesco and I'm really pleased with it! For a budget machine (£60) it has a good variety of stitches and is so much better than my poor old Brother. One thing to point out is that the product description says it has a drop in bobbin, but it doesn't! I guessed that from the picture, but I wouldn't want other crafters to be disappointed.
With a new machine, I wanted to learn something new and freehand machine embroidery caught my eye. I bought a darning foot, put my darning plate on the machine and all that was left to do was decide on a design. I wanted to make something for my husbands birthday, preferably frog or cat related.
A trip to the library provided me with the answer, but not in the section you might expect. I was looking for books for my daughter and found Oi Frog by Kes Gray (It's not just good inspiration, it's also a funny book!)
I grabbed my washable pen, sketched out the design and after a quick practise run, I was ready to go. It takes a bit of getting used to and I'll use a smaller hoop next time, but I think I'm hooked already! I love the scribbled look and it came together quickly.
Here's the finished picture (please excuse the terrible photo!):
He loved it, but wasn't quite as interested to hear all about machine embroidery.
One new skill learnt for 2015. Now what can I embroider next?
