Thursday, March 22, 2012

Eggcellent Series #5 - Crochet Easter Egg

Thank you so much for joining me this week. I hope you have learned some new techniques and have been inspired to create a pillow. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me any time.

Today I will you show you how to crochet on an applique. However today of all days, because that's how it works, neither of my two sweet kids would nap... so I originally planned to do 3 pillows - 2 bunnies and 1 egg.. and I had time to do the one egg..  Gah! Heartbreaking for me, as I was really excited to bring you this technique. I may revisit it again before Easter with all 3 pillows, photographed beautiful with abundant sunlight. Until then..


Materials Needed:
Plain store bought pillow cover
Scrap fabric for applique
Scrap piece of fusible webbing
Perle cotton - cream and pink
US 7 crochet hook
Embroidery needle


 Step One: (Boo.. I know it's the bunny, but I've been working on these all week and thought I would have all three done..) Anywho.. Draw out your applique shape and make sure it will fit on to your pillow cover.
 Step Two: Iron on the fusible webbing to the wrong side of the applique fabric.
 Step Three: Trace and cut out your applique shape; iron on to the pillow cover front.
 Step Four: Straight stitch the applique down to the cover.
 Step Five: Using the perle cotton and embroidery needle, backstitch around the perimeter of the applique. You want to try to keep your stitch as close to 1/4 as possible. It doesn't have to be exactly 1/4", but try to be consistent with the stitch size. It is important that the crochet hook can slide underneath the stitch, but that the stitch is not so large that it sags off the fabric.
 Step Six: With your hook and perle cotton, single crochet in every stitch around the perimeter. Slipstitch the last stitch to the first.
 Step Seven:  Draw out your design on the applique with an erasable pen.
 Step Eight: Backstitch the design with your perle cotton and then single crochet in each stitch.
And there you are! I love this added dimension to quilting & sewn projects. I think this pillow would look awesome with some crayon tinting too.. Hmmm. Another week of pillow projects? Nah.. ;o)
Have some amazing Easter projects of your own? Come on back tomorrow to share!

What's coming next week?
I'll share the highlights of some my past Easter projects and show you how to do another crochet/sewing tutorial for a ruffled diaper cover - perfect for spring photo shoots..

2 comments:

  1. I'm going to try this! Okay, feeling a little dumb,but.... between step 4 and step 5, I don't see the machine stitch. In the picture where you show the hand-embroider back stitch (step 5) around the perimeter, where is the machine stitch from step 4? This is adorable, and I love crochet, so this is right up my alley!

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  2. Oh yeah! I'm tickled that you can't see the machine stitching =) It's there for sure.. When I hand embroider the back stitch, I go as close to the applique as possible. The thickness of the perle cotton can hide the machine stitching. I'm so excited you are going to try it. I would love to see it!

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Thank you so much for your comments!
If you have a question, please feel free to email me at allthingsbelle@hotmail.com