Craft Night: Easy and adorable felt brooches

Check out these super cute brooches we made at our last craft night! Inspired by various things Jane found online, we each whipped up our own little brooches with felt, embroidery floss and little pinbacks. Jane didn't quite finish hers but here are Vanessa's, Megan's and mine pinned on a previous craft night project, a tote bag!

A card/notebook for Ben & Kennedy

I hope they have opened this already so no one is surprised when this posts to Faceboook!

I stitched this little K + B for Kennedy and Ben's wedding this past weekend. I didn't want to make a normal card, so I thought a fun idea might be attaching something hand made to the cover of a little moleskine notebook that they can use to keep score in when they play cards or write grocery lists or whatever it is that they want to use it for.

I think it turned out really cute and I hope K & B like it! The color doesn't come through too accurately in the photos, but the thread was a pale seafoam greenish color and I drew the letters freehand right onto the felt with a gold sharpie before stitching over it.

blue and white bunting

I got the idea in my head that I should make a ton of bunting to hang all over the backyard for a 4th of July party. I should have started earlier, but as it turned out I (with some help from Vanessa) was able to string together over 10 feet of bunting to string up! I would have liked to have about twice that much but it looked pretty cute if you ask me.

little felt triangles waiting to be strung together. (photo by Matthew)


Strung up along the side of the house and shed. (photo by Matthew)


close up.

A couple of stitched cards.

Cards are probably my favorite thing to embroider little things for. I have always made handmade cards since I was a teenager and this new skill makes my cards a ton more awesome.

Here are two stitched cards I have done in the past few months.

This was sent to my mom for Mother's day. This photo is from my phone and is pretty terrible. I forgot to take a picture of the finished card, but this is the design i did, sort of modified from a couple Jenny Hart patterns and stitched freehand onto felt.


This was done as a wedding card for a lovely couple. I stitched this freehand onto felt and luckily it was just the right size. I heard they are planning to frame this! So proud of it. It took sooo long but it was so worth it.


I have a handful of projects in the works and am going to revive this blog if it's the only thing I do all summer! :)

Coffee Time!!!!!!!!!

Here is a silly yet adorable coffee cozy that I made for my new roomie. The words are not quite centered on the fabric, which annoys my perfectionistic tendencies in these sorts of projects, but just goes to show me that I can't "wing it" all the time. Yet.




Oh and of course you can request your own custom coffee cozy (coozie? sleeve?). Dream to your hearts content my darlings, I (or Vanessa!) can make it!

Mostly Stitches Introduction-Part Deux

Hello all! I'm Michelle's counterpart to this new blog, Vanessa, Vana, or V. You may know me from blogs such as Mostly Soup or Today on the Train.

Michelle and I started embroidering only a couple of months ago when I convinced her to come with me to an introductory embroidery class one rainy Saturday. Michelle's not much for saying no and thus our new hobby was born. She's already far surpassed me both on quality and quantity but I did manage to finish one tiny little project last week.

I snagged a beanie from a clothing exchange party that was adorable except for the ugly Volcom logo that was embroidered onto it. I decided to make my own embroidered patch and slap it over the logo to transform the hat into something I would wear. Michelle was kind enough to sketch a tulip for me onto a felt patch and I embroidered over it. We were feeling very springy in our Portland 61 degrees and sunny weather. The tulip head is free hand, the stem is stem stitch and I used back stitch to sew it onto the hat.

I think the results turned out pretty cute and I have the hat on my head as I type this very sentence! So if any of you have an article of clothing that has a hole, a stain, an outdated skateboarding company logo on it, or the like, feel free to request a custom cover up from Mich or I. Nudge, nudge (Mostly Stitches Etsy Page, products coming soon).

Transformed!

I am proud to present to you... Mostly Stitches!

Hi! So Vanessa and I have take up embroidery and have high hopes and vast project ideas to make money with our newly found talents! This is going to be a blog to document our projects, progress, and fun crafty things we find around the web. We have also started an etsy shop for these endeavors(MostlyStitches.etsy.com) and are super excited for what's to come.

To get this blog rolling, here is a project I did for Hollys Birthday a couple weeks ago. It's not perfect but I love it. Would you or someone you know buy something custom like this? For Holly I glued it onto cardstock to make it a birthday card, but this kind of thing could easily be a patch or decoration for a bag/backpack/notebook/jacket/etc.

Here's a close up of a freehand design I did for a simple and fun project/gift. I stitched this on a piece of felt for a to-go coffee sleeve for Jessie's birthday. I think it turned out really cute. On the back side is just a little pink heart.

Stay tuned for much much much more fun stuff!