Lady- Bug Picnic Blanket
You will need:
✔ 140cm square of fabric (blue gingham) ✔ 30cm square of fabric (cream spotted) ✔ 20cm square of fabric (pink spotted) ✔ 1 skein of stranded embroidery cotton (green) ✔ 8 buttons (green) ✔ sewing thread ✔ 50cm square iron-on bondaweb ✔ embroidery needle ✔ sharp scissors ✔ sewing machine ✔ a saucer, cup and glass to draw round
How to:
1 Hem the large fabric square using your sewing machine making a table-cloth. If you do not have a sewing machine or do not have confidence in your sewing skills you could always buy a ready made table cloth or even better use an old one.
2 Iron the bondaweb onto the back of your two smaller squares of co-ordinating fabric.
3 Then using your saucer and glass draw circles onto the bonded paper and cut them out. You need one large and one medium for the bug wings, then one medium and one small for the bug's tail. Once you have cut out the wing circles you need to cut them in half and then snip off a little wedge.
4 Position your uncut circles in one corner of the table-cloth and iron in place, then place the wing shapes over the top. Iron them in place.
5 Taking 4 strands of embroidery cotton use a simple running stitch to sew round the edge of the wings and tail.
6 Then again using 4 strands of embroidery cotton, satin stitch the bugs' heads. Satin stitch is simply straight stitches worked close together.
7 Finally position your buttons and stitch them into place.
Note:
Stranded cotton is probably the most widely used embroidery thread on the market and comes as a six-stranded length. So you have to separate the threads one by one and then lay them back together in the quantities that you need. The best way to separate the thread is to cut an appropriate size length. To avoid knotting, it is a good idea to use reasonably short lengths about 45cms (18"). Then, to divide the strands hold the length firmly between your thumb and forefinger fairly near the top and pull one thread at a time up through you fingers and out of the bunch.
Something great to do on a rainy day in anticipation of all the sunny ones to come.
Design care of www.mariadiazdesigns.com. Materials from Tales Press, the Staffordshire Needlecraft Centre, Lichfield and John Lewis, Solihull.
