A Needle Case for your needle packets

Who doesn’t need a special something to hold their needle packets?  Since I use a lot of different types of needles in my embroidery, I like to keep them in their packets.  I’ve made a needle case to organize my packets that will help me find the needles I need easily.

To make the needle case, you’ll need:

• your finished embroidery, 12 inches long by 6 inches wide
• light weight cotton for the lining, 27 inches long by 6 inches wide
• #12 perle cotton
• a small length of ribbon
• 2 pieces of skirtex or light weight cardboard, 5-1/2 inches by 5 inches each
• a hot iron

I stitched a stumpwork design for my needle case but the finishing instructions will work for surface and counted embroidery, including cross stitch and crazy quilting. 

Click here for the needle case instructions (pdf)

I hope you will enjoy making your own needle case and will find this tutorial useful.  If you have any questions or need clarification on any of the steps, leave a comment here and I will try to answer in this section for everyone’s benefit.

Last August Finish-Along for AnneS

I managed to put a couple more finishes to bed last night, and finished two more pieces out of the finishing pile.  First up was a Christmas ornie I finished earlier in the week, and the second is a Mill Hill magnet pillow … I just love all the beads in the fringe and can’t stop playing with it!

Needleworker pinkeep

Finished using your instructions.  Added two layers of batting between the card and then ladder stitched the two covered card together.  Glued a piece of cording I had and long silver headed pins.  It is a free French design called Hornbook’s stitcher from A Mon Ami Pierre.

August FAL theme

The first theme for our new FAL themed months is stitching accessories!

This month’s class is a pinkeep, so we’ve decided to tie the theme in with the class, so that people who want to do the class will have a chance to participate. However, we’ve decided to expand the theme to include all types of stitching accessories, such as scissor fobs, biscornu, needlecases, scissor cases, pincushions, tape measure covers and needlerolls, so there are plenty of finishing choices.

I’ll post some tutorial links and pictures of finished accessories to (hopefully) give you some inspiration in separate posts below.

Happy finishing!

August FAL – stitching accessories tutorials

If you’ve never attempted any of these types of finishes before, here’s some tutorial links to get you started. I’ve pulled out the most basic, straightforward tutorials with beginners in mind but there are many others on the tutorial links page:

• Biscornu here - very clear instructions with loads of pictures
• Mattress pincushions here – in French but with loads of pictures. I used this one for my first mattress pincushion and found it easy to do from just the pictures.
• Needlecases here and a slightly different style here
• Needlerolls here – nice, clear tutorial with good explanations and pictures
• Scissor fob here
• Scissor case here – in French with lots of pictures and scissor pocket here (Becky will be doing a class on this one at a later date too, which will have more step-by-step photos if you want to wait for that)
• Tape measure cover here - in Japanese with lots of pictures. I’ve used this one myself and found it very clear and easy to use

August FAL – inspiration!

Looking for inspiration for this month’s theme?

Try The World’s Largest Collection of Smalls blog as a starting point for loads of pictures of stitching accessories, which are all grouped by category. Check out everyone’s gorgeous scissor fobs, needlecases, pincushions, needlerolls, pinkeeps, biscornu, scissor pockets, and tape measure covers, along with all the other beautiful finishes

Think outside the box: for example, mini biscornu make wonderful scissor fobs, like this cute patriotic fob by Linda in Iceland:

and these 3 colourful fobs by Melanie in Australia:

Or why not try out a strawberry fob, like this one by Blackbird Designs in last year’s JCS ornament issue, beautifully stitched and finished by Cathymk:

More thinking outside the box; needlerolls don’t necessarily have to be vertical designs – here’s one I made using a horizontal design, which I adapted slightly (Homeward at Last by JBW Designs):

and if you don’t fancy the idea of hemstitching the ends, just use banding, like this one stitched by AnneS:

If you’ve got plenty of time on your hands, why not create a matching set of accessories, like this beautiful set of LHN designs stitched by Becky:

or these fabulous Quaker accessories stitched by Nicki?

I couldn’t find a tutorial for a needleminder, but the basic idea is quite straightforward. Michelle has made a couple of beautiful needleminders recently (I’m totally drooling over the Quaker one):

Sarah Moon (top) and Flower of Courage needleminders, stitched by Michelle (Cozyegg)

The instructions she used came with a kit but think metal ornament finishing forms, magnets (inside and out) and any kind of trim for the edging and it’s not too hard to work out how to create your own. Or you could try a basic pincushion or fob with magnets inside to hold your needles or pick up dropped pins, like these great examples by Barbara:

and Lelia:

And finally, if you’re up for a challenge and want to try something completely different, what about a chatelaine to hold stitching tools? Here’s an example of one designed by Guilia Punti Antichi:

and a gorgeous one created to her own design by Helen:

So what are you waiting for? Drag out your stitched pieces and your finishing supplies and get finishing! And don’t forget to post your finishes to the blog so we can all admire them. If you’ve not already signed up to post on here you’ll need a WordPress account (free, no need to create a blog) and then you’ll need to email me to add you as an author so you can post. It’s quick and painless (honest!)

Have fun!