Every two weeks we pick our favorite 15 projects that Craftster readers have voted for with the “This Rocks!” button. Here are our latest picks which were lovingly and painstakingly chosen (so many amazing projects to choose from!), this time by jungrrl. We hope you enjoy them!
Posted
on 2/2/2012, 1:26 pm,
by rackycoo,
under Holidays.
It may be less than two weeks until Valentine’s Day, there’s still time to make your loved ones some sweet little homemade gifts from the heart. Here are some great ideas for remembrances that won’t take much time, but will still say “I care”.
Wear your heart on your sleeve, or anywhere else, for that matter! Leslieshappyheartcreated these adorable button encrusted heart brooches. They’re not just for Valentine’s day; you can wear them year round!
Sometimes it’s all in the packaging. Maurer stitched up some bright red felt envelopes, added a cute little heart button, and will fill them with treats for her son’s class.
Here’s a card and a gift in one, created by LimeRiot. The message is stamped on linen and stitched on. The heart itself is detachable and can be removed and hung anywhere.
Look how cute these tiny matchboxes are! MissingWillow covered ordinary matchboxes, added fimo clay heart embellishments, and filled them with tiny Valentine images and some M&M’s. What a sweet little treat!
Giving someone a thoughtful gift doesn’t have to break the bank. Look at this lovely Valentine rock, hand-painted by JCOSTELLO. This would be a fun project to do with the kids.
None of these projects require a lot of time or a lot of materials, but all will make a big impact on the recipient. Everyone loves a homemade gift made with love. Happy Valentine’s day!
One of our most frequently asked questions around Craftster is: “What’s a good beginner sewing project?” Quite frankly, there are LOTS of great beginner projects! We’ve compiled a list of 9 great tutorials you can use to walk yourself through those early stages in your sewing education. Our intention is to lead you through all 9 tutorials, learning a new thing or two with each project and getting a fun, useful item each time. You can go in order, or skip around if you like.
All of these projects will use a sewing machine, sewing scissors, and thread. Some require an iron, which is a great tool to have around anyway! Any additional required materials will be listed underneath. If you’re so new that you’re not even sure how to load your bobbin, check here first! Other than that you’ll just need to know how to set your machine to a straight stitch, as that’s the only stitch these 9 projects use.
Ready? Get sewing!
Use this to: Get comfortable with your machine, Practice your straight stitch Other materials needed: Felt
Use this to: Learn to hem fabric Other materials needed: Home Dec weight fabric, twill tape
Use this to: Practice hemming fabric, learn to create an envelope opening
Use this to: Practice top stitching, Learn to close a stuffed item Other materials needed: Lavender
Use this to: Learn about lining, Practice top stitching Other materials needed: Velcro or a snap closure
Use this to:Practice using lining, Practice creating an envelope opening
Use this to: Learn to follow a curved line Other materials needed: Old T-shirts
Use this to: Practice top stitching Other materials needed: D-rings, Iron-on Interfacing
Use this to: Practice hemming, Learn to create a casing for elastic Other materials needed: Elastic
Welcome to the Cutting (& Stitching) Edge! I’m Mr X Stitch and I’ll be your guide to the best in contemporary embroidery. Each week I’ll showcase someone who is rocking the world of embroidery and textiles.
When I first saw the cross stitched work of Heidi Hanks, aka daisymae_cs, I was fascinated. I contacted her to find out how she developed this clever approach to the medium I love:
“About 10 years ago I started making collages of half-inch squares cut from magazine pages glued together into a grid. They started out as sort of random fields of alternating colors with interesting bits of interspersed detail, but gradually progressed to geometric patterns. In 2008 I thought about using the squares concept for cross-stitch, which I had done as a teenager but had only recently taken up again.
“Over the next couple of years I stitched some really simple geometric patterns that I tried to make a bit more personal with the use of color. The main idea I had was to make the patterns very simple and basic so that the process of stitching could be calm and relaxing, with the emphasis being on the colored threads I was working with at the time. I wanted it to be just about choosing the colors and spending time stitching with those colors.
“In 2010 I started to think about how I could keep the squares idea but do something a bit more dynamic with it. I had the idea of trying to do portraits of people that were somewhat abstract while remaining at least somewhat representational, but that were more about the stitches and thread and the color choice, and less about using the medium in the way you might use a photograph to represent a subject.
“So after a bit of trial and error using image-converting software, I found that I could sometimes convert images into surprisingly interesting low-resolution portraits. I tried to convert a ton of photos and found that only a small percentage of images convert well to recognizable portraits. So I started to come up with some patterns that are representational when viewed small, but with color combinations that are pleasing in themselves close up.
“The subjects are people I admire or whose work has been important to me in some way. The challenging part to me is to keep coming up with patterns that work as interesting portraits, but when it comes to the actual stitching, it’s still all about the colors and the process of stitching. I’d also like to continue doing geometric patterns and experiment with new stitches and with different kinds of thread—there’s some gorgeous naturally dyed crewel wool I just found online that I’m drooling over at the moment.”
I’ve seen a lot of cross stitch over the years, and daisymae’s approach to it is something I’ve not seen before. Cross stitch naturally lends itself to pixellated images, but this idea is scaled up to a new level and applied with intelligence and style. Although, at the time of writing, she has only produced two of these cross stitch pixellated portraits, I am entranced and keen to see more.
Mr X Stitch is a manbroiderer, cross stitch designer and runs www.mrxstitch.com, the number one contemporary embroidery and needlecraft blog on the planet.
Posted
on 1/25/2012, 6:00 am,
by MrXStitch,
under Mr X Stitch.
I’m Beefranck, Queen of Ironic Stitching and Editor-in-Chief at Mr X Stitch. I know a thing or two about cool stitchery and it’s my pleasure to share my finds with you. So let’s do it!
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Hi everybody! This week we’re going to take another look at some of the wonderful pieces that were created for the music swap at the Phat Quarter. Check it out!
Awesome stuff, as always! There’s more to come in part III, but you can always check out these and other great pieces by visiting the Phat Quarter – great things await!
Turn Old Pants into a Chic Cocktail Dress
A deconstructed men’s suit — from a thrift store, of course — becomes a stunning sheath dress with these simple instructions.
Save Electricity, Be More Beautiful
How cutting the power to your appliances — the television, the microwave, and even your coffeemaker — can make you look and feel more beautiful.
Posted
on 1/23/2012, 2:04 pm,
by jungrrl,
under Craftster News.
Craftster Best of 2011 has arrived!!
A big thanks to everyone that shared awesome projects, advice and inspiration on Craftster in 2011. It was a great year and, as always, we’re amazed by our community!
Of course, choosing the “Best Of” is a fun, but very difficult task for us. After all, all of the projects posted on Craftster are the best! This is just a small sampling of what makes our community such a great place to call home. We all deserve major kudos for everything we’ve contributed to Craftster in the last year!
Posted
on 1/18/2012, 6:00 am,
by MrXStitch,
under Mr X Stitch.
Welcome to the Cutting (& Stitching) Edge! I’m Mr X Stitch and I’ll be your guide to the best in contemporary embroidery. Each week I’ll showcase someone who is rocking the world of embroidery and textiles.
Tugba Kop is an Illustration graduate from Kingston University.
Her work charmed me, and I contacted her to find out more:
“I’ve been interested in sewing for as long as I can remember! Both my parents were working in the textile industry, so I was surrounded by textiles from an early age. My mum would bring home black bin bags full of unwanted fabrics for me to play with. I later rediscovered my interest in sewing as a means of image making, as opposed to construction. I would say that I mainly learned through experimentation, trial and error. I was never that interested in the technical side of sewing though, it was always the more decorative and unconventional sides that really fascinated me.
“I place great importance on the drawing stage of my process. Without a quality drawing, the sewn versions would be doomed from the start! My drawing style is quite linear so it translates well with the sewing machine. I’ve always been interested in drawing and sewing seperately, so I think it was only a matter of time before I brought the two together. Stitching my drawings into fabric just felt like the natural transition to me.
“I draw inspiration from everywhere! Firstly, I love interesting looking people. In my foundation year, I grew obsessed with drawing beautiful people, but now I’m the complete opposite! I look for character in the people I draw – the stranger the better! Other than that, I’m inspired by everyday observations that go unnoticed, fabrics, colours, films, photography, fashion, blogs, other artists work-the list is endless!
“As well as image making, I also use my sewing machine to make leather accessories that I sell in my Etsy shop. There is so much I am interested in, that I try to incorporate my work into different mediums. I recently created an image especially for the front cover of a sketchbook I was making.
“I even rework my finished pieces. I turned my family portrait image into a cushion! By reworking it, it completely changed the meaning of the piece. I liked the idea of displaying a family portrait in a more homely way, while creating something practical for the home at the same time.
I really like Tugba’s work; the intelligent free machine embroidery captures the quirks of human behaviour and evokes nostalgia in a similar way to that of Gillian Bates and yet there’s a hint of darkness reminiscent of Emily Eibel. The use of different materials gives the work that extra edge, and I find the use of leather to be both novel and natural.
Get to know Tugba via her blog, marvel at her work on her website and buy pieces from her etsy store. Tugba has only just begun and I’m excited to see where she goes.
—–
Mr X Stitch is a manbroiderer, cross stitch designer and runs www.mrxstitch.com, the number one contemporary embroidery and needlecraft blog on the planet.
Posted
on 1/11/2012, 6:00 am,
by MrXStitch,
under Mr X Stitch.
I’m Beefranck, Queen of Ironic Stitching and Editor-in-Chief at Mr X Stitch. I know a thing or two about cool stitchery and it’s my pleasure to share my finds with you. So let’s do it!
—–
Hi everybody! This week we’re going to take a look at some of the wonderful pieces that were created for the music swap at the Phat Quarter. Check it out!
Awesome stuff, as always! There’s more to come, but you can always check out these and other great pieces by visiting the Phat Quarter – great things await!
Pack for a Trip the Green Way
Taking an eco vacation starts before you even leave home: Here’s what you need to pack (and leave) to minimize your impact.
Posted
on 1/4/2012, 6:00 am,
by MrXStitch,
under Mr X Stitch.
Welcome to the Cutting (& Stitching) Edge! I’m Mr X Stitch and I’ll be your guide to the best in contemporary embroidery. Each week I’ll showcase someone who is rocking the world of embroidery and textiles.
Melissa Zexter is a mixed-media artist from Brooklyn, New York. She combines embroidery and portrait photography to create stunning works.
Here’s what Melissa’s website says: “Melissa Zexter combines hand-stitched embroidery with both color and black and white photography. She uses an older art form, embroidery, refracted through a modern one, photography, to create structured objects that are embodiments of both fragmentation and focused concentration.
“The sewn patterns and intricate puzzles are colored textured drawings, which serve as webs and grids over the photographs, providing another dimension to the images. The sewing creates a filtered experience; much the way emotions and personal history alter everyday perception.”
I asked Melissa to share her creative process:
“With more detailed sewing, such as the “Schoolgirls” picture and with some of my map influenced images like “Brooklyn Bus Map” and “Rhode Island” I draw out the pattern first and sew into it. But with many others, like the ‘Embroidered Portraits I develop the pattern as I go along. With all of my “Edits” pictures [like Heath Ledger Found Naked, above] I have drawn out the text and pattern before hand and then sewn into it. And in case you didn’t know – I take ALL of the pictures. Most from these series are 20″ x 24″.
I really like Melissa’s work – her stitches add an ethereal quality to the pictures and remind me of vintage pictures of ghosts and spirits. The embroidery literally adds a new dimension to the work.
It’s always interesting to see different approaches to the same concept; whereas Michelle Hayworth‘s embroideries blend into the background of her pictures and Wayne Lo‘s work reinvents the characters in the pictures, Melissa’s stitching weaves magic into the images, changing the mood and feel of the pieces. I really enjoy these artworks.
You can find out more about Melissa on her website and connect with her via her blog.
—–
Mr X Stitch is a manbroiderer, cross stitch designer and runs www.mrxstitch.com, the number one contemporary embroidery and needlecraft blog on the planet.
