World Cup Crafting

So my lovely twitter and blog friend Jenny (prettycolumn.blogspot.co.uk ) has set herself a challenge to finish her crafty project of knitting a cardigan by the end of the world cup, and has invited others to join in. I figured that this would be a perfect opportunity to challenge myself to finish my embroidery project. Its to be given as a gift and should have been finished quite a while ago. 

As I've mentioned before I can't post details on what the project actually is as the person receiving it has been known to peruse my blog and I don't want to ruin the surprise. I will be posting bits that slyly skim over what the overall result will be and am taking photos as I go along to post in a lovely blog post when it's finished.

I finally got my bum in gear with starting everything today, and surprisingly its all because boyfriend decided to upset me. One comment about how much dirty washing there is in the laundry basket and I found myself sat and the downstairs table with my project purposely avoiding any form of housework! Regretting it now because it still needs to be done before I can go bed.

The gift I am making is an embroidered cushion and the design I have chosen is something that has to be copied as exactly as I can rather than it being something I can draw freehand. Straight away this makes it a bit more difficult. The first thing I did was mark out where to lay the pattern on the cushion, so I could make sure that every time I was using it, it was being put in the same place. 

I used tailors transfer pattern to get the pattern onto the material. First time I used a white piece and then realised that it wasn't showing up on the cushion. I then took a red piece which worked but it was still a bit faint so I went over the whole pattern with my fabric pen. The only problem I can foresee is that the material of the cushion seems to not hold the ink for very long so I may have to redraw parts the pattern as I'm going along.

I started with a back stitch but decided I didn't like it:

So I changed to a split stitch and think it looks much better:

The pattern is quite large but certain parts have been picked out to be in the colours I picked in my last blog and the rest of the pattern will be in silver. This will all make so much more sense when I can tell you all what it is! 

I managed to get a good part of one of the focal (coloured) parts done during the England/Uruguay match this evening but it did mean that I didn't pay too much attention to the football haha. I have an electrician coming in the morning and my plan is just to sit and sew with a cup of tea while he works as to not get in his way!

I guess I should get on and clean my kitchen :(

If anyone fancies joining me and Jenny we are using the hashtag #worldcupcraft on twitter or give her a comment on her blog or twitter (@riley_jl ). We'd love to see what other people are up to!

Have a lovely day x

P.S. I made a Victoria Sponge yesterday :)