And here are the winners…..

A few weeks ago, I announced that there was a Giveaway offer running in New Stitches magazine (the November issue, number 235). The Giveaway was for the chance to win one of eight miniature needlepoint handbag kits (the design called ‘Delicate Flowers’, which is the one I am holding in the picture below) from my range for doll’s houses. The closing date has now passed, and the winners have been chosen. The kits are now in the post, so if you were one of the winners, look out for an interesting little parcel coming through your letterbox in the next few days!

A selection of doll’s house scale handbags to make, stitched on 32 count silk gauze

The winners are:

Clare Davis from Cowbridge

Kate Rawlings from Davyhulme

Valerie Puleston from Canterbury

Mrs C Knott from Worthing

Elaine Lewis from Elsenham

Elizabeth Redhead from Hemswell

Mrs J Shadbolt from Banbury

Sarah Laycock from Fleet

If you weren’t one of the winners, but you’d like to try stitching one of these cute little handbags for your doll’s house, then they can be bought for £9.50 each, from my website. There are eight designs in the handbag range altogether.

One of my customers bought one of the other designs (called ‘Rose reticule’) as soon as the kits were launched a couple of months ago, and recently sent me this picture of the finished handbag in her miniature orangery. Doesn’t it look great?

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Want to win a miniature needlepoint handbag kit?

In New Stitches magazine this month (Issue 235  – dated November – on sale 18th October 2012), there’s a Giveaway for the chance to win one of my miniature needlepoint handbag kits.

New Stitches, Issue 235 (November 2012)

8 of these kits are up for grabs altogether. They are to be stitched from a colour block chart on 32 count silk gauze, with one strand of 6-stranded Anchor thread. The design on offer is called Delicate Flowers, and it’s the white handbag that I am holding in this picture:

Three tiny handbags for doll’s house dolls. The black one is stitched on 40 count silk gauze, and the other two are stitched on 32 count silk gauze.

If you’d prefer to buy one, then the whole range of eight designs can be seen on my website. Each kit costs £9.95. Shipping is £1.50 per order worldwide, unless your order total is over £40, in which case shipping is free.

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Tiny handbags for doll’s house dolls have just been launched as kits!

The new range of handbag kits – some stitched on 32 count silk gauze, and some stitched on 40 count

Customers have been asking me to design some mini needlepoint handbags for years – and eventually I’ve got around to it! This week I’ve launched kits for eight designs altogether, to be stitched on either 32 or 40 count silk gauze, depending on the design, using tent stitch. You can see full details and buy them on my website.

I had great fun designing these – once I had worked out a good way to assemble the finished stitching, the designs just kept coming! The series covers day bags and evening bags, for several different historical eras. There’s even an Art Deco one called ‘Jazz Age’.

An Art Deco style handbag called ‘Jazz Age’

Each handbag kit contains a piece of silk gauze (32 or 40), Anchor stranded cotton threads, a colour block chart (the design is not printed on the fabric), detailed instructions, suitable needles, a tiny bead for the closure, beading thread, and fine gold thread for the handle. The bags measure approximately seven eighths of an inch across, when finished.

This is what you get in a handbag kit

For those of you who perhaps haven’t tackled anything this small before, there are many free  tutorials on my website which cover everything from what equipment you’ll need to do miniature needlepoint, to how to make up these tiny handbag kits.

Part of the handbag Tutorial – everything you need to know is explained clearly

The beginning of the Handbag Tutorial

Each kit costs £9.95. Shipping is free on the website on orders of £40 or more (under £40, there’s a flat-rate charge of £1.50  per order).

Why not treat yourself to a little needlepoint kit to start the Autumn? Even a doll’s house doll can never have enough handbags  🙂

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Embroidery in progress: An Elizabethan Stumpwork Bride’s Bag – 10

I’ve been attaching the embroidery for the bride’s bag to the metal purse frame, and I’m actually pleased with how it’s turning out, now.

The instructions said to stitch a seam half inch in from the edge, using a sewing machine. But even with a zipper foot, I wasn’t convinced that that would be successful, as there is beading and couched gold thread right up to the very edge of the bag, so I backstitched the seam by hand, from the point each side where the purse frame’s hinges will come to. I did the same to the gold satin lining, too. This photo shows the back of the ‘strawberry side’ stitching. Make the most of it – I don’t usually let people see the back of my work!

I clipped the seam allowance every half inch or so, to make turning easier. In this picture, you can see that I’ve trimmed the underlining cotton fabric that I used while stitching the embroidery, right up to the stitching, to reduce bulk.

Once the bag had been turned right side out, I checked the width of the top edge against the purse frame, then turned in the top and side seam allowances, and tacked them in place.

This picture looks really complicated, but it was actually quite easy to stitch the bag to the frame. Starting at one hinge side, I slip stitched with tiny stitches up the frame, along the top and down the other side. I’d used three or four dressmaking pins to hold the bag to the wrapped binding, to make sure the bag didn’t slip out of place at I attached it, which I found was very necessary. At the beginning of the top straight edge on each half, I inserted the strap, and slip stitched from both sides of the strap to the binding and the embroidery, to make sure the strap was tightly attached, checking to make sure it was the correct length before stitching down the second end.

But doesn’t the inside of the bag need tidying up?! Can’t face doing it tonight…I’d only do it wrong if I do it when I’m tired…

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