A useful item for your work box and also an ideal small gift for embroidery friends is this little embroidered clip.
The idea passed on from a class with the Waikato Guild some years ago was the use of hair snap clips to keep balls of perle thread tidy, I started with small plain ones then we found some pretty covered ones Needing some more after having shared quite a few in classes and Caitlin claiming these ones with little bunnies on them, I found only the slightly larger ones available locally, however they have served my need and I designed my own cover… its quite easy to do.
The small or medium size snap clips work best and I prefer when I can get them to use the ones with a coating.
The clips I have used are about 5cm (2inches) in length
I used a fine linen and my fabric size was 3.5cm x 13.5cm. ( approx. 1 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches) This allowed a .5cm seam allowance. (1/4 inch)
The stitched area was 2.5 x 11.5 cm (1 x4 1/2 inches) shown in the drawing as a solid line. Stitch right round the edge of the design area with a small buttonhole stitch over 2 x 2 threads using a fine thread, Perle 12 is ideal. I used DMC Dentelles 80 but that is getting harder to find in NZ now. There is also a row of buttonhole stitches across 1.5cm down from the top.
The dotted line further down shows a fold.
A small design is stitched in the centre space and the size for this will be governed by the thread count of your fabric.
Fold in the seam allowance, fold across the top section and again at the dotted line. Place a piece of firm Vilene/pellon fabric behind the front section and sew up the sides by whipping together the buttonhole stitches. Slip the snap clip into the slit at the back, a couple of stitches to hold the top edge down and the clip will be held firmly in place.
As well as ones with violets for myself to match my needlework accessory set I have found a tiny pink rose bud adapted from this chart also works well. Of course you could make the rose bud any colour you like, so with Valentine's Day coming shortly I have decided to stitch some with red rose buds for some friends and I will make one with a few matching items as a give to be drawn on Feb 14th leave a message on this posting if you would like to go in the draw,
