We, like many other artists, seem to collect sewing and craft books with good intentions, but never seem to get around to making anything. These books have such glorious projects but are often resigned to dusty book shelves until their time comes. Today's book is 'Stitch!' by Cath Kidston, which, although it provides a range of projects for even the most amateur stitcher, seems a little beyond many people's skills base. The intricate floral patterns are actually surprisingly simple, however they can easy fool you into believing they are difficult. To challenge this assumption I decided, as someone completely inexperienced with tapestry, to give one of the most difficult projects in the book a go, the Union Jack purse.
The purse took me a little over a week to stitch then assemble,
following the instructions in the book. The design chart was,at first,
difficult to comprehend but after that was surprisingly easy to follow
as the design has a limited colour palatte so a lot of the work was
blocking in colours.
As the Queen's Diamond Jubillee is coming up,
fabric stores are full of fabrics displaying typically British motifs. I
was particularly drawn to this cream 'busses, taxis and flags' print
which I decided to use for the back of the purse. I felt is was more
than appropriate! The lining was a simple print from IKEA as it was
cheap and it didnt matter if it got dirty. The blue was also almost
exactly the same blue as the stitching so the fabrics really worked
together. I am so happy with the result of this purse, proving that
tapestry is not just for seasoned stitchers!
Buy Cath Kidston's 'Stitch!' here!
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