pretty princess crown.

Where were we?

Ok, so now you have these lonely petals.

Let's finish off the top of the flower,

aka the crown.

Here is what we have so far.

For the rest of the flower, you will need two more sets of

monochromatic colors. It was suggested in class that

I really enjoyed saying the word monochromatic. Well,

I do. And lucky for me, I will use it again and again.

So, like I said, you need two sets of monochromatic colors

that fade from dark to light. For the actual crown, you will need

two colors. I used green : light and dark olive, to be exact.

The area below the crown will require 3 monochromatic

colors. Yes, that is FOUR times I have said it.

In my case, I used purple, light, medium, and dark.

You are welcome to pick your own color combo..

this is your craft, afterall.

The first stitch we are using here is 'padded satin'.

You will recall we used the satin last time on the ends

of the petals. You create a satin stitch by stitching from

one side to the next, with the stitches falling right next to

each other.

We are going to take this stitch to the next level, though..

the 'Padded' level. It will be padded. And, puffy.

Start with your darker of the two colors you have selected.

Split the Skein into 3 and 3 again and thread your needle,

knotting the bottom.

We are starting at the top of our little flower beanie, here.

Start on whichever side you are most comfortable with and make

a stitch across the top of the beanie.

Follow that with another stitch across, directly below

the first.

And then, another below that.

And so on, and so forth..

Once you have completed this process, you will have satin

stitched the entire crown, horizontally.

Congrats, you satin stitched. You did it.

Here is where we go crazy. Here is where we get 'Padded'.

Booyah.

We are now going to satin stitch vertically starting at the

bottom middle of the crown.

Pick on side and satin stitch over your originally

horizontal stitch.. only one side,

as this beanie is going to be two colors, split down the middle.

Start with one vertical stitch..

The second stitch will follow, directly next to the first.

The next stitches will follow suit

until you have this half puffy satin masterpiece.

The other half of the puffy satin will be your other color.

That is, the other half of the monochromatic

color wheel of greens. I said it.

So, get your needle back to the middle and make

light green puffy satin(or whatever color you

choose, no pressure)!

Voila! Beautiful crown of two toned

'puffy satin'.

Remember to tie off and clip the ends of each

color you finish..

To finish off the top of the flower,

you need one more monochromatic gradient of color.

You will need three colors in this case and in my case,

I chose purple.

Behold the insanity that is my threads.

File this image into the 'what not to do' folder.

So, for the first part of our new color wheel of

stitching, you will need to split your yarn skein

into 4 and 2.

If I was less lazy, I would tell you that the first part(the split

stitch) would be better with a three yarn and the

second part(french knot) would be better with a four yarn.

However, I am lazy. So, I did everything here with a four yarn

your level of precision here is entirely up to you.

We are going to start by giving the beanie a little outline

using split stitch. If split stitch slips your mind,

refresh here.

So, We split stitch around

and up the middle..

When we are done with this.. we are going to poke our needle

out at the top middle of our beanie and go ahead and give our

beanie a little poof on top with a french knot.

Simply make a knot at the base of the thread ( I say simple

but somehow it was not simple during class. My best advice here

would be to hold the knot down with one finger like you were

tying a bow on a package, and pull slowly. See the next step

for a picture of me doing just that.)

Once you have your knot, pull the needle back through the fabric

right next to where your knot is.

In this case, you are trying to pull your knot as close to the

beanie as possible, so, insert your needle below the knot.

I give you beanie with poof.

And we still have that whole middle portion to fill.

If you like making knots, you just struck it so rich.

Start on whichever side makes you comfortable and knot

from one side to the other. We are still using our darkest color

with 4 threads here.

Here is a slo mo pic of me tying a knot and using my finger.

Please, for both our sakes, use that finger.

Perhaps you should practice a few knots on your

embroidery shag before committing yourself to serious

knot making. Knots are one of those tricky things;

either you have it or you don't.

You tricky knot!

Fast forward 10 minutes (if you've got 'it')

and you have your first row of knots..

made with the darkest color of your new color grouping.

Now onto the next lightest color and the next row of knots..

And the third row of knots in the lightest color..

Hot!

We are done with our flower.. only three more stitches to go!

And for you who are scared of the embroidery,

I give you some bday photos of me and the girls. Loves it.

Did I ever tell you that I got this?

Well I did and it is amazing.

And, it is criminal to try to steal it's thunder with

a giant patent leather red belt. Bad!

And the new sexy heirloom treasure in my office;

lights up my Tony Gwynn pennant real nice.

See you tomorrow! Do your homework!

embroider with me now...

Let's do a nice, slow 4 day tutorial for that

sweet little poppy embroidery.

Because embroidery is so incredibly

impressive and I said I would.

Get crafty.

For the first step, you need three colors of floss...

A monochromatic group with one light,

on medium and one dark.

I chose pink for my first group.

But, the first step is tracing the above

image onto some tissue weight woven

fabric. I, personally, am making a little sachet,

hence the tissue weight fabric. But, you can make

whatever you want. Just use a woven and make sure

it is light enough to see the design through.

If you want to use a thick fabric, I recommend

using a Heat Transfer Pencil instead.

Here's me.. pretending to be left handed.

Start with your darkest color.. split your yarn skein into

3 and 3 threads and put one aside. Thread your needle

and knot the bottom.

First, we are going to practice the first step on

our embroidery scrap.

The first stitch is super easy.. it is the 'long and short' stitch.

Start with one row of stitches.. making one 'short stitch'

followed by one 'long' and another 'short'.

Make your stitches directly on top of each other.

Then, start a new row directly next to it, left or right, and

do the opposite.. start with a 'long', then a 'short' and

another 'long'. The key here is that the ends will

be staggered and when you add in new color, the colors

will move nicely into one another.

Make a few rows for practice of this first color... do 4.

Then introduce your second color and your third.

Continue on the same long and short lines you already

created and simply sew the new color stitch

in the length that is up next. If you ended with a 'short',

for example, do a 'long' with you new color.

Excuse the wide variety of stitches on my embroidery

scrap... it is full of practices.

Ok, now let's apply what we've practiced to the real deal.

We are starting with the flower petals.

Yes, this picture is fuzzy. Clearly, my hand was shaking

with excitement.

In the first little block area, 'long and short' stitch

your first color.

When you are done with the first color, layer in the next color

with long and short stitches into the next little box.

For the last and lightest color at the top of the petals,

I tend to cut off the long and short all together

and just do single stitches right next to each other all the way

around. This is technically a 'satin' stitch and I think

looks nice and shiny for the end of the petals.

Step one is complete! Small victories!

More to follow later.

In case you truly are a craft novice and this is

boggling your mind, let me remind you to tie off each color

with a knot when you are done and clip it short.

You can do it!