Create

1. Beautiful Fabric Pendant - I can just imagine a little fabric leftover being used for this.
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When I inherited my lastest stash in mid March I just new I had to share these stories with you. I’ve been so fortunate, and kind of a sucker, when it comes to getting free and super cheap craft supplies and tools!

In Volume 4: when you order the print version, you get instant access to the full color PDF version of the zine too! A little print love, a little instant gratification, a whole lot of crafty goodness!

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May Flowers! Maybe we aren’t quite there yet, but with flowers all around me I couldn’t help but be inspired by them. See all the posts I loved this weekend after the jump!

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I’ve been cleaning out my apartment one space at a time. Today was my studio. After collecting all my butterfly bobbins of wool, I was confronted with a shopping bag full of random colors. Some people may see this as overwhelming, depressing, and challenging. (What to do with all these random colors?) Well honestly, it filled me with childhood glee! You see, wool is great for crewel–all those random colors? A painters palette!

Sometimes it’s fun to mix things up a bit. Just because you have leftovers from a knit project, does not mean you have to stick with knitting for the leftovers. Those last 3 yards are perfect for a variety of projects and crewel is on the top of my list. It’s freestyle embroidery with with 2-ply wool yarn. I’ve used a variety of fiber types with good results though.

Crewel is a great way to use those last bits, and to me it’s a family tradition. Going back to my great-grandma, we have all preferred crewel embroidery. I’m not sure what it is, maybe the thrifty nature of using up leftovers, the soft texture, or just that it was the late 70′s early 80′s when it was all the rage and my grandma and mom were into it. And of course little girls want to be like their moms.

The first crewel work I ever stitched was a little fisher boy kit. I still have him around and think he’s pretty cute. I had forgotten about my crewel beginnings though. That was until I was in Dekalb, my first year of university, and I saw this great book at the library. It’s called The New Crewel. It sparked my interest in crewel all over again. I thought I had never seen anything like it. It’s funny how in reality, I was surrounded by it my whole childhood. If you haven’t already, check out this great interview with the author of the New Crewel, it was posted on CRAFT last fall.

My grandma made this when my mom found the pattern a bit too much.

And this has hung in the hallway since I was a kiddo.

Here are some great resources for crewel embroidery, starting with the history and ending with some project ideas. I am particularly fond of the coloring book idea, just brilliant.

• A Guide to Crewel Embroidery on Pretty Impressive Stuff
• How Crewel by Elizabeth Creeden from the Caron Collection
• Jacobean leaves embroidery pattern series on Materialistic
• A Crewel Embroidery freebie on Love Stitches
• Sharon B’s Stitch Dictionary
• Jacobean Flower to Stitch on Stitching with a Shimmy
• Free Vintage Crewel Pattern on Two Kitties
• A great idea by two kitties to use coloring book pages for crewel embroidery
• Free embroidery patterns on Craft Leftovers

Armed with a bag full of wool, you will be sure to see some new embroidery patterns coming up on Craft Leftovers.

More crafty buddies for your stitching pleasure! These cute little guys will jazz up any craft bag, knit basket, or make a nice framed embroidery piece for Your Crafty Buddies studio wall.

You can get the Hand Stitching Crafty Buddy Set here and the original Machine Stitching Crafty Buddy Set here.

And, as with last time, you can always get started with this cute little thimble:

Have a great weekend! Happy crafting!

Kristin

I’m really excited to announce a new series of Craft Leftovers embroidery designs! Crafty Buddies! You can get the first set in the shop today! And to get you started on your stitching, here is a free preview pattern – Your Little Crafty Buddy Thimble! He keeps your finger safe and sound and helps your need have a little extra push. Just right click the image and select “save as…”, print, transfer, and stitch!

I started this series as a set of illustrations, you can see the finished sewing machine on Kro Studio. I’m looking for a local printer to make high quality prints. I think they would be so cute to have hanging in the studio.

There are many great reasons to have waxed linen on hand –  coiling, book binding, jewelry making, and braiding just to name a few. Here is a really easy way to use up some bits of embroidery floss and get that elusive waxed thread into your tool kit (the only stuff available around here is absolute crap and is pretty expensive). 

1. Grab yourself a candle.

2. Grab yourself a pile of embroidery floss.

3. Run the floss through the candle. 

Seriously that’s it. We used this method all the time in my first fiber arts class for coiling. I think it would work well for book binding too. You can make some really fun bindings using different colors that embroidery floss allows for.

Well, exciting things are underway and I finally get to share with you what I’ve been working on all weekend.

First, if you are on Ravelry, I’ve started to add the all cl patterns to Ravelry for download! And I’ve also started going through all the cl patterns and updating their information, links, pictures, and descriptions. It’s one of those behind the scene time sucking sort of jobs that doesn’t really show for much to you until I get it all done.

You can see all the patterns I’ve added so far for download in the Ravelry Kro Studio Pattern Shop and you can see all my original designs here.

The Cat Hoodie is the #1 pattern of all my design, hehe. Which seems appropriate somehow, it’s so funny. All those poor kitties though. I might have a hit ordered by caterdom because of that one. Hopefully Molly can talk them down and let them know that She likes the hoodie.

If you are on Ravelry and want to help add Craft Leftovers Patterns to Ravelry that have yet to be added OR if you want to go in and edit the pattern details so they are correct that would be awesome. Seriously, it would help so much. Thank you to those of you who have been adding patterns to Ravelry as you make them, I really appreciate it!

The other behind the scenes thing I have been working on over the last few days is getting the Craft Leftovers Etsy Shop back up to date. I’ve edited photos, added some new kits, restocked sold out back issues (updated photos of said back issues), and in general have done an end of summer cleaning. I have about 20 new kits just waiting to be added and they will go into the shop through out this week. I have some embroidery kits, collages kits, and book binding kits (made up a few extras). Not to mention more H2O Slinger kits and a few other fun things.

I want to clean out some kits that have been hanging around for too long and so I’ve marked down all old stock by 15%-40% off. The SUMMER SALE will be until MIDNIGHT, JULY 31st.

Check out all the sale items in the Sale Catagory Here.

Now I’m on to update the archive. I’m a little embaraced how far behind I’ve fallen in that. I think the archive is getting a little crowded, so I’m working on a new archiving system that will be searchable. In fact I’m actually working on a new design for Craft Leftovers Completely. It will take time, but I am hoping to launch the new site by the 1st of the year. It’s a pretty massive undertaking to reformat the whole site.

I’m teaching class tonight, so I won’t be back to post until tomorrow. Until then, happy crafting and happy kit making! I love kits!

Kristin

Suzanne Mwamba is the author of the TangleCrafts website – a great resource for all things diy weaving and embroidery! You can visit her website here and her shop here. Make sure to take a look at her new zine+kit subscription: DIY Weaving Club!

I first met Suzanne Mwamba when she emailed me. As she put it ” So when I discovered ‘Craft Leftovers’, I realized we were singing from the same hymn sheet.” And how true that is! After taking a look at her website I emailed her back and asked her if she would be willing to do an interview and if she would like to contribute a project and she said yes!

The thing that I love the most about her site is – of course all the free resources and reviews of vintage books – but the liberating tone that anyone can weave on anything! What a great message to be spreading to the masses! Read more →

I love love love reading. And I love love love books. So that being the case I often am reading, looking through, or skimming a half a dozen or so. I go through a lot of book marks. Over time they just get misplaced, or if they are paper destroyed with the use of them. Bent, torn, tea spilt on. Well, after doing all that looking around on Tuesday at bookmarks I decided that cloth bookmarks are the way to go. And then I decided that I really want to do some embroidery too. So there we go, fabric bookmark embroidered with a little bird that just happens to love her bookworms.
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