Making miniature petit point pieces

The piece that started it all

Many moons ago, I posted about a mini petit point broach that I deconstructed and made a pattern from.  And then did nothing else with for a long time.


Well in my holiday crafting mode I decided to do something about it.  I had some 40 count silk gauze that I had bought last time (that means there are 40 threads in each direction per inch in the gauze).  I dug it out, printed off a copy of my pattern and got started.

The first step was to create a frame to hold the gauze.  When doing cross stitch, I never bothered doing this as the tension in the stitches balanced out in my hands.  On the other hand, petit point is like half cross stitches- that meant the thread will always be pulling in one diagonal direction.

Because my pattern was  40 stitches across, I knew that my finished piece would be one inch (2.5 cm) across so I marked a 2 inch (5 cm) square to cut out on a bit of scrap cardboard

To stop the card from folding or tearing, I folded the sides over a few times and glued them down in order to reinforce the sides.  Then I taped a 3 inch square of silk gauze into place and got started.

Stitching was fairly simple. If you have done cross stitch before, you can do this.  The biggest  challenge was, of course, the scale!  Strong light is your friend if you try this!  Some sort of hands-free magnifier would also be advisable, but the only one I had was 2-4X magnification and between the awkwardness of it and the low power, it was fairly useless.

 I ended up making my original colour version and I am planning on mounting it in the original fitting if I can. 

One other thing I tried since I was on a run, was to dye the silk gauze using alcohol ink (aka a sharpie).  It worked really great, and I got to test another cross stitch design I've not posted up here yet...  This one was interesting as I tried a bit of backstiching in a lighter cotton thread (the designs were done with a single thread of DMC cotton), and the mountain of Cori Celesti was made using glow-in-the-dark thread.  Although suspect only I will ever know that since such a small amount of thread doesn't glow significantly.

What do you think?

Little things during the holidays

Some of these have not been worth a full post so here's a round-up of the crafty things I've done over the last few months.

First some polymer clay toadstools.  This was a Pinterest inspiration and looked simple enough that my basic skills could manage.  Only suggestion I'd make if you wanted to DIY is to make the stalks around a toothpick or skewer to make it a bit easier to stick them into the pot.  This would not be as vital if they didn't apparently scream 'attack me!' to my neighbours cat who has shuffled them around and played with them as soon as I added them.  All I can say is that it's a good thing my neighbour's cat is cute and friendly!

Next is a pretty silver bracelet I got the kit for from the last Melbourne Craft Fair.  I love the three dimensional nature of it!

This little bag was another kit- it has a cool little pinch to open bendy clasp and the bag fabric is pretty (another Craft Fair purchase- the website for the shop is here).

And since one of my unfinished holiday projects was this post, here's another from these holidays.

It is a secret compartment keyring by Silkstone Designs.  It's yet another kit project that I bought on the last holiday that was on (camping down at Inverloch).  Doesn't everyone buy craft stuff as souvenirs?  Not that it was all smooth sailing on this one.  Can you spot the mistake in the example below?

I'd plug this one but the website listed on the back of the instructions is dead and I couldn't find any online.  The only thing I can suggest is that if you are in the area, swing by Coal Creek Historic Park and check out the obligatory little shop.  If you are in the area you should swing by anyway- I like old parks like that :D

Oh, and as always, I don't get kickbacks from anyone.  If I've linked to something it's because I bought it and liked it.  Not that I would be against plugging something for a fee- it's just the opportunity has never come up! Now it's back to the pile of half done stuff...