Today marks day 8 of Scandinavian Christmas, it's flying by and Christmas is practically here! Remember to add your photos to the Scandinavian Christmas 2011 Flickr group here to join in the fun! Today we get to hear from a wonderful Danish blogger, Birgitte. She blogs over at SewDanish where she shares a variety of crafts that focus primarily on Danish textile art. She also has a great Etsy shop here where she makes a range of crafty items from handmade gift tags to origami Christmas stars. Today she is here to share with us how to make these cute Danish heart ornaments! To start, I asked her a few questions so we could get to know her a little more...
1. What is
your Scandinavian heritage?
I’m a 100%
native Dane spending the first 3 ½ decades of my life living and working in
Denmark. While working aboard, I met my American husband and for quite some
years we have been living in England, which makes it very easy to nip over to
Denmark to visit family and friends.
Usually we
celebrate Christmas with my family in Copenhagen which is always a lovely time.
Copenhagen is so beautifully decorated at Christmas time and it is such a
special treat strolling the pedestrian zone in the city center, just taking in the
lights and atmosphere.
2. What's
your favorite Christmas cookie?
Oh that is
a difficult one! I love the Danish traditional Christmas cookies and always
bake between 3-5 different kinds during the month of December. Danish Christmas
cookies are generally a lot smaller and very crisp compared to the huge
American soft chocolate chip cookies.
I often try to add a new recipe and currently one of my newcomers is my
favorite. It is a small round cookie baked with fresh orange rind and decorated
with dark chocolate. Yummy.
3. What
your favorite type of craft to do (knitting, sewing, embroidery...etc...)?
Over the
years, since early childhood, I have touched base with a huge amount of
techniques. I’ve always been crafting and creating things. Currently I’m
exploring the borderline between art quilting and contemporary machine (free
style) embroidery throwing in a bit of mixed media.
I belong
to a contemporary textile art group called. ‘Fibrefusion’ where we are always
working towards exhibition deadlines resulting in several machine and hand
stitching projects on the go. For
mindless relaxing I do love a spot of either knitting or crocheting.
HAPPY GO
EASY CHRISTMAS HEARTS
As a child
my mother every year got my sister and I to make Christmas ornaments in the
weeks leading up to Christmas. We had little store bought ornaments and I
believe that my appreciation for unique handmade ornaments started there. I
cannot help designing and making Christmas ornaments, and being able to list
them in my Etsy shop: SewDanish has been great. I love making the old
Danish/Scandinavian traditional ornaments with an updated twist as well as
designing new.
I
developed the technique for the Christmas ornaments, when I was having fun
experimenting and making samples for Fibrefusion' recently published book
‘Muslin’, which an inspirational and experimental work book about creating
lovely fiber art using thin, inexpensive, loose weave fabrics.
Start by
layering 10 -12 layers of muslin/calico/turbin cotton in approx. 6 x 8 inch (15
x 20 cm) oblong. The muslin can be any colour you like.
If
choosing white/off white you have the option of coloring the hearts after
stitching.
Draw 2
hearts (or any other simple shape) on a piece of cartridge paper or ‘stitch and
tear’. Don’t cut out. Pin the pattern along the 4 edges of the muslin bundle.
If
stitching the hearts free hand on the machine, you may skip drawing a pattern.
Thread
your sewing machine and stitch the hearts either by following your pattern or
drawing the shape in free motion
on your machine.
When free
motion stitching lower the feed dogs, release the top thread tension and zero
the stitch length. Now you are in control of moving the fabric creating the
stitched lines.
OR you can
leave your machine ‘normal’ with the feed dogs up, normal top tension and
stitch length 2.5 – 3. Both will work.
I prefer
free styling it for a more relaxed look, but have a play and see what suits
you.
Stitch,
following your first out line, by going over it at least 4 times. You can
stitch these bands as wide or as narrow as you like. The stitch lines need to
be very close and partly on top of each other. Now repeat these stitch lines inside the heart. Depending on
the size of the heart repeat once
or twice (or more).
Remove
your fabric from the machine. With a pair of scissors cut very close along, but
not into, the outermost stitched band.
The heart
can now be further embellished with hand embroidery and or beads. Add a piece
of string, twine, raffia or ribbon to hang your hearts.
If you
aren’t too keen on the slightly raw, frayed edges, you can seal the edges with
a bit of acrylic paint like shown on the stars.
These
stars have a different look to the hearts, as they were sewn on white
muslin/calico and dyed afterwards. The stars were then embellished with hand
embroidery and the surface was ever so lightly dry brushed with acrylic paint
for added texture.
Please note the boring bits:
These
instructions are for personal use only. You are however welcome to use a single
photo and a brief description , linking them back to where you came across the
instructions.
The
instructions may not be republished in their entirety without the permission of
me, the author, Birgitte Hendricks. I can be contacted through my blog http://SewDanish.blogspot.com
A huge thank you again to Birgitte for sharing this great tutorial! Be sure to stop by her blog and take a look around her Etsy shop!
What a lovely serie providing glimps into the Scandinavian Christmas. I'm really enjoying reading the various posts!
ReplyDeleteThank you for publishing my article. I really appreciate it.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New year.
Rigtig glaedelig jul og et godt nytaar :-)
Birgitte
I enjoyed your blog Birgitte,the painted stars are so homey and pretty.
ReplyDeleteVery pretty Birgitte!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you could join in the series this year, Birgitte! :)
ReplyDelete