I love making items for children, it’s so much fun – and I was delighted to be able to make this little nursery wall hanging to welcome the arrival of baby Isla, the new little daughter of one of Rosie’s best friends – who is also Freddie’s godmother. Rosie tells me that Isla’s nursery is cloud-themed, and though I’ve seen quite a few cloud mobiles and wall hangings, I haven’t seen one that looks the same as mine – possibly because, being me, I can’t resist adding quite a bit of hand embroidery – that’s just the way I’m made! Anyway, I thought that you might enjoy making one too, so here is the tutorial for you ….
You will need:
- 18″ x 12″ white wool blend felt. Don’t be tempted to use cheap acrylic craft felt as this isn’t nice to sew with and as it tends to be a bit stiff won’t give you a nice softly rounded cloud.
- Scraps of pastel coloured felt
- Stranded cotton floss in black, white, two or three shades of green for leaves and whatever colours you like for the flowers
- Toy stuffing
- Pearl thread
- Long needle (optional but very useful)
- Temporary fabric marker pen
Method:
● Draw around your white cloud template onto your white felt with your temporary marker pen. Do not cut out yet.
● Transfer your embroidery design to the felt using the shape you have drawn as a guide.
● Stitch the design. Use two strands of floss throughout.
● The large flower is worked in radiating straight stitch. I find it easiest to work stitches at 3, 6, 9 and 12 o’clock then fill between them – this helps keep my stitches properly angled towards the centre. I used a variegated floss for the large flower which gave a nice effect. The centre is small single twist French knots – I worked a centre ring in purple which I surrounded with light blue.
● The text is worked in split stitch – be careful to keep your stitches nice and small when you’re stitching around the curves of the letters – this will ensure they’re nice and smooth.
● When your embroidery is finished cut out the cloud shape analso a second cloud in white felt.
● Join the shapes with wrong sides together using whip stitch in 2 strands of white floss. Return in the other direction to make a decorative cross stitch. Leave a gap at the bottom for stuffing.
● Stuff lightly and close the gap.
● Cut and join your raindrop shapes in the same way. I used white floss for all the shapes. (1)
● Thread your long needle with pearl thread and join the raindrops together through their centres (2) then stitch to the bottom of the cloud.
● Repeat for the other strands of drops and then stitch a hanging loop on the back (3)
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