100 Stitches - eyelet hole stitch

Well - I tried :(  Unlike so many of the stitches that I have learned from 100 Stitches, this eyelet hole stitch looked sooooo easy but turned out to be  almost impossible for me to do!  These three are the best I could do:

Here is a darker picture so that you can see the white satin on white fabric.  Don't look too carefully!

Here is the hall of shame with a few of my many attempts.  What am I doing wrong?! At first I thought that these looked so horrible because the outer edge was so jaggedy and uneven looking.

So, I decided to use this hole template as a guide:

I drew a 1/4" inside hole and a 3/8" outside hole.  After practicing with different types of floss, I decided to go with three strands of cotton floss:

The first step is to stitch a running stitch all around the outer circle:

The next step is to pierce the center of the small hole.  100 Stitches suggest either using a "stiletto" to pierce the fabric - or to cut across the center both ways.  I used my scissors to cut two small x's:

I think at this point, I had the best results with using only one strand of my cotton floss:

Come up through the fabric right at the outer edge of your running stitch:

Now bring your needle down into the open area of the hole and back out through the fabric on the outside edge of the running stitch.  Notice the needle is emerging right next to where the floss first came through.  This is just a simple overcast stitch:

Pull all the way through:

and take the next overcast stitch by going back into the hole and out on the outside edge of the running stitch:

Just keep overcast stitching and it will start to draw the raw edges of the fabric to the underside of the fabric and enclose them in the stitching.

Just keep working your way around. 

Until you are done.  Now secure the floss on the underside.

Here is a closer look at the uneven outer edge!  I seem to be having trouble with two things...keeping a consistent outer edge of my stitching and stitching so that there is even "coverage" all around the circle.  I would very much appreciate any suggestions or tips or ideas for improvement!

Here is the underside of my stitching:

I think I like these best in a white on white.  It seems more traditional, like eyelet lace fabric.  I also really liked using the satin floss on these.  I think it looks prettier.

This stitch is in the flat stitches section of 100 Stitches and is #21.

UPDATE - please read this post for updated instructions and corrections on this stitch!

Some Christmas crafting supplies!

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! I had a wonderful Christmas.  I wanted to share some of the beautiful crafting supplies I received. Plenty of embroidery floss in some gorgeous color combinations like these pinks:

This lovely blue and yellow:

and this pretty group of a blue and white variegated, a violet and a rich purple.

I am so happy to have received this:

a rotary cutter!  I have really needed one of these.  It cuts fabric with such a nice clean edge!

Speaking of fabric, do you remember this bright blue fabric? I am going to be stitching some snow motifs on it for a small project I am working on.  I think the blue makes a nice background for this white pearl cotton floss:

Christmas gift tags

Do you have all of your Christmas presents wrapped? I am still working on mine.  I am so pleased to be using these beautiful gift tags:

I made these this year and I am selling them in my Etsy shop.

There are 46 different tags:

in a variety of styles and colors:

I like trying out different combinations of tags

and ribbon trim:

Remember this beautiful trim?

So, I printed all the tags, gathered up some embellishments like glitter glue and metallic markers for writing names:

This glitter glue works really well to add a little sparkle:

Wow!

It is really easy and fun to use these tags!

I loved the artwork on these so much, I used one of the trees for my Christmas cards!

Christmas tree!

I am stitching up a Christmas tree featuring some metallic floss ornaments:

I love the look of this metallic floss!  The tree is stitched in regular six strand cotton floss, the bow and planter are stitched in satin floss:

These are non-traditional Christmas colors but I think they are really festive and pretty!  Here are the dmc numbers of the floss I used.

Door hanger - finished!

Guess which project this regal looking trim is for? This is the trimming for the bottom edge:

and this matching trim is for the top:

This is trim for a wip I posted about a while back. Do you remember this little lion stitching?

It is a stitching from the Shhh...Baby's Sleeping embroidery pattern packet and it features a sleeping lion:

and the words Shhh...Baby's Sleeping

I finally found two beautiful trims that matched the colors of this stitching perfectly!

I needed these trims to finish my gift for a baby shower I attended this last weekend.  My cousin is having a baby boy in January and for her gift, I made this door hanger.  I used the top trim to make a loop that can fit over the baby's room door handle:

I love the way it turned out!