TAST 2007 - up and down buttonhole stitch

This week's TAST challenge stitch is up and down buttonhole.


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The background is made by needlepunching scraps of silk onto a piece of felt. One of the silk scraps was sheer with silver threads through it and this did not needlepunch at all well. To help with this, and to blend the colours together, I added a very fine layer of cotton and silk cocoon waste on the top. To increase the sparkle, I then needlepunched some short lengths of silver and pink metallic yarn. Finally, I 'quilted' the piece with alternate rows of programmed machine stitching in light pink and a light copper coloured thread. The buttonhole stitching is done in variegated stranded and perle cotton. At the last minute, I added the sequins and beads just for fun! It's pale, but pretty. It's about A5 size.

More ups and downs...



(Click on photo for bigger image)

I like this stitch. It goes beautifully around curves. You can make it neat or stitch it very freely. The stitching here is done in variegated perle and stranded cotton. I had a go at three-pronged up and down buttonhole, but I just couldn't get it right. I wish I had seen Elizabeth's tutorial first - it's easy when you know how! See it here:

http://quietermoments.wordpress.com/2007/03/15/step-by-step-on-a-three-prong-up-and-down-buttonhole-stitch/

For the background fabric I used bit of painted cotton from the reject bin. I put a piece of turquoise felt behind it and needlepunched it from both sides. The fibres from the felt came through the copper coloured fabric and gave it a nice verdigris look. I cut circles from a piece of dyed wool and needlepunched on - then I was sorry, but it was too late to do anything about it. To try and blend the circles in I machine 'quilted' over the whole lot in a copper coloured thread.

The final piece of fabric looked quite dull, so I tried using complementary thread colours to pep it up a bit. It wasn't really a success, I wish I had stayed with the copper and greenish blue colour scheme, but never mind, it was only a sample! Having decided I didn't really like it much, I carried on with gay abandon and added beads for good measure.