Cat on Cushions Kit (designed by Beaks and Bobbins) Product Review

 

Poppy Patch have a fantastic selection of beautiful embroidery kits from talented worldwide designers and my (Tracy Balsdon) Poppy Patch Posse project this time is called ‘Cat on Cushions’ It is designed by Beaks and Bobbins. If you’re an animal lover like myself you won’t be able to resist my latest Poppy patch Posse review 😍 

You can find Tracy on Instagram @daydream_sewing

 On opening the kit, the first thing I noticed was the gorgeous shades used for the cushions they were a perfect match for fabrics I had in my stash and for what I had planned for this kit, which was ‘My Bucket Bag’. In this kit there is everything you need to make the embroidery only, I made mine into this bucket bag.

 

 

 

 Everything is printed onto the fabric for you so there’s no need for a light box or transfers, all the embroidery floss, beads, needles etc are included in the kit, you even get two pieces of calico, ones been printed with the cat and cushions on it and the other is a plain piece.

 You are supposed to put the two calico layers together to make the fabric more stable to stitch on but knowing I wanted to make the finished stitchery into a bag I wanted the back of the bag to match the front so instead of using the calico proved to stabilise the stitchery I used a medium Weight iron on stabiliser to do this and used the other piece of calico to make the back of the bag.

 

I started by ironing the stabiliser to the back of the printed piece of calico, I then used an embroidery hoop and followed the instructions for the cat, the eye was stitched using a satin stitch, as soon as the first few stitches were in place the design instantly started to come to life, back stitch for the whiskers and two little chain stitches for his nose 😍

 

The instructions have great illustrations for every stitch needed so if you’re new to embroidery you’ll find them easy to follow.

 

 

 

There were a few stitches I had not done before, back stitch, chain stitch and Pekinese stitch but the instructions were so well illustrated they were very easy to follow. I think the trickiest stitch for me was the Pekinese stitch as you had to keep the tension on the floss to create the circles but it came out well.

 

 

 When it came to the beading I used a bead mat, they are worth purchasing if you plan on doing a lot of bead work as it stops the beads running away! 

 

 

The thread for the bead work was included in the kit and again the instructions on how to add the beads/ sequins to the design were very straightforward to follow.

 

 

The instructions walked me through the stages for the little tassels step by step, they are made with the help of a small safety pin. (Which again was included in the kit). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I used my Bernina sewing machine to create the back section of my bucket bag. I wanted to keep the cat theme and this embroidery by Embroidery online was just perfect.

“I Don’t Need Therapy I Have A Cat”

 

 

 

 I machine pieced 2” squares for the side panels and cut out some little felt hearts in a colour to match my fabrics, these were then blanket stitched onto a few of the little squares to give the bag a little more detail. I used a foam iron on wadding to give the bag some structure and I then quilted the squares in the ditch.

 

 

 

 

  I made a lining up using large 4.5” squares of fabric and made a drawstring top using a 5mm cord to secure my items inside when the bag is in use. 

 

 

 For the bottom of the bag I pieced together four 3.5” squares and used the Bernina sewing machine circular tool to create the embroidered circles on the base. I then added a piece of template plastic to the inside of the base to give it some stability and added antique gold feet to hold the template plastic in place.

 

 

Finished size: W 8” x D 8” x H 9”

I love my bucket bag; it’s a great size and I can fit so much into it. 

What will you make your Cat on Cushions kit into? 

 Until next time, happy sewing, Tracy xx