Embroidery with Vintage Apron Pockets, Watercolor Pencils and Crayons

A friend had given me an old apron with nice embroidery work on the edges and pockets. The linen was well worn, and the threads were thin, so they would not hold up well to further stitching. But I wanted to preserve the vintage handwork, embellish it a bit further and incorporate that pocket piece into something which I am currently sewing. More information was given about vintage cloth here in a previous post.

So I cut out those pockets from the old apron to save them, adding an iron-on stiffening product called Wonder Under to the back of the pockets.

Fast forward a couple of days. In order to also preserve some of the old handwork already on those two pockets, I decided to find a retro looking picture which would incorporate that prior flower stitching into my new project (see upper left side of woman's scarf in the photo below for the vintage handwork). The white embroidery originally there on the pocket is difficult to see in the photo.

The dilemma was that the apron pockets were white, and the new fabric onto which they would be sewn had no coordinating white in the fabric.

How about making a yellow background for the pocket? That's the ticket! So I tinted the white fabric pocket with a mixture of yellow and orange crayon overlays (just coloring the background like you would color on a piece of paper).

Giggleface is the most thorough source I found in searching out ways to tint fabrics with crayons. An excellent tutorial is given there and is also the website where I learned how to color the pink for breast cancer ribbons on old handerchiefs in a previous post.

That same site also had a cute Roaring 20's face of a woman which would work perfectly for the pocket application. The face of the woman came from a pattern from Vintage-Tinted-Linens.

I also colored the flapper's scarf with watercolor pencils and crayons, and rouged her cheeks with the same products. (Full credit for the application of the colors of threads and techniques goes to Giggleface.)

Then I made two faces of the woman on two separate pockets, similarly embroidered, for my future project. Stay tuned into this blogspot and the project will be shown when completed.

Look to needlenthread for a video library of hand embroidery instructions in case you need a refresher course in all the hundreds of stitches that can be employed in embroidery.

Curiously Old Patterns is an extensive site for embroidery patterns over 120 years old, and is in the public domain. These images can be used without fear of copyright infringement.

This may give you an idea to get out those needles and embroidery floss long packed away, and have fun embroidering on a new project! It is definitely a handcraft which is coming back into favor.

Hummingbirds and Honeysuckle

Gardenhelper says

Honeysuckle (Lonicera) vines are easy to grow, vigorous, heat-tolerant, and nearly indestructible. The flashy and fragrant flowers will attract hummingbirds and butterflies all summer long. The resulting fruit of the Honeysuckle flower will provide a fall treat for your local songbirds as well.

Our back arbor is full of honeysuckle blooms now. The photo on the right was taken on June 21, Summer Solstice. This delightful blog from kviltstina in Sweden shows the author in her backyard at 1:30 AM (scroll down about halfway on the June 22 posting to see her on her deck with needlework).

And yesterday, I happened to snap a photo of this butterfly (below) that was among the blooms.

Is it a monarch?

Why, yes, I believe it is, according to Science Daily. It is on its 3000 mile journey from Mexico. Maybe it will decide to settle here in our Colorado backyard. Too bad my hapless gardener husband cut down our butterfly bush a few years ago in his zeal for cleaning up debris (he thought it was dead).

Making Guest Soaps with Flower Petals

This video explains the process of making guest soap petals by dipping flower petals (fake or real) into melted soap to create individual little hand scrubs that are both pretty and functional.

This site says making soap

... can also be done with leaves. To do it using the melt and pour method of soapmaking ... melt about a cup of glycerin soap however you prefer (microwave or double boiler). Before you begin dipping the petals spread some wax paper on your work surface. Using tongs dip the petals/leaves into the melted soap one at a time and lay them on the wax paper to dry. Once dry remove from wax paper and they are ready to use. Rose Petals look great on display in a bowl in a bathroom near sink for use during the spring and around Valentine's day.

So where do you find the glycerin soap? Well, a cheap source to obtain glycerin is to buy a Neutragena soap bar, clearish rose in color, since it is glycerin with a few additives thrown in. Just visit the cosmetic aisle of any grocery or BigBox store, and a glycerin bar of soap can be purchased for under $2. Melting that bar on top of the stove at low heat will result in enough liquid soap to cover many more petals than I had patience. In other words, one bar of soap will cover lots of leaves.

You could go whole hog and buy soap glycerin at the craft store, but you would end up paying five times as much. AND, you probably would be compelled to keep making soaps with a larger quantity of glycerin; that much concentrated effort would not be a fun experience to me.

Here is a picture of the "equipment" I used to make soap petals:

This is what I learned in this soap-making experience:

1. Real rose leaves turned greenish in color, probably because they got hot in the melted soap and become somewhat cooked;
2) Fake silk leaves work much better since they retain both their shape and the look like REAL leaves;
3) The colors on the silk flowers maintained their original dyed integrity;
4) My hands were well soaped after making the leaves, and the saucepan was thoroughly cleaned.

The finished soap leaves are shown here "setting" on waxed paper, and then they were transferred to a glass bowl shown on the far right. (The purple and white flowers are imbedded into the glass bowl container; it added a nice touch.)

Not only do the pretty individual hand soaps look nice in your guest bath, they also make a nice hostess gift.