Embellishing Project #2

I have been working on my second project from Kayte Terry's book Embellishing - Techniques and Projects and have been having a lot of fun with it! This woman is amazing and I love so many things in her book! I really like that a lot of the projects are quite simple and really inexpensive. I am looking forward to a day with cooler weather just so I can sport my new sweater vest!

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Here is the photo from the book used as inspiration:

Here is what I came up with:

(sorry, no cute bike to prop with!) 

Cut out squares of plaid fabric and use Heat and Bond to attach to sweater. Simply hand stitch around the border of each square and then hand stitch more diamonds to create the argyle look.

The hand stitching was the most time consuming part of this project. The needle had a difficult time getting through the thick weave of the wool. 

The book shows the edges of their fabric frayed, but I stitched around each square with my sewing machine so that they wouldn't fray too much. 

Don't worry about getting your stitches looking exact. It's nice to have it a little imperfect, otherwise it would look factory made and that would defeat the whole purpose! Handmade items always have character! 

I also added this nice little detail!

FYI: wool suiting material can be very expensive but you only need about 1/8 of a yard (if that) and discounted remnants can usually be found in the clearance section of the fabric store.

sweater from thrift store: $3.50

wool plaid fabric: $2.50 

Embroidery thread: 2 qty. at .35 cents/ea.

heat and bond: $1.59

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Total cost: $8.29

Total time: 3 hours

***To view another great embellishing project from Kayte Terry's book, click here!***