Fun with Buttons

 My DH gave me a gift of an online course with Chrissie Juno Mann, that also included a tour of Chawton Cottage with a focus on the needlework. I am now considering how to find very fine muslin to make a shawl like Jane Austen made. Despite having to get up early enough to start at 7 am (3 pm GMT), I thoroughly enjoyed the class. Chrissie is lovely, and an excellent and patient teacher, and all the ladies attending were very nice. 

The kits contained excellent linen that was easy to work on. Bullion stitch puts quite a bit of strain on fabric, and a bullion rose even more so, but it was fine. I ended up pulling a couple of colours from my stash. Chrissie mentioned doing a variegated rose by changing threads, but I decided to be lazy and just use variegated thread! And as I was looking, I saw some nice blue perlé thread and couldn't resist making forget-me-nots (knots?). I like the trellis stitch background but I think I might tack things down with a contrasting colour next time.

And here is the rose and forget-me-nots done up as a button.

I tried something a bit different for the second button. Using perlé for the rose rather than stranded floss. I really like this look too. And I'm very happy with the buds.

When both buttons were done, I cut down the plastic shanks a bit with my heavy duty Kevlar strength scissor, then put in some thick felt, and stitched the two buttons together with herringbone stitch like I do with ornaments.

The one nice thing about a quick project like this is that it rejuvenates you for the longer projects, so I'll get back to my waterlilies tomorrow.

Next week I've got another online class. "Caps & Coifs: Exploring Embroidered Headwear in the Tudor and Jacobean Periods" with Relics in Situ. I've attended several of their lectures, and one other with an embroidery project, so I know it will be fun.