sewing purse patterns

sewing purse patterns

Your Cross Stitch is Done, Now What?

It’s been a couple of months since you’ve started the exciting journey of starting your first, second or maybe even tenth cross stitch project. It has been a wonderful therapeutic journey from start to finish, from seeing the stitch start from a simple x to a glorious masterpiece of art.

Then the question strikes you. Now what do I do with it? Most cross stitchers would just send their work of art to the frame dealer and with a little mental prayer that they don’t screw it up, the cross stitch would be framed and ready to be hang. I have to admit I’ve been hanging all my completed works. I even have a wall dedicated only for my cross stitches.

Still there are other things you might want to consider doing. Here are 7 of my fun and unique ideas about what you can do after you have completed your project. Do take note that all ideas are dependent on the size of your patterns.

1. Make a quilt.

Make small little patterns and sew them all together on a large piece of blanket, making a beautiful patchwork of cross stitch patterns.

2. Make a table cloth.

Floral or border cross stitch designs are great for table runners. Forget about buying a commercial table cloth. Show off to your guests by making one of your own!

3. Coasters

Another favorite for guests are coasters. Cross stitch at least 6 patterns of the same theme and add lace around them to transform them into little girly coasters or simply use no-fray Aida to have ready made coasters after you are done stitching them.

4. Cushion covers

Although there are plenty of ready made stitch-able cushion covers, you don’t have to use that to make great cross stitch cushions. If you have plain cushion covers in hand, you can simply sew your cross stitch designs on them.

5. Wallpaper border

This is an interesting one. You can cross stitch floral designs or alphabets on long strips of Aida and then glue it around a plain wall to liven up your baby’s room. It’s an alternative to putting up wallpaper and definitely would be something your baby would love to touch when he starts experimenting on textures.

6. Pencil case or purse

This is not a hard project to do. All you need is stitch on a bigger piece of Aida and only half of it so that when you later fold it, the design is nicely centered on one half. Of course this is entirely up to you. You can even arrange it that there are two designs at both sides. Then simple sew up the corners and add a zipper to the top. And you’ve got yourself a nice hand made purse or pencil case!

7. Head band

If you have a small rectangle cross stitch pattern done, consider making it into a head band. You only need to attach a short piece of elastic band to connect your cross stitch ends. And then it’s perfect to hold your hair back!

Get more great ideas with our stitch-able crafts at The Art of Stitch.

About the Author

Hamidah Gul is a freelance published writer whose works in fiction have been published both in print and electronically.

She also runs The Art of Stitch, an online needlecraft store with a Cross Stitch Blog.

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sewing patterns for clutch purses?

im looking for patterns for clutch purses. not small looking clutches but a pretty good sized one. i already went jo-anns fabrics and found nothing. are there sites of other stores to go to? how do designers make patterns to make these?

If you have an idea of what you want, get some newspaper and start laying out a design. You can copy from some smaller ones and enlarge as you go. If it doesn't work out, you throw it out and start all over again. The inside is where you have to do the most work, putting in pockets, zippers, if you want a divider. Let your imagination run wild. If you don't have a clutch purse, sometimes you can go to the used stores and find them for not a lot of money, and tear it apart to get a basic pattern and build from there.

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