Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Butterfly on Arlene's BB&B Block

This is a step by step, while I was doing it, account of how I made the butterfly on Arlene's BB&B RR block.
I began by tracing a picture of a butterfly onto tracing paper.  I cut away the wings from the body and tacked one wing onto two layers of a silvery organza ribbon.  I think that the ribbon was actually a bit metallic. 


Next I used a piece of the wire that I took out from the edges of the organza ribbon.  At the point of the wing where it would join the butterfly body, I couched down the wire following the edge of the paper.  I left a tail of about 1 1/2" at the beginning.  On the first wing I used white thread to couch with, on the second wing I used pink thread which didn't show afterwards because I used pink embroidery thread. 
 I used a single strand of a shiny rayon thread which I ironed flat first, and buttonhole stitched around the whole wing removing the paper pattern as I went along.  The tails of wire were a big nuisance, and I tried taping them down with Scotch tape to save my thread from forever getting caught.
I completed the buttonhole stitch and then did a little bead embellishment.
I added a bullion body and poked the wires through the fabric to the back, where I anchored them firmly.  I will sew a little piece of ribbon over the area with the wires.  I added the felers and a bead for the head

4 comments:

Annet said...

Thank you for sharing this tutorial. It looks very easy, maybe I give it a try. When did you cut the fabric around the wings, before or after you attached it?

Cathy said...

This is a great tutorial - thanks for sharing it, Diane! Your butterfly is just darling! Hugs, Cathy

Diane said...

Annet, I cut the fabric on the body side so that I could sew it down. The outside of the wing I waited until the end. It is so delicate. I think the fact that the ribbon was probably extremely fine wire makes it stronger.

ellen said...

what an awsome job you did on these bugs. I always enjoy looking at your blog you do lovely work. Ellen P