Summer Butterflies.

A few sunny days this Summer has meant a lot of butterfly stitching in the garden. I love sitting in the sun, snipping tiny fragments of fabric from my scrap box and hand sewing them into place to create butterfly wings. I try to be as accurate and close to the real thing as I can, part of the challenge is finding the perfect fabric and I quite often use the backs of prints for a subtler shade, or even paint up ‘grounds’ of calico in just the right colour. Sometimes I add a sprinkling of hand embroidered stitches for extra texture. A lot of fiddly hand sewing goes into each one before they are finished off with machine stitching.

Here are a few of this Summer`s butterflies so far.

A selection of finished butterflies out in the sun.

Orange Tip.

Scarce Copper.

Small Blue.

Holly Blue.

Moorland Clouded Yellow, Clouded Yellow and Small Heath. These brooches are a dainty 7cm across.

Brimstone.

I think Orange Tips are my favourite to make. I spotted quite a few real ones this Spring for the first time here.

Cranberry blue.

Clouded Yellow. I love the soft illustrations in this vintage field guide book.

Four little ‘Cabbage Whites’. I couldn`t decide which one to make so I made them all!

Large Whites.

Small Whites.

Adonis Blue.

A larger Large White.