Tag Archives: Orange Tip butterfly

July 13, 2014 · 8:13 pm

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.

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Filed under butterflies, embroidery, hand embroidery, machine embroidery, recycled fabric

Tagged as Adonis blue butterfly, Brimstone butterfly, butterflies, butterfly brooch, butterfly soft sculpture, Clouded Yellow butterfly, Cranberry Blue butterfly, embroidered butterfly, fabric butterfly, Holly Blue butterfly, Large White butterfly, Moorland Clouded Yellow butterfly, Orange Tip butterfly, Scarce Copper butterfly, Small Blue butterfly, Small Heath butterfly, Small White butterfly

March 6, 2014 · 10:31 am

A Few Makes For Spring.

It hasn`t been a cold Winter, but it`s been a very long, rainy, dreary, dark and depressing one. Everyone is longing for the Spring, and now we`re into March it feels as though it`s almost here. It`s still quite chilly, but there have been one or two sunny days, and it`s wonderful to have an extra hour or two of daylight in the evenings.

I thought I`d share a few bright, cheery makes that look forward to Spring.

A sunshine yellow Brimstone butterfly.

Stitched flower brooches.

A few twin heart brooches.

New butterfly heart brooches.

And a pair of Orange Tip butterflies fluttering over some lovely vintage fabric in cheerful shades of pink and orange.

I`m longing for long sunny days and really hope we have another Summer like last one. The clocks go forward in a few weeks so at least it will be a lot lighter, thank goodness! Like lots of people I find Spring a really energising and inspiring time so I`m really looking forward to exploring lots of new ideas.

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Filed under butterflies, embroidered brooches, embroidery, flower brooch, little heart brooch

Tagged as Brimstone butterfly, embroidered butterfly, fabric flower brooch, flower corsage, heart brooch, orange, Orange Tip butterfly, pink, Spring, yellow, yellow butterfly

November 1, 2013 · 8:36 pm

Four Butterflies.

These are some butterflies I`ve been working on this week. They are part of the little collection that I`m sending down to Made in Britain in a few days.

My version of an Orange Tip. I think this one is my favourite. I try to make my butterflies as close to the real thing as I can, although on a slightly larger scale!

An Adonis Blue.

A male Large White. I`ve made a few of these white butterflies now and really love layering white on white.

A female Gatekeeper.

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Tagged as Adonis blue butterfly, butterflies, butterfly soft sculpture, butterfly textile art, Gatekeeper butterfly, Large White butterfly, Orange Tip butterfly, stitched butterflies

July 16, 2013 · 2:21 pm

Butterfly Summer.

This is turning out to be a bit of a butterfly summer for me. I`ve been developing my stitched 3d butterflies, thinking of them as little soft sculptures as well as brooches. My recent ones are all based on real butterflies and I`ve been trying to make them as realistic as possible, layering tiny pieces of fabric and stitch and even incorporating little pieces of calico that I`ve hand painted to just the right shade. They are miniature labours of love!

The butterflies have gradually been growing in size, culminating in my Red Admiral which measures just over 14cm at its widest point. This would be rather large to wear as a brooch, but would look striking perhaps pinned to a curtain. All my new butterflies would be equally at home pinned into a little box frame, or hanging on the wall just as they are, the brooch pin on the back will hook happily onto a little panel pin.

I`ve been adding a few butterflies to my Etsy shop, although some people have been buying them directly from my Facebook page where they`ve been having a wonderful response, which is really encouraging.

I`ve loved making these butterflies, especially with the gorgeous summer weather we`ve been having recently. I sit on an old quilt in the garden, with my butterfly books spread out for inspiration and surrounded by scraps of cotton, handstitching the first stages of the butterflies, then coming in from the heat to the cool of my sewing room to finish off with machine stitching. Perfect! I`ve been more aware of butterflies in general too, spotting lots in the garden and on walks, although I can`t always get a good look to identify them properly. I`d love to be able to identify them as easily as garden birds, I only know a few at the moment. I`m looking forward to making more butterflies and also perhaps incorporating them into larger embroideries inspired by their evocative names.

This has been a wonderful summer so far, in fact it`s wonderful to actually have a summer for a change! Long may it last, although the garden would love a little rain- maybe just the odd shower at night!

Here are a few of my new butterflies:

Small Copper