The Christmas Challenge. How to embroider Grub Roses.

I find Grub Roses really useful. We have already covered so many ways to use them to embellish either a pre made item or something you have made yourself. They are pretty quick to do too once you get the hang of them.

I love to combine embroidery with crochet edgings. They are a match made in heaven I think!

Several ladies have asked for a tutorial which I am attempting! I hope this encourages anyone who wishes they could embroider to give it a try. For everyone else this is going to be dead boring! You do not need to have any experience to learn these so if you have ever wanted to learn this is your time!

Firstly you need to know a couple of things that will help immensely.
No. 1 thing is you need the right needles. People fail at bullion stitch not realising that anyone will fail with the wrong needle.

You need Straw Needles. The feature here is that they are dead straight with the same thickness all along. Some needles are tapered and thicker in the middle section which doesn't work.

And you need cotton like this DMC which has six strands together. You need to cut your length and divide off two strands. That is what we are going to work with and this is easiest to learn.
Later you can do other cottons, silks, wool etc. But start here.

To make Grub Roses you need two stitches. French knots and Bullion stitch.

For French knots you are simply coming up through your fabric and wrapping your cotton around your needle.

Hold the wrapped "knot" with your thumb so it stays at the base and pull your needle through the fabric. Then back into the fabric right next to that knot so all you see is this little knot.
This You Tube clip is a good demo of how to do a French Knot. This shows things better than I can hope to explain.
These basic stitches end up being very useful for many things not just roses!
With learning anything on You Tube be prepared to stop it, go back and over and over as much as you need until you get it. You do not have to hurry. I like to hold my needle and copy as I watch.

This week just work rows of French Knots. Pretend you are working a sampler of stitches and just work rows of knots. For your roses your aim is plump little French knots.


Next we want to learn Bullion Stitch.  Again this stitch will be useful in many more ways than just roses but they are going to form all your petals. Just go slow and learn how to wrap around your cotton and pull the needle through and secure those stitches!
Here is your You Tube clip that shows it well.
Bullion Stitch.

Do the same as before, just work rows of these. At first they look like drunken and wayward grubs and nothing like a rose! But get good at these.

You will think rows of these will never end up being roses. But once you know these roses will be easy to make! Trust me on this!

These are the foundation steps to success!
Next week we will start to add our Bullion stitch right next to our French knots...

And then how to build them into roses.

So homework is to get your needles. If you cannot find Straw needles look for long needles that are the same thickness all along except for the point of course.  Plus some stranded cottons and a bit of fabric to practice on.
Work rows of French Knots and Bullion Stitches!  You will see the Bullion stitch has two ends. Learning where it will start and where it will end and laying the "grub" in between is a key skill that will soon have you making roses.

That is enough for one week!

Next week we will finish this rose tutorial and really it will be time to go onto Christmas crafts!  I will have made my Christmas cakes by then. I can see these are going to give me quite a few gifts as I have more dried fruit than I thought!

What are you working on at the moment? How is your present cupboard looking?

I hope the week is going well! Yesterday I got the first coat on my front door! One more to go! Another big think to tick off the list!
xxx