The Festive Collection
Embroidery & Sewing Patterns for Christmas
In all honesty, I feel as nervous as I am excited to share this first embroidery & sewing pattern collection with you. Excited...to connect with like-minded creatives and share our passion for hand-making gifts. Nervous...because I want to serve you well, with every detail just right. So, I thought I'd ease myself in gently and tell you the story behind this collection. There have been beautiful souls, places and cultures that inspired the designs...and I wanted to share them with you.
This collection brings together embroidery patterns and companion sewing designs to help you create personalised, reusable Christmas gifts.
Inspired by Family and Handwritten Traditions
You probably know of my seamstress grandmother Kathleen, but I was doubly blessed. My paternal grandmother, Barabara, was an equally wonderful woman. She was an expert knitter and baker. And we spent most of our time together in her kitchen, baking and dancing to Neil Diamond amd Julio Iglesias. I still have some of her handwritten recipes. This Christmas Cake recipe is particularly precious to me...what you can't see is that on the other side of the page are my spellings with her gentle, helpful notes. That little piece of paper captures those years and her compassionate heart to share so much of her life with me.
When I started to design the embroidery for The Festive Collection, personalisation was at the heart. I wanted you to have designs that enabled you to make your gifts unique and personal, with names & monograms. Embroidery with its ability to create long, elegant lines would be perfect for the task, but I couldn't find a font that fitted just right. So I decided to make one. And of course I reached for that little piece of paper for my inspiration. I can never quite capture granny's writing...she belonged to an era where writing on paper was the heart and soul of correspondence and was given such pride. But my font is a little ode to her, my expression of gratitude and reminder to myself that these women gave me so much. So let me show you the Barbara font...it is a joy to stitch with smooth, connected lines that sit just beautifully in thread. You can see it at work in The Mistletoe Monogram and The Winter Vine Name embroidery patterns.
Classical Influences and Colour
As a child I was obsessed with Ancient Rome. In school we took Latin classes that included not just learning the language but delving into the history and culture. It mesmerised me. It helped that we had the loveliest teacher who encouraged our learning and I continued studying Latin until I was 18. I know it still influences me today, as you can see by my little brass wreath (and the fact that I can still say some slightly offensive words in Latin, haha). I had Rome on my mind as I designed The Winter Vine...with those elegant, pointed flower petals that appear so often in Roman wall and mosaic art. And it's the reason I decided to include two colourways for The Mistletoe Monogram. It felt important to have a traditional green and white expression for this design. But when I experimented with dark blue fabric and monochrome shades of mocha on thread I knew I had to share it with you too! Yes, can you believe it's actually 'mocha'...don't those DMC shades gently sparkle like gold on the blue?!
A Community Celebration
When it came to choosing a colour palette I had two inspiring forces. We have been watching The Chosen with our children. And still with my head in Rome, I couldn't help but be drawn to the Roman costumes. A palette of deep blue, plum red and gold stole my heart...a little untraditional for Christmas but I love the soft yet striking feel of this combination.
At the same time, plans were underway for the Why Not Stitching Christmas Market. I am a member of this beautiful community and after learning so much at our Business Club together, Anastasia decided to create a digital Christmas Market! A wonderful way for us to celebrate the season and each other, and share our work. As we got little peeks of the website I realised my colour palette for The Festive Collection coordinated with the artwork on the site beautifully.
The WNS Christmas Market will take place online from 17th-23rd November...you will find an array of handmade, embroidered goods from all over the world. I hope you find something beautiful. And thank you...by shopping there you are supporting a small, independent maker who has poured her heart into hand-making every item for you! (And I will see her wee face gleaming in our weekly meet-ups because of you).
Companion Sewing Patterns for Your Embroidery
If you've read the story of how I accidentally discovered intentional crafting (you can catch up here), you'll know I couldn't leave your beautiful hand-embroidery with nowhere to go!
These reusable sewing patterns offer an eco-friendly alternative to wrapping paper, allowing your embroidery to become part of the gift itself. The sewing patterns include...
The Drawstring bags
A set of four sizes (designed to fit the most common embroidery hoop sizes perfectly).
The Christmas Sack
Includes quilted and non-quilted versions (giving you flexible creative options).
The Christmas Stocking
Includes optional quilted and decorative variations (designed to beautifully showcase your embroidery).
Enjoy exploring the collection and I hope it serves you...not only as a canvas for your beautiful creativity but at the core, as a vessel for your huge heart for others as you lovingly hand-make your way to Christmas.
Much love & enjoy every stitch
Lisa xx