NFSAL 2020 - October

Welcome to the tenth part of this year's NFSAL posts! This month I not only finished the stitching but I did a pretty fancy finish to it too! I got pictures made for part of it but I didn't take photos of the lace edging I crocheted as I'm not really very good at crochet and was making it up as I went along - I can tell you what I did so if you know how to do basic crochet then you too can achieve the finish I did!

This month's NFSAL looks quite fancy like this doesn't it? I'll put the instructions below - first I'll give the pattern in case you just want to download it and finish it differently.

You can download the pattern here

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As for how I made it...

• I used a piece of fabric as per the fabric sizes for one pattern as per the information post and stitched it in the centre. 
• You only need the one square - it's big enough to make the back too as you can see below.
  
• Then I added a backstitched outline two stitches away from the edge of the stitching. 
• I made the stitches two stitches long - except for the centre stitch which I made only one stitch long.
• Then I stitched a diagonal backstitched line from one corner to the centre of the side.
• When I turned the corner I made my first stitch go straight down before finishing the line at a diagonal. 
• This is needed because otherwise the whole piece will be off centre as it's not an even number of stitches.
• Repeat this for the other sides till you return to where you started.

Then I cut it out - you can either eyeball 1/4" - 1/2" seam allowance or measure it out - as long as there is enough it's not too important how wide it is. I did quilting for many years so am not too bad at eyeballing so did that.

Fold over the diagonal seam allowances and pin or clip in place. I added a clip at the centre too to help it stay flat.

Fold over at the straight seam allowances - I used a clip to keep the corners under control.

The points will more or less meet at the back. As you can see I still have the clips in place at this point - they didn't last too long as they got in the way.

Bring your thread up at the exact centre of the point and carefully slide your needle under the first two stitches - this can be a bit fiddly. Pull the needle out and work towards the corner sliding the needle under each pair of threads as you go. If you work from right to left (or vice versa if you prefer!) the whole time it's called whip stitching (if you didn't already know this)

• When you get to the corner you need to go through diagonal stitch on one side and that singly straight down stitch on the other side. 
• At this point you can decide to go left or right next - I went left. 
• As the first stitch of the next side pick up the diagonal stitch on one side and the straight stitch on the other before going down the paired diagonal stitches till you get to the end. 
• Finish the thread.
• Go to the next corner along and start in the same way as you did the first corner.
• When you reach the corner take a moment to put a stitch through each of the other corners to avoid a hole in the centre.

• When you are about half way along stuff it as full as you like making sure to have stuffing in the open bit that you still need to stitch - you do want stuffing in the final corner as well.
• Continue stitching till the corner is almost closed and make sure the final corner has enough stuffing - if not add a bit more.

When you get to the final corner finish the thread.

At this point I decided it was a bit too naked and put plan A into action: add a round of crochet slip stitches.

One round of crochet slip stitches later (adding one chain stitches at the corner) and I decided it was still too bare. I spent an age looking at patterns but they all relied on two things:

1. Knowing how many stitches you had.
2. Multiples of stitches (say 5) and 5 extra - which was difficult since I didn't know how many stitches I'd ended up with AND didn't feel like counting them 

So... I decided to just have a go and see where I ended up. I added (US terms only, sorry):

• A round of single crochet - I added two stitches per stitch in the corner - you might want to do two stitches in one stitch before and after too.
  
• A round of double crochet - here I tried to adjust the lack of stitches in the corners and did three in the centre corner stitch, and two in each of the extra stitches added before. It was much better after this.
• For the final round I did 4 chains and a single crochet per stitch.

Click to have a closer look.

And all done. I finished the thread by weaving it down towards the pillow and burying the ends into it.

What I used: DMC as per the pattern. Durable fine crochet cotton in white. A 1.00 mm crochet hook.

 

I hope this was helpful and you like the pattern! 

 

Have fun stitching and see you tomorrow for the next part of the Mini Magical Mystery SAL 15!