Boxing Cretan

I thought I'd have a bit of a change from doll making - I've been doing quite a lot of that lately.

I'm not sure if this is a box or a vessel, but it IS embellished with cretan stitch.


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I made one of these before, to drop my specs in. I've got 3 pairs - walking around, reading and computing - and I was always putting a pair down and losing them when I changed over. Then I started putting things like scissors, haemostats and pens in it, so I need some more.

I used the cardboard tube from a large reel of crochet cotton and some odds and ends of picture framer's board. The fabric is one of my old favourites. Chiffon and wool sliver (roving) layered onto a synthetic felt dishcloth with the embellisher machine. Then machine 'quilted' with preprogrammed stitches. It's divided into three sections inside and the lining and the base covered with oddments of fleecy fabric. I padded the lining and the base with light quilt wadding, to give a little bit of protection to the specs!

Here are a couple of views of the stitching and embellishment:


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Of course, I couldn't stop at just stitching and added beads and sequins too. And then I got really carried away and made a smaller one with the leftovers.


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I would normally use ladder stitch (zipper stitch) to attach the base but here I used cretan stitch. It seems to have worked really well and is quite decorative.

Co-incidently, cretan stitch has just been featured as stitch of the day on the Hand Embroiderers Network Blog. If you haven't seen HEN yet, do go and have a look, it's well worth a visit.