Sewing Sweet Treats: Embroidered Ice Cream Cones

1. Welcome to my Studio: Hi, my name is Beca. I'm a full-time teaching artist and I work in a micro Studio in Minneapolis. I worked primarily in fabric and paper or using surface design techniques like embroidery and printing to create my designs. I teach here from my Studio in online classes like this one. But I also do a lot of classes in museums and libraries in my community and with conferences and fiber ART guilds around the country. I've won a few awards for my work and I even co-authored a book about surface design on fabric and paper. This class is a very tasty introduction to some Hand Embroidery. I'm gonna teach you three different stitches. And then we're going to combine them together to make tiny ice cream cones. This class is great for beginning stitchers, or if you want to just learn something new, I'll show you all of my favorite tools and materials, will learn and practice three different stitches. And then we'll combine them all together to make some stitched pictures of some sweet treats. I love embroidery because it's a FUN, portable project. You can take anywhere. You don't need a lot of tools and materials to get started. In fact, if you're a crafty person, you probably have what you need already in your stash. The best part is that once you've learned a stitch, like the ones we'll do in this class. You can use it for so many different kinds of projects. If you're ready to start Stitching, then choose your favorite flavor and meet me in the next lesson where we'll get started. 2. Let's Stitch Ice Cream Cones: Let's talk a little more about our class project. We're going to be Stitching ice cream cones. Why did I pick ice cream? If you do search of beginning embroidery, you will find the same basic project over and over a sampler with straight lines of ten basic beginning stitches. I'll tell you a little secret. Those are boring. Instead, I like to choose groups of stitches and put them together into a picture. You're still learning and practicing just like you would with one of those samplers. But you're doing something more than just putting the stitches and along straight line, you learn more when you get to choose the placement and the spacing of your stitches and different ways to combine them to make different shapes for your design. In this class, we're going to learn three stitches. The woven picot stitch, the buttonhole bar, and the figure eight knot, which is one of my favorites. I chose them because each stitch has a specific shape and we'll be able to stitch them side-by-side to make something that's more than the sum of its parts. Here's how we'll get there. First, we'll talk about tools and materials you'll need to make your project and choosing colors for your design. Next, we'll get setup and ready to stitch. That includes things like threading the needle, conditioning your thread and tying a knot. Then we'll spend a lesson on each of the three different stitches. So you'll have lots of chances to practice. Finally, we'll put those stitches together to make ice cream in our favorite flavors. Last, I'll finish off with some tips for finishing your projects and ideas for what to do with the picture that you've stitched. We all want to know what your favorite flavor is. So be sure to post a picture of yours in the Class Projects. Are you ready to go? Find a comfortable chair and some good light? And then start thinking about what's your favorite ice cream flavor. That's important. In the next lesson, we'll talk about the materials you need and then we're ready to start Stitching 3. Tools & Materials: Okay, Let's jump in and talk about the tools and materials you'll need for this class. Very first tool you will need is a pair of small sharp scissors. These ones that are called micro Tips by whiskers are my very favorites. So the next tool you'll need is a needle for doing your stitching. I wanted to tell you about three different kinds of needles and I've taken a close-up picture of these so I can put it up on the screen a little closer than you can see in the video. So my favorite needle for doing embroidery is the one on the left-hand side, and that's called a chenille needle. So chenille needles have a really big I and a sharp point. So that's why I like them best for doing embroidery. Now you might not have heard of a chenille needle before. But if you go to your favorite craft or Sewing store and you look at the display of all the different kinds of needles, just look for the ones labeled chenille. There'll be there. The next one I want to tell you about is a tapestry needle. So tapestry needles you've probably seen in a really large size. Those are the ones they used to weave in ends if you're a knitter. They also make them in this small size doing stitching. So tapestry needles are different because they have a rounded or a blunt point. So you might use a tapestry needle when you need to do a stitch where you're not stitching all the way through the fabric, but just like weaving in through the threads. So one of the stitches we're gonna do in this class, it might be handy to have a tapestry needle. The last one on the right-hand side is a regular embroidery needle. And you've probably heard of these embroidery needles are great if that's what you have to stitch the project. They have a little bit smaller I, so there are a little bit more challenging to thread. It's hard to find one that is the right size to use with your thread. So how do you know what's the right size? My best rule for you is to match the size of the needle with the size of the thread. So if you're using a thicker thread, you'll want a thicker needle. So thicker diameter, thicker width, and a thinner thread wants a thinner needle. If you can match up those two things, you have the perfect needle for your project. You don't have to worry about what size it's labeled. For your project. Look for a chenille needle or an embroidery needle and match that up to the size of your thread. Will talk about thread next. For this class, we are going to use six stranded embroidery thread, which looks like this, and you've probably seen it before. So this is cotton thread and it comes in a bundle like this that is six strands all held together. And when you stitch, you can use all six strands or you can separate it out and use any number of the individual strands. So it's very versatile. It's a great thread for this. I'm going to use six stranded embroidery floss for this class. But I wanted to talk about another kind of thread in case you have some of this because this is really my favorite one to stitch width. And that's called pearl cotton. Pearl cotton is a little bit different. It comes as a single-strand that stays altogether. So this is a size eight, which is a smaller one. And this one is a size five, which is a thicker thread. They're both pearl cotton. They're equivalent to the sides. Five is about the same as six strands of this floss. And the size eight is about the same as three strands of this floss. Now, you can find pro cotton like this in many different kinds of formats like here are just some of the ways that it comes. All of it is pro cotton embroidery thread. They just package it in different ways. I have in the Resources which is down below, you can download for this class all of my favorite kinds of threads with all the details and places you can get them if you want to check that out in the Resources section. Finally, let's talk about fabric. So if you are imagining in your head and embroidery class, you probably are thinking of an embroidery hoop like this with some fabric in it. This works great and you can absolutely stitch your project on fabric like this. But I actually have a different kind of fabric, which is my favorite. That is a wool rayon blend felt. There are two reasons I love stitching on felt, especially for beginners. The first is that when you finish your project, you can cut out and do all kinds of different things from your Stitch felt fabric because felt it doesn't come apart or fray like regular fabric does. You can see that here. So it's easy to finish your project into something else. The other reason I love felt is because it's kinda thick. It's got some thickness. So when you stitch through it, it helps you with the tension on your stitches to make sure that you don't pull things too tight. And to keep your stitches kinda smooth and even So I think it gives you an advantage. It, it makes the Stitching easier. Now, I said, I like wool rayon blend felt, that's my favorite one. It's a little bit different than crafts store felt. And I'm gonna put a picture up on the screen so you can see that up-close. Most craft stores carry acrylic or polyester felt. In my photo, That's the kind of turquoise and the green colored ones. There's a reason I don't like that quite as well for stitching on. First is you can see in the picture it's got a little bit of shininess. It's basically made from plastic. And so it ends up looking a little bit shiny and plasticky. I don't love. That's up to you if that bothers you or not. The other reason I like the woolen rayon blend is because it's a little stronger. So that polyester felt is held together just with the plastic, kind of melted one fiber to the next one where we'll, and Rahn felt the properties of the fibers. The roughness of the fibers is what's holding it together. So the woolen Rahn felt tends to be stronger. Your project's going to last longer and you can do more things with it. That's just my personal preference. So you can choose the kind of felt that works for you. Um, and you can absolutely practice on anything you've got hanging around in your Sewing space. Let's recap about what you'll need specifically for this project. So first, your small sharp scissors. Next, you'll want to choose the needle you want to stitch width and make sure that your needle matches up with the size of the thread you want to use. Then finally, you will need a couple of small pieces of felt fabric. That's what I'm going to stitch on. You just need some kind of small scraps. It's easier to work with a small piece than it is a full sheet when you start Stitching. Okay, last, Let's talk about color. Now remember how I said you should think about what your favorite ice cream flavor is. That's going to help you figure out what colors to use for your project. You'll need kind of three different colors to make your ice cream cone. The first one is you need some kind of a shade of brown to make the Cone. So you can choose a lighter brown, a darker brown, whichever you like. Next, you need your ice cream flavor. So you need to think about what color makes the kind of ice cream you like. Vanilla chocolate, maybe mint chocolate chip. And then finally, our ice cream cones are kinda fancy. They have a cherry on top. You need a shade of red or hot pink that you can make your cherry for the top of your Cone. Then finally, you need to choose a background color that you're going to stitch on. The only rule I have about the background color is you should test out the colors that you've chosen to stitch width and make sure that they show up against that background and nothing is blending in so that you'll see all the parts of your design. So be sure and do a little color check and make sure that what you've picked looks great together. Once you've gathered all of your materials, then it's time to move on to the next lesson and we're going to talk about setting up your project so we're ready to start Stitching 4. Preparing to Stitch: In this lesson, we're just going to get setup and ready to stitch. First thing we need to do is get some thread. So I'm gonna grab my six stranded embroidery thread. For the first part of this class, we're just going to practice each of the stitches so you can use any color you want to, to do your practice stitches. I want you to find the end and we're going to pull off about 14 " of thread. And a good way to measure that if you don't have a ruler in your head, is to grab the end of the thread in the tips of your fingers and measure all the way back your elbow. And that'll give you a great almost 14 inch length. We are going to use this thread, all six strands all together for this project. So you don't need to separate anything out. And now we need to thread the needle. Now before you do that, I want to show you one of my very favorite tips Ever, which is how to make your own paper needle thread or for that, you need just a scrap of paper. I just tore a piece off of a little notebook that I have in my Studio. And I want you to cut just a little slip of paper, like a french fry, about an eighth of an inch wide and a couple of inches long. So I've got just this little sliver of paper like this. I'm going to take that strip of paper and I'm going to fold it in half so that it makes a V, a letter V. Okay? Grab one under your thread. And we're going to put that inside the paper, inside the V and then close it up. Like so. And now this is where you're gonna love the chenille needle if you haven't with a big I. Because instead of threading the sort of wiggly soft end of the thread through the needle. We're actually going to put the ends of the paper through the needle. So I am going to just slip the ends of the paper inside the eye of my needle. And now I'm going to pull on the paper. When I get to where the thread is kind of meeting the eye of the needle. If I just kinda give it a little wiggle, I can pull right through there. Your needle is threaded and you can save the little slip of paper you can use over and over again. They make needle thread errors that are a little piece of wire. And I always break those. I really like this better. I think this is a better tool. Okay? You have your needle threaded in the opposite end of your thread. So the one that is the other side not in the needle, we're going to tie a knot. And I like to do just an overhand knot. Again, there are lots of different kinds of knot. So if you know a different way to Taiwan, go for it. But I do Wrap around the tip of my finger. I just make one loop around. And then I pop the loop off the end of my finger. Then I grabbed the free end of the thread and just stuff it through that loop. So then I can just pull it tight. And that'll make us single naught. And that should be plenty to hold this in place for what we need. Okay, so we've got a knot in one end. We have the needle in the other. I've pulled through a couple of inches. So through the eye of the needle just enough so it'll stay. Then one more thing I want you to do with the thread before we're ready to stitch, is we're gonna do a little motion like this where it looks like I'm padding the thread. I'm just running it through my fingers four or five times. And what I'm doing, this is called conditioning the thread. I'm pushing extra twists out of it. So I'm not doing anything special with my hand other than just smoothing it and pulling it backwards. But what that's doing is it's helping the thread kind of relax, get some extra kinks and twists out of it and it'll be way less likely to knot up while you're stitching. If you just take a second to do that every time you thread your needle. Okay, so our thread is prepped and ready to go. And I got a piece of fabric ready to stitch on, like I said before, a smallish piece. I think this is a six inch square, is a great size to start on. Once you've got your thread and your fabric ready to go. Then we'll move on to the next lesson and we're ready to start stitching the woven picot stitch 5. Woven Picot Stitch: The first stitch we're going to learn is the woven picot stitch. So you should have a piece of felt, your needle which is threaded with six strands of embroidery, floss, your scissors. And then we'll need one other little tool to do this stitch, which is you need either a Sewing pin or an extra needle. We're going to use that to help hold part of the stitch as we're doing this Stitching. So I chose a woven picot stitch because the woven texture of the stitch, I think looks like a waffle cone. It also is a stitch that looks like a long skinny triangle, which is the shape of an ice cream cone. So to start your Stitch, I want you to grab your pen or your extra needle. And the first thing we're gonna do is place that so that it's going to hold onto a part of our thread. So I'm gonna take my needle or a pin and put it down into the felt and then up again. And the space between when I where I went down and up is going to be the height of our Cone. Okay. So mine is a little wider than like the width of my thumb. It's about maybe three-quarters of an inch. Okay. Now I'm going to take the thread and I'm going to bring it from the back to the front. And I'm going to start out so that I'm in line with where the pin is coming out. So I'm gonna go just in that same line over to the left-hand side. And I'm bringing my needle out about a quarter of an inch or so to the left-hand side of the pin. And this is my needle here. I'm gonna pull that through. Okay, so you can see where the thread is coming out. So the top of our Cone, the top of the triangle shape is gonna be about half the height of the Cone. That's kinda what we're going for to make this look like it's the right kind of shape for an ice cream cone. Next step, I'm going to take this working thread. That's the one that's coming out of the fabric. And I'm going to hook it around the bottom of my pin or needle. Okay. So I'm just bringing the thread kind of behind the back of it. And now I'm going to make a stitch down on the right-hand side. Again, kind of lined up where the pin and the thread are coming out. And the same distance from the left to the right. So the same distance from that center, which is the pin. And I'm gonna pull that through. Okay, so you now have a V of thread. And if you can imagine, this is kinda the outside edges of your ice cream cone. This is a great place to look at your stitch and decide if it looks like the right shape for what you want. And you can always go back and try it again if you don't like the shape of your Stitch. Okay. We have one more straight stitch to put in and these are gonna be the foundation for the woven part of the woven picot stitch. The third stitch, we're gonna do, the third part. We're going to come up in the center, just to the left-hand side of your pin. And again in line with the top. So all of the stitches are gonna kinda be in a straight line across. So I'm going to come up just to the left side of the pin and pull that through. Okay? And this is going to become a center thread that's gonna go down the center of the Cone. And same way we did with the very first one. I'm going to take this again and hook it underneath the other side of the pin or the needle. Okay. So now we have three legs. Kinda looks like a letter W or maybe like a bird foot kinda shape. Those are the foundation stitches. So now we're going to start doing the woven part of Logan woven picot stitch. And I mentioned you might need a tapestry needle, needle with a blunt point to do this part of the stitch. So you could switch needles now if you want to. Or I'll show you another trick which I use all the time. Which is instead of pushing the needle through with the sharp pointed end, I'm actually going to turn it around and use the eye of the needle, the sort of blunt or rounded I as the part I'm going to use to do the weaving. And if that doesn't make sense, I'll show you what I mean. We're going to start weaving in-between these three threads that we just laid down. And we're gonna do just a plain weave, which means I'm an alternate going over and under the threads. I'm going to start over here on the right-hand side. I'm gonna go over the right thread. I'm gonna go under the middle thread. And I'm gonna go over the one that's on the left, over, under over. And I use the eye of my needle to do that because I'm just slipping under the threads. I'm not going through the fabric. And then I'm gonna pull this through. And Push it down towards the tip, towards where the needle is going into the fabric as far as I can. Okay. Now the next row, we're gonna go back the other way and we're gonna do the opposite of what we did. Now, I think it helps a little bit to turn your project a little so you can. The angle is a little better. So now we're doing the opposite. So the last time I went over the outside thread, so this time I'm gonna go under it. So under over the middle thread, under the outside thread. And I'm going to pull it through. And I just wanted the edge of that thread to line up with the outside thread of our Cone. I don't want to pull it so that it bends in because then we're going to lose that cone shape. So I just want it to rest up against. And I'm going to take my fingernail just kind of and push that thread as far down towards the tip of the cone as I can get it. Now we're going to continue making rose, just going the opposite. So we're gonna go back-and-forth, kind of in a zigzag pattern. And we're gonna do the opposite of whatever we did the last row. Okay, So last time we went under this outside threads, so we're going to switch and go over under the middle and over the outside. Pull that through just so it rests against the thread and then give it a little push down if it needs it. Okay, We're gonna go back left to right, opposite again. So I'm gonna go under, over, under, pull that so it just rests against the outside and push those rows together. Hey, and I'm just going to continue the same way. Going back-and-forth. An alternating, whether I'm going over or under. Now, if you lose track and you can't remember if you're on a over or an under, you just have to look at where your thread is coming out. So right now, I went under this last one because I can see that's where the thread is. The next one. I just want to do the opposite of that. And hopefully you're starting to see that waffle woven texture happening. Now, I'm going to speed up the video so that you don't have to watch me do this in real time. That way you can pause the video here and continue your stitching. And then we'll catch up altogether when we've gotten all the way to the top of our Cone. So we're going to continue the same thing we've been doing until we've filled up all the way to the top. Okay. I've almost filled up my entire Cone. I can probably fit one or two more rows in there. I can see just a little bit of the stitches left. So I'm gonna go ahead and do that. One or two more. All right. There it looks like I'm pretty much filled up. So to finish this off, the last thing I'm gonna do is I'm going to make a little stitch from the front to bring my thread to the back. So I'm just gonna go over that last outside thread again, right close to the top and just stitch back to the back of the fabric. Okay, Now I'm done with the weaving part so I can take out the pin, which has been kinda stabilizing it and holding it stays in the right shape. But if you notice when you pull the pin out, I'm this little picot that you just made is actually loose. It sits up off the fabric, which is very cool if you want to use it to stitch things like leaves and other stuff. But we want the Cone for our ice cream to kinda stay down on the fabric. So I'm gonna make one more stitch and I've got my needle just still here in the back. So I'm just going to bring my needle from the back. I'm going to catch the very bottom of my Cone, just kinda anywhere in the bottom of the tip. And I'm going to make one little stitch to the outside. I want to make sure there's a long stitch on the back. I want to make sure I'm not pulling that tight so that it's like puckering up the fabric. So just so that your, your thread is laying across the back. And I'm gonna make a little stitch just to the outside edge so that I'm tacking down the tip of the ice cream cone. Okay. There is my finished Cone. You can kinda smooth out the rows of Stitching, of weaving with your fingernails and kind of shape it a little bit. And then the last thing you wanna do is to tie a knot in the back to finish it off. So here's my favorite way to tie a knot. Make sure you've left yourself enough thread. This one's a little bit short. I'm going to look at where the thread is coming out of the back of the fabric. And I'm going to make just a tiny little stitch, like a little bite out of the felt right close to where that thread is coming out. So I'm not going all the way through to the front. I'm just kinda taking a little like a half stitch through the felt. I'm gonna pull that through. But I'm not going to close it all the way up. I'm going to leave a loop. Okay, so here's a loop, my threads little messy. So I got a loop there. I'm going to take my needle and go through the loop once. And then through the loop twice. So I'm going through it twice, kinda go in the same way. So I've got two twists around. Then I'm going to lay this down on the table. I'm gonna take my fingers and put one on either side of that loop. And then just give this a gentle kind of pull. And that's going to pull a knot right down against the back of the fabric. I'm just pressing down with my fingers to make sure that the thread snags down right up against the back and then you can trim it off. I like to leave about a finger's width of of tail end of thread when I trim it to make sure that the knot doesn't pull itself out. We have one woven picot stitch, which will be the Cone for our ice cream cone. So I would like for you to practice making a couple of Cones, a couple of woven picot stitches, until you're happy with them. And then you can move on to the next stitch in the next lesson. 6. Buttonhole Bar Stitch: Okay, next we're going to stitch the ice cream part of our ice cream. And we're gonna do that with a buttonhole Bar Stitch. So when we finish our ice cream cones, we're gonna do three buttonhole Bar stitches. I'm kind of nestled one against the other. But to practice we're just gonna do one. So I have another piece of thread. I switched colors, but you can use any color to practice with. And we're going to start this one out. Same way. I've got my needle threaded, I've got a knot tied. I'm going to bring my thread through from the back to the front. For the buttonhole Bar Stitch, it's a little bit similar to the woven picot stitch. We're going to lay down a couple of Stitches that'll be like the base or the foundation that we're stitching against. And then we're going to do another stitch over top of those. These ones have a lot in common. The buttonhole Bar Stitch, I'm going to make a long stitch. That's gonna be the width of the stitch that I want to Make. I'm going to make mine about a half an inch wide, which is about as white as my fingertip. So I'm just making one long Stitch going across. And then I'm going to make a second stitch exactly like that right next to it. So just really close. So they're touching each other. I'm going to bring that one through and ended at the same spot. So I've got two long stitches that are just sitting one next to the other. So that's the bar part of it. Now we're gonna do a buttonhole stitch on top of that. So I'm going to bring my needle out at the left-hand side and I'm bringing it out just below those two stitches. So right up against it, just so I can bring the thread to the front side. Now, this is another one where I feel like it's more comfortable to stitch if I turn it this way so that I'm stitching away from myself. You can hold it however, makes sense to you. But that's the way that it makes sense to me that I like to. And I'm also going to flip my needle around again. You could also switch to a tapestry needle, but I'm going to use the eye of the needle because once again we're gonna be slipping underneath these stitches instead of Stitching through the felt. So I'm going to take my thread first. I'm going to move it over to the left-hand side. And I'm just holding onto that with my thumb. I want to make sure that it ends up in the place I need for it to be for the rest of this stitch. So that's always my first step. I move the thread over to the left. And now I'm going to slip the eye of my needle underneath the bar. And I'm treating those two stitches as if they're One thing. I'm sliding underneath both of them. And before I push that all the way through, I'm going to take my working thread. That's the one coming out of the fabric. And I'm going to slide it underneath the needle. I'll do that movement one more time so you can see it. I'm taking my working thread and I'm just wrapping around the back of the needle and then laying it down. Okay. And now I'm going to grab the needle and pull it all the way through. And you'll see as I'm tightening this up, it's kinda making a little knot over the bar stitches. I'm pulling towards myself, which will slide that down towards the bottom edge of the Stitch. Okay, now we're going to repeat those same steps. I'm going to bring my thread over to the left. Just kinda hold it with my thumb. I'm going to slide the eye of my needle under the bar. And then before I drag it, pull it all the way through, I'm going to take the working thread and Wrap around the back of the needle. Okay. Then I'll pull through. And once again there's a little knot That's tightening up on the bar. And also the same as we did with the woven picot stitch. You can kinda push those knots together towards you. We're going to fill up this whole bar using this same stitch. I'll do a couple more Slow. Thread goes over to the left. Needle, goes underneath than the working thread goes under the needle. Pull it through. Okay. Thread to the left. Needle goes under, Wrap the thread around the back, push through. And I'm going to hold this up close to the camera. So you can see there's a row of knots happening over top of the buttonhole bar. Once again, I'm going to speed up the video so I can finish the last few stitches here. I'm going to try and fill the whole space here and pack the stitches together. And then you can join me again. We'll get to the top and we'll finish it up. Okay, I've filled my bar with buttonhole knots. And now to finish off this stitch, it's gonna be very similar to the woven picot. I'm going to make a little stitch to the outside edge. And if you look, your thread is kinda coming out of a little loop. The stitches kind of looped around it. I want to stitch to the outside of that loop right at the end. So I'm bringing my needle down right there. I'm going to stitch that down to the back. Now when you look at your buttonhole bar, there's one edge that's got like little loops that go around it. And then the top edge looks like it's got little diagonal knots on the top. Now you might notice sometimes these buttonhole Bar stitches want to twist, they want to wrap around and the knots will end up moving to the other side. That's completely fine. Like that's very normal. The way that these Knot sit, that's a natural thing that's stitch wants to do. Now, I think it looks kinda FUN because I'm imagining that this is like a twist ice cream cone, like soft serve. And so sometimes those have little ripples. So I like it when the ripple happens in the stitch. So if yours are a little bit twisted, no worries. Okay, so that's a buttonhole Bar Stitch. We're gonna do three of those to make our ice cream cones. So again, I'd like you to practice till you feel comfortable with that stitch. You can replay the video and follow along. And then we'll move on to the last stitch for our ice cream cone, which is the figure Eight Knot 7. Figure Eight Knot: The last stitch we're gonna do is called the figure eight knot. And this is one of my favorite embroidery stitches. Now you'll notice I don't have my needle threaded for this one because we're gonna do something just slightly different. We're going to thread the needle the same way. But instead of using just a single strand of thread, we're actually going to double this up. So I'm gonna pull this through so that I have two strands that are sitting side-by-side. And I'm going to tie both of the ends together. So it's gonna be doubled up in my needle. The reason that I'm doing that is because the size of this Knot, the size of the stitch is based on how thick the thread is. I want to make a little bit extra large knot so that we can see this. And this will be the cherry that's on top of our ice cream cones. Okay, So I now have a double-strand of thread going through my needle and I'm going to treat this like it's one thread. So I don't have to worry about splitting them apart or anything. We're going to pretend like this is one thicker thread. To do this not I'm going to bring my needle from the back to the front and pull until it stops at the naught. Then this one works in three steps. The first step is we're going to lay the thread onto the fabric. So we're going to draw a shape with the thread before we do anything else with the needle. And what we're gonna do is make a loop that goes clockwise. So here's what I mean. I'm gonna take my thread and just make around clockwise motion so that I've made a loop of thread. Okay, I'll do that one more time so you can watch me do it again. I'm taking my thread and just making a clockwise motion with my hand. So I've got a loop that goes clockwise. Okay. I'm going to hold it down with my thumb just so that the loop stays. Now I'm going to step to take my needle and I'm gonna go under the right side of the loop. I'll tip that so you can see the needle a little better. So I'm going under the right side of the loop and the tip of my needle is coming out in the center. Then I'm going to make sure that the tip of my needle goes over the left side. And I'm going to tip it down so that I'm putting the point of the needle right back down into the fabric right where the thread came out. Okay. I'm not going to pull that through. I'm just going to wait here for a second. I'm gonna grab the working thread, which is the one that's attached to the eye of the needle here. And I'm going to let go with my thumb and gently pull on this. It's going to make a knot right down at the bottom of my needle. Once you've got that knot resting down against the fabric, now you take the needle and this is step three, and you pull it all the way through. Okay? And that has made a little map that sits on this surface of your fabric. These are neat. I'll try to take a picture of one really close up so you can see they make a very symmetrical kind of three lobed, not when you finish them. So let's do a couple more together. I'm going to bring the needle from the back to the front. Step one. I'm going to draw a clockwise loop with a thread. So I go around. So I got a loop and I'm holding it down with my thumb. Step two, I'm taking the needle and going under the right side of the loop. Tip comes out through the center. I'm going over the left side of the loop and then tipping my needle tip down so that it's going in, right beside where the thread was coming out of the fabric. Now I can let go with my thumb, grab a hold of the working thread here, and gently pull the knot down to the base of the needle, right by the fabric. And then pull the needle all the way through. Let's do one more needle from back to front. Clockwise loop. Under, over, back into the fabric. Like go of loop. Pull the threads down to the base and pull through. There are three figure 8 kt, which will be the cherry on top of our ice cream. Now figure 8, kt are based on the size of the thread to sue. If you want smaller knots, you use smaller thread. And of course, thicker thread would make bigger knots. You can tie these off the same way we did with the previous stitches. By making a little stitch partway through the fabric on the backside. I'm going to pull that down until I have a loop. I'm gonna put my needle through the loop once and twice. Fabric goes down on the table, finger on either side to hold it down and give that a little pull and then trim it up. Okay. When you are comfortable with those three stitches, then we'll move on to the next lesson where we'll put the three together and we'll start making ice cream cones. 8. Assembling Your Ice Cream Cone: Okay, Now is the Fun part. We're going to take those three stitches we just learned and put them together into ice cream cones. So we'll start with a woven picot stitch. And remember the first step is we're going to put the pin in where the top and bottom of our Cone wants to be. I'm going to make mine again about three-quarters of an inch tall. It's a little bit wider than the width of my thumb. And I'm gonna put the Cone a little bit below the center because I'm trying to stitch my ice cream right in the center of this felt piece. So that'll be on the bottom part and I'll put the ice cream on top of that. I'm going to speed up the video as I stitch this because we've already gone through all the steps of these stitches. And then I'll join you when it's time to put the ice cream on top of the Cone. Okay, step one, I have stitched my woven picot, which is the Cone of my ice cream cone. Next I want to switch colors. I'm going to stitch the ice cream part of this in this pale green. Maybe it's mint chocolate chip or pistachio. Again using six strands of embroidery thread. The next stitch is the buttonhole bar, which we learned. And we're gonna do three buttonhole Bar stitches. And I'll put a picture up on the screen of a finished ones so you can see this as I'm talking about it. We're gonna put three stitches, one on top of the other. The first one, we're going to make just a little bit wider than the ice cream cone, than the next one will make just a little bit narrower. And the last one will make even a little bit narrower than that. So it makes that soft serve ice cream cone shape that tapers towards the top. So I'm going to start my first stitch. Again. I like cooking with this kind of sideways so I'm stitching away from me. I'm going to bring my thread up right at the top of the Cone. But just slightly to the outside edge. I want it to look like it's almost dripping over the edge. Okay, And first step of this one again is to make those two bar stitches right on top of each other. Okay? And then I'm going to come up again at this bottom or the left edge before I start doing the buttonhole stitch. Now, this will be just a little tricky because you're Cone is a little bit in the way. So just make sure when you are sliding underneath this Bar Stitch to make the button holes that you're not catching any of your Cone colored thread. So once again, I will speed up and I will check back with you when we've finished this first buttonhole bar. Okay, I stitch to the end of that buttonhole bar. So I'm going to make a little stitch to the back to finish that off. And then I have enough thread that I can just stitch my next one without having to tie it off and start again. So I'm going to start at the same way, but this time I'm going to start to the left-hand side of my first set of stitches. And I'm going to make this one just a little bit narrower. So I'm gonna go in maybe two stitches worth. And start with my double bar again. Okay? And you can see it's right next to that first set of stitches. Now I'll bring my thread back to the front. Once again, do the buttonhole stitch over top of that next set of bars. Kf finished the second one. We have one more to go. I'm gonna do it the same way as the previous one. I'm going to come in about two stitches width. So it's just a little bit narrower again. This last one goes fast. It's a very short. Okay, there's the third row of my ice cream. I'm gonna make the stitch towards the back. And now I can tie that. Okay, Let's step is to put the cherry on top. Of course, we're gonna do that the same way as we practiced with a double thickness of thread. And I'm making my mind pink of time. Okay, so I'm doubling up the thread and tying the two ends together. And I'm going to start this one right in the center, right on top of that last buttonhole Bar Stitch. Hey, so I'll bring my thread from the back to the front. Okay? Making my clockwise loop. Going Under out through the center, over the left side, tipping down into the fabric. Pull that tight, and then push the needle through. In the next lesson, I'll talk about some ways to finish off your project so you can make something Fun With Your Ice Cream Cone 9. Ideas & Tips for Finishing: Okay, last, Let's talk about finishing up your project. So here are a few things that I've finished already, and this is the one that we just finished stitching in the last lesson. So you can look first at your felt and decide if it looks like it needs a little touch up, if it's wrinkled or needs a little bit of pressing. These ones look pretty good. But if you knew need to, you should grab a terry cloth towel. And you can press your piece by turning it over so that you are working from the backside. And then just take a warm iron and you can iron the backside of it. Now the reason you use a towel is so that there's a lot of like airspace in the towel and it will not flatten your stitches when you take the iron and put it on the backside. So if you need to get wrinkles out or just kinda get everything smoothed out, you can iron from the backside. And then you can decide how to finish it. So you can make all kinds of things because your piece is stitched on felt. And I'll show you some examples of things that you can make in some photos. But one thing that I love to do is because these are ice cream cones. I think they make really great birthday cards. So these examples, I cut the edges with a pair of decorative scissors that are called Thinking shares. So I've got a pair here. They cut zigzag edges, and I have another pair that cut a scallop. So this is one of my favorite ways to just add a little, something FUN to your felt. So I can just use these and trim a little scalloped edge. Okay, so I've got a little decorative edge now. And then I have just a piece of colored scrap picking paper like card stock that I'm just going to make a card. So I'm going to fold it in half. And then my ice cream can go like so. My favorite way to finish this is to grab just a regular glue stick. I'm gonna glue stick it down to the cover of the card. And that way it will stay put and not move around. So I'll do that first a little bit on the backside. And then I like to stitch this down to the card. I'm going to use one of the colors that we used before. So I've got a little bit of pink thread left in my needle. And for this I like to just use a running stitch. Running stitch you probably have seen before. This is the one that just basically goes up, down, up, down. It looks like a dashed line. So I'm going to open up the card and I'm just going to stitch down through the paper and the felt. So I'm going to come up through here and I'm just going to make long stitches through both layers. If you have really thick card stock, you can use a pin or a push pin to help you kinda punch holes through it to start with. This one is pretty thin so my needle goes through pretty easily. Okay. There's my finished card. And if you don't like the Stitching showing on the inside, you can cover this up with a piece of decorative paper. So I hope that gives you a couple of ideas of what to do with your finished project. Of course, be sure to post a photo of your project in the project section below. 10. Thank You & Wrap Up: The first and most important thing to say is hurray, you've learned three new stitches. And thank you for spending time stitching with me. Remember, you've learned not just to Stitch Ice Cream, but three different stitches, so you can combine those and lots of different ways. Here's one example of those same stitches. To make something completely different. I'd love to see the creative ways that you come up with to put the stitches together and what you make. Be sure to tag me on Instagram if you post something FUN. If you have question or even a tip you want to share with other students, be sure to post those in the class discussion down below. I love to chat with you and I would love to answer your questions. And finally, if you want to know more about what I'm thinking of for my next Skillshare class. Other things I'm teaching what I've got in my Etsy shop. The next fabric I'm designing, or even just more pictures of my dogs, Stanley, you can find all of those at my website, that garan.com. I hope to see you in another class very soon.