On the Seventh Day of Christmas, Embroidery Gave to me ...

Butterfly Wings and Beetle Juice

The third in the series of Casket Keepsakes, both in order of release and the order in which I stitched them, is Summer. This kit contained two more needlework accessories – a beetle thimble holder and a butterfly needle case.

The design for the butterfly wings is preprinted onto the silk ground fabric which is prepared in the same manner as the silk for the Winter Keepsakes. There are four wings with embroidery on either side, so eight wing sections in total. The foundation stitching is satin stitch in Amy’s hand dyed silk. The front of the wings are then embellished with metallic threads, sequins, beads, and discs of shell that attached using Shisha Stitch. Only the outer edge of the wing backs are embroidered, a piece of felt in which to store needles, is appliqued to the centre of each wing. The front and back of each wing are joined with lacing stitches that are covered with couched pearl purl.

The abdomen is made from fabric covered straws. Long parallel stitches are made along each segment of the abdomen. These stitches form a warp thread through which rounds of thread are woven to cover the abdomen. One half is woven with heavy twisted silk; the other with chenille. The chenille is extremely delicate and shredded easily. The straw abdomen serves as a vile for needles and is closed with a wooden spindle.

The head is made from a large wooden bead prewrapped in metallic thread, with two tiny bronze beads for the eyes.

A paper template is supplied for making the legs using covered wire that is bent to match the template and then covered in Hedebo stitches. This was a new stitch for me and it took me two or three attempts to get the hang of it. There are three pairs of legs for the butterfly.

The wings are joined to form a needle book and then assembled with the legs and body into a butterfly.

© Amy Mitten/Carol-Anne Conway

The beetle wings are embroidered onto a piece of green linen. A “thread” is constructed by wrapping a heavy twisted thread around a wavey metallic. This is then couched, in slightly spaced rows, across the wing. Although a little fiddly, this is quite simple to do but the effect is quite stunning, and very difficult to adequately capture in a photograph. The outline of each wing is then worked in backstitches over the wrapped metal trim. The pieces are cut out and assembled into two separate wings.

The thorax is worked over a paper template covered in sticky back plastic that is formed into a cone. A silicon ring is first couched to the cone. Buttonhole stitches are worked over the ring. The remaining threaded used to work the buttonhole stitches is then used for the horizontal bar. Rounds of detached buttonhole stitches are worked through the stitches on the previous row and under the horizontal bar, increasing as necessary, to cover the cone.

The head is fashioned from bronze kid leather with two gem stones beads for the eyes. I think the head is quite ingenious; I could not see how it could work until I attached it to the thorax and it morphed itself into a beetle’s head.

The beetles legs are made using the same techniques as used for the butterfly legs except that the six legs are made as a single piece together with the body. The wings are attached to the body which is then molded around the thorax head structure before the thorax is joined to the wings/body. The thimble is stored in the thorax which is closed with a pair of finger looped braids.

© Amy Mitten/Carol-Anne Conway

Of all the pieces in this series, it was the one that least caught my attention. It is such an ingenious casket toy and so pretty in real life that it is, thus far, my favourite Casket Keepsake.

Happy stitching