The girl-child needed a new belt because she has no clue where the one that I made her this past summer went. I'm sure it's in one of her messy dresser drawers or in the abyss that is under her bed. It'll turn up eventually, but in the meantime, I whipped up another one for her and had so much fun making it.
(CLICK ON PICTURES FOR LARGER VIEW)
I didn't have any clear plans for the belt when I started. I measured my daughter's waist and cut two strips of felt with my rotary cutter. I put one strip of felt aside and decided to go with the green vine and see where it led me. There's just something about green vines that I love and I never know what's going to happen next. It's always fascinating to see what comes next.
After I finished that (with back stitching), I decided to go with leaves. I had some beautiful fall colored scraps of felt in my scrap bin, so I started free hand cutting little leaves and using whip stitch to embroider them on. I love little stitches. The detail and precision are very therapeutic to me.
I pinned the second strip of felt to the embroidered piece when I was done stitching and used a blanket stitch to stitch the two pieces together. I added a couple of D-rings to the end and it was done.
The colors remind me so much of the trees in the fall here in Vermont. My daughter loves the finished belt and can't wait to show it off to her friends at school once the holiday vacation is over. In all, it took me probably about 20 hours to create, but I loved every minute of it and was a bit disappointed when it was over because I wanted to keep going. That just means that I'll have to start on another one. :)
