To get my new studio’s stitching nights off to a great start, I decided to create a few small projects to share with my fellow stitchers. First up were my lavender sachets, then we made Alabama Chanin flowers from Alabama Stitch Book, and last month I decided to try something a little different.  I had been practicing the techniques is Natalie’s latest book, The Geometry of Hand Sewing, and I thought it might be fun to use some of my stripe stenciled scraps to make cuff bracelets.

Soon I had several different cuffs to use as examples. I even made one example really simple with just a running stitch for my friend who swears she can not sew.

I got so enamored with the idea, I decided to go big. I fell in love with Natalie’s idea of building up stitches to create elaborate combinations and the example on page 87 of her Geometry of Hand-Sewing book really spoke to me so I decided to give it a try.

I decided for a cuff, I would want the stitches all in gray, so what to do with this sample? Why, make a reading glasses case from it. We were all just joking during my last stitch night that I should have lots of magnifiers around to help with needling our thread.

Here’s what my activity looked like at my studio night. I tried to give them lots of options with different color backings and beads. I also had several strips sewn out and couching ropes.

With a little help from me and The Geometry of Hand Sewing, all of my friends made really cute cuffs – including my friend who can’t sew

 

Even though it is the end of summer I really wanted to make myself a white cuff with some scraps I had, so I came up with this:

And here are a few of the details:

 

 

 

And now I want one in every color!