DIY Embroidered Cactus Hat | Popcorn and Chocolate

Embroidered Cactus Baseball Hat

DIY Embroidered Cactus Baseball Hat | Popcorn and ChocolateThis cactus baseball hat was made  on a whim but I quite like how it came out! As you know, I’m a little bit crazy about cactus and could easily be called a crazy cactus lady. When I was deciding what to put on this baseball hat, a cactus was the first thing that came to mind. Now I can wear my cactus baseball hat and carry my crazy cactus lady ego everywhere I go.DIY Embroidered Cactus Baseball Hat | Popcorn and Chocolate

DIY Embroidered Cactus Baseball Hat | Popcorn and Chocolate

Although, you don’t have to embroider a cactus baseball hat, you can embroider anything your heart desires – my heart just desires cactus, apparently.

DIY Embroidered Cactus Baseball Hat | Popcorn and Chocolate

Materials:

How to make a cactus baseball hat:

  1. Start by drawing your design onto your hat using an embroidery pen (don’t worry it washes off).DIY Embroidered Cactus Baseball Hat | Popcorn and Chocolate
  2. Next, thread your needle with your embroidery thread and begin filling in your design. I used a simple stitch by starting on the back of the hat and pulling the needle through to the front and then bringing the tread across the hat and back through to the back of the hat. I’m not an embroidery expert so I don’t know the proper lingo.DIY Embroidered Cactus Baseball Hat | Popcorn and Chocolate
  3. Continue to fill in your design. Once you are done tie off the thread on the back of your hat.DIY Embroidered Cactus Baseball Hat | Popcorn and Chocolate
  4. To make the little flowers on the cactus I used little french knots, to find the tutorial for that click here.

DIY Embroidered Cactus Baseball Hat | Popcorn and ChocolateThere you have it, a fun way to update your baseball hat! Let us know in the comments below what you would embroider onto your hat! Or, what else I should embroider on a hat! It would be fun to embroider a whole bunch of cactus onto a hat but I’m not sure I have the patience to do that.DIY Embroidered Cactus Baseball Hat | Popcorn and ChocolateBe sure to pin this diy for later and share it with your friends who might like to make it!

DIY embroidered throw pillow | Popcorn and Chocolate

Embroidered Home Sweet Home Throw Pillow

DIY Embroidered Home Sweet Home Throw Pillow | Popcorn and Chocolate

I love coming home to a cozy house and a inviting couch full of fluffy throw pillows. This DIY embroidered throw pillow says it all – home sweet home. In my dream apartment I’ve got a huge couch just bursting to the brim with throw pillows to the point where you don’t know where to sit. This embroidered pillow will be sitting in the center of it.

DIY embroidered throw pillow | Popcorn and Chocolate

Doesn’t this pillow make you just want to curl up on the couch?? If so, you can find the full tutorial on how to make this DIY embroidered throw pillow over on Homedit.

Embroidered home sweet home pillow | Popcorn and Chocolate

Click here for the full tutorial.

Or pin this image if you want to check it out later! And if you are looking for more home decor DIYs click here!

DIY Embroidered home sweet home throw pillow | Popcorn and Chocolate

Embroidered pencil case for back to school | Popcorn & Chocolate

Embroidered “Stay Sharp” Pencil Case

DIY pencil caseWhat happened to summer?! Just a few weeks ago we were sitting on the beach playing backgammon and eating our key lime pie ice cream. I can’t believe it is already that time when kids are going back to school and the leaves are starting to fall and the weather is getting cooler. I ain’t complaining though; I love the fall. It is definitely my favorite season.

DIY embroidered pencil caseDIY embroidered pencil case | Popcorn & ChocolateLast year we enjoyed quite a few adventures in New Hampshire. I can’t wait to go hiking again and carve those pumpkins! But before any of that fall stuff happens, kids have to get back into the swing of school, and that means buying school supplies! That was always my favorite part of going back to school: getting all the supplies you needed for the year ahead.

Hand-stitched pencil pouch | Popcorn & ChocolateHand-stitched pencil pouch | Popcorn & ChocolateThis year we have a fun, embroidered pencil case that you can make yourself to add to your pile of school supplies. It is fairly simple to make in that I haven’t embroidered much before and I was able to make it. We embroidered “stay sharp” on our pencil case as a cute little reminder to well, stay sharp when working.

Embroidered pencil case for back to school | Popcorn & ChocolateThis pencil case is the perfect addition to throw in your school bag to keep all your brand new pens and pencils together. Plus, since it is handmade, you don’t have to worry about anyone else having the same one.

DIY Embroidered pencil case | Popcorn & ChocolateSo grab your embroidery thread and canvas and read below to find out how to make this embroidered “stay sharp” pencil case!

Materials:

Instructions:

  1. Cut a piece of canvas to the size you want your pencil case to be. We cut ours to about 9.5 inches by 9 inches. Remember to cut it long enough that folding it in half will be the size you want it. You want to leave extra room on the sides because you will be sewing up the sides and you’ll lose a little room with your stitches. Definitely air on the side of too big.
  2. Next determine what phrase you want to put on your pencil case. We chose stay sharp. If you fold your canvas in half, you will be writing the phrase in the middle of the top half (with the opening at the top and on the sides). Once you have a phrase or word in mind, either hand write or trace this onto your canvas with the embroidery transfer pen. We typed out the phrase on the computer and traced the font onto the canvas. I would recommend spacing your letters out a little bit to make the phrase easier to read.img_1997
  3. Once your phrase is written, you can place the embroidery hoop over the first few letters to make the canvas tight.
  4. Thread your needle with embroidery thread and knot the thread at one end.  Starting with the needle in the back of the canvas, pull the needle through to the front all the way until it hits the knot. Next, take your needle and about 2 centimeters away from where your needle just came out, following your stencil, poke the needle back through so it is now on the back of your canvas. Continue this running stitch until your whole phrase is filled out.
  5. To tie off our embroidery you will flip the canvas over so you are looking at the back and using your needle, thread the needle through the previous stitch to create a loop. Then thread the needle through that loop but hold your finger in the loop you’ve just created because you’ll want to double knot it. Pull the first loop in tight to the stitch in your canvas and you should now be holding a second loop. Now thread your needle through the second loop and pull all the way. These instructions are useful if you’re confused! I’m describing the knot that they did in the green thread. 
  6. To create the little polka-dot-balls, or french knots as they are called, take a new piece of embroidery thread (can be pretty short) and thread your needle and tie a knot at the end of the thread. Poke the needle through from the back to the front of the canvas and then holding the thread in your left hand and the needle in your right, wrap the thread around the needle twice and then place the needle right next to where you just pulled it out and push it through to the back of the canvas while holding the thread in your left hand tight. Tie the thread off and repeat wherever you want little dots!

    DIY Embroidered pencil case

  7. Sew the zipper onto the top of the canvas by using the same running stitch as the lettering.
  8. Leaving the zipper open, flip your pencil case inside out and sew each side together using the running stitch. If you do big stitches, you may want to stitch up and down each side to make sure your pencils don’t come poking out!
  9. Flip your pencil case back so it is no longer inside out and you should have a fully functioning and cute pencil case!

DIY 'Stay Sharp' Embroidered Pencil Case | Popcorn & ChocolateI know this DIY might see a little bit more involved and daunting than some of our others, but honestly I have little to no experience sewing and embroidering and I was able to make this stay sharp pencil case all by myself. I’m quite proud of myself and can’t wait to fill it with some pencils and pens and carry it around with me. So, go ahead and give this DIY a try and let us know how it comes out!

Embroidered pencil case | Popcorn & ChocolateIf you are looking for some more fun back to school DIY’s you can check out our color block and ombre wooden pencils or how about some emoji magnets to add to your locker?!

Hand-Stitched Pencil Case | Popcorn & ChocolateUntil next time, stay sharp my friends.

P.S. if you were interested in the cute patch on my backpack you can find it in our Etsy shop All Wool and No Shoddy

Homemade Patch on backpack

Embroidered stay sharp pencil case | Popcorn & Chocolate

DIY Embroidered Cork Board Leaf Coasters

DIY cork board embroidered leaf coasters | Popcorn & ChocolateSorry for being a bit MIA the past week. I would say we have been busy and what not but really we haven’t, we’ve just been lazy bums. Sometimes all I want to do when I get home from work is sit my bum on the couch and watch TV and eat cookies and drink tea. While that is all fine and dandy, we do enjoy this blog and are trying to make some fun things to share with you all (whilst balancing work and those occasional lazy days we all need).

DIY cork board embroidered leaf coasters | Popcorn & Chocolate DIY cork board embroidered leaf coasters | Popcorn & ChocolateToday we have one of said fun things to share with you. We have created embroidered cork board leaf coasters! They are super cute and a lot of fun to make! Plus, they are perfect for your Thanksgiving table or just out and about for an extra seasonal flare.

DIY cork board embroidered leaf coasters | Popcorn & Chocolate At first, we knew we wanted to be able to embroider different patterns on the leaves but didn’t know how we could go about doing this. That is when the lovely cork board came to mind. It is perfect because not only does it already look sort of leaf colored but you can also easily embroider into it to make any design your heart desires.

DIY cork board embroidered leaf coasters | Popcorn & ChocolateWe printed out basic leaf stencils from the interweb and then Rose stenciled them onto the cork board and cut them out using an exacto knife. This was a bit more of a delicate process than one would think, so be careful with your cuts. Cork board tends to rip and break off, and you wouldn’t want your acorn to lose its stem now would you? As you can see some of our poor acorns heads got a bit chopped off. But, ya know, nature ain’t perfect!

DIY cork board embroidered leaf coasters | Popcorn & ChocolateFinally once we cut out all the leafs and acorns our hearts desired, we began to embroider. For this, we took embroidery thread and took only 4 of the strands of it. We found that using all the strands was too thick for the cork and made bigger holes in it than we wanted. We used a regular needle for embroidery and just remembered to knot the thread before we started. Again, be careful at this step because the cork can break easily. If you have to undo a stitch, just be careful pulling it back out that you don’t break anything. We played around with different patterns and styles on all of the different leafs. We also chose fun bright colors so you would really be able to see the string.

DIY cork board embroidered leaf coasters | Popcorn & Chocolate

This craft was a lot of fun to do! I’m not much of an embroiderer but I didn’t let that stop me from trying. You can do simple stripes across (like with our acorn) or simple stitches outlining the leaf. Or, get more fancy if you are a true embroiderer and make some funky designs! We would love to see what you guys comes up with!

DIY cork board embroidered leaf coasters | Popcorn & Chocolate

Embroidered Cork Coasters | Popcorn & Chocolate