Here is a great , fun project that children will love. A simple stick figure holding fuzzy balloons made from Turkey Rug Knot. The figure is made from stem stitch with clothing made from chain stitch. Simple stitches, simple design with lots of tactile surfaces and colours which can be changed to suit your personality and the child's preferences.
Using tulle, the design is traced using a Sharpie. This provided a nice thick line which is easy to see. To keep the pattern clean and pristine, I placed it in a plastic sleeve.
The boy and balloon strings were traced on the T shirt directly and the shapes of the 3 balloons traced onto red felt.
Turkey Rug Knot is a dense stitch and often uses thick thread or yarn in order to create a fluffy and thick finished look. To protect the T shirt fabric from this heavy treatment, I stitched the Turkey Rug Knot balloons on red felt to blend with the colour of the thread.
Using 6 strands of DMC thread colour No 817, I separated all 6 strands and rejoined them before starting the stitches. This should assist in loosening the stitches when finishing off the balloons.
Starting at the outside to the balloon edge, the Turkey Rug Knots are worked around the circle moving inwards. Once the centre is reached, and remaining thread on the needle was used to fill any gaps that I could find in the felt base.
Once the stitches were completed I cut the loops and trimmed the threads to be even. The felt was then cut out, ready to stitch onto the T shirt.
In hindsight I should have left the loops intact until the balloons were stitched onto the shirt. The cut threads were more difficult to manage and keep out of the way of my Whip Stitch than loops would have been. If you watch the "Ashley" video making the Santa patch, you will see that I completed all the stitching before cutting the loops. That order of construction worked out better.
The body of the boy is stitched in Stem Stitch in 2 strands of Black DMC No 310 . The ears are a loops of single Chain Stitch.
The clothes are also made with Chain Stitch as a fill, forming solid colours in keeping with the simplicity of the overall design. The Chain Stitch as a fill provides a great tactile feeling, as the stitches are raised. This compliments the feel of the balloons which are soft and fluffy in a child's fingers.
To tidy up the join of the Chain Stitch at the top of the shorts where it meets the shirt, I stitched a row of Chain Stitch going across the bottom of the shirt.
The shirt is stitched with 2 strands of DMC No 988, and
the shorts are stitched with 2 strands of DMC No 311.
Lastly, the felt holding the balloons is stitched onto the shirt above the strings. Here I used a single strand of the red thread and Whip Stitch to finish the project.
This is an easy, fun project which is quick to complete and uses some of the stitches we have looked at in our videos. It offers the ability to add your own personal touch. Change the colours, swap the shorts for a skirt, or skip the cap and stitch in some Turkey Rug knot hair.
I love the fact that there is so much texture in the piece. I hope you enjoy making this project as much as I did.
See our Video tutorial on Turkey Rug Knot here.
Watch Lance being created on YouTube.
Find the pattern for this project on our Resources page.
