These are the buttons I made for Michelle's Embroidered Button Swap. I had never made embroidered buttons before and it was considerably more challenging than I'd expected. As you can see, they're not particularly uniform!
I ended up making them like this:
First I cut a little whale out of fusible webbing-backed wool felt and pressed it onto some linen.
Then I wrapped the felt shape with perle cotton floss . . .
. . . until it was completely covered.
Then I backstitched around the whole thing.
Next, I added an eye and spout.
To create the "water," I sewed a little scrap of fabric directly under the whale embroidery.
To create the "waves," I hand-stitched a row of baby ric-rac along the top of the "water." Then I used a little template to cut the whole thing into a circle before stretching it over the button form.
They kind of remind me of those animals that JCrew embroiders on everything (which cracks me up). Hopefully whomever receives them has a preppy project in the works!
