Stitch a Folk Art Glasses Case

What You Need

8-inch square dark plum felted wool (eyeglass case body)
Scraps of pink-and-orange, pale yellow, fuchsia, and green felted wool (appliques)
8-inch square rose felted wool (eyeglass case lining)
Embroidery floss: fuchsia, yellow, light green, and dark green Perle cotton No. 8: variegated plum
Finish Eyeglass Case: 3 3/4 x 6 1/2 inches

Download the Pattern

Cut Your Fabrics

To make the best use of your fabrics, cut pieces in the following order. Felted wool is available in many quilt shops. If you want to felt your own wool, machine-wash it in a hot-water-wash, cool-rinse cycle, then machine-dry on high heat. Download the patterns below. To make pattern templates, trace each pattern on paper and cut out. Pin patterns to felted wool and cut around the edges. Because felted wool pieces won't fray, there's no need to add seam allowances or turn under edges.

From dark plum wool, cut:

1 of Body Pattern

From pink-and-orange wool, cut:

1 each of patterns A and C

From pale yellow wool, cut:

1 each of patterns A and C

From fuchsia wool, cut:

2 of Pattern B

From green wool, cut:

1 of Pattern D
2 3/8-x-2-1/2-inch stem strips

From rose wool, cut:

1 of Lining Pattern

Download the pattern

How to Make It

Use three strands of embroidery floss for all stitches unless otherwise stated.

Referring to Applique Placement Diagram, position applique pieces A-D and green wool 3/8-x-2-1/2-inch stem strips on dark plum wool body piece. When you're happy with the applique arrangement, remove B and C flower pieces; baste remaining pieces in place.
With light green floss, chain-stitch through the center of each green wool stem. To chain-stitch, pull needle up at A, form a U shape with the floss, and hold the shape in place with your thumb. Push needle down at B, about 1/8 inch from A, and come up at C to secure stitch.
With fuchsia floss, blanket-stitch around the pink-and-orange wool A flower. Using yellow floss, blanket-stitch around the pale yellow wool A flower. To blanket-stitch, pull needle up at A, form a reverse L shape with the floss, and hold the angle of the L shape in place with your thumb. Push needle down at B and come up at C to secure stitch.
With light green floss, blanket-stitch around the green wool D leaf.
With fuchsia floss, blanket-stitch the pink-and-orange wool C flower center to a fuchsia wool B flower. With yellow floss, blanket-stitch the pale yellow C flower center to the remaining fuchsia wool B flower. Place a layered flower over the end of each stem; using one strand each of fuchsia and yellow floss, blanket-stitch in place.
With dark green floss, feather-stitch tendrils around the appliques as desired. To feather-stitch, pull needle up at A, form a U shape with the floss, and hold the shape in place with your thumb. Push needle down at B, about 1/4 inch from A, and come up at C to secure stitch. For the next stitch, form a U shape with floss, insert the needle at D, and bring it out at E. Continue in same manner.

Assemble Eyeglass Case

Place rose wool lining piece on wrong side of appliqued body piece, aligning vertical edges; pin side edges together (Diagram 1). (Even though pieces are different sizes, once you fold the pieces in half, the extra wool will be taken up because of the wool's thickness.) Fold layered pieces nearly in half with the applique on top and about 1/2 inch of lining uncovered along right-hand side.

With variegated plum perle cotton, start in the bottom left-hand corner and blanket-stitch through all four layers along the bottom edge until you reach the bottom right-hand edge (Diagram 2). Catching only the top three layers (the dark plum front of case and two rose lining layers), continue stitching up to the upper right-hand corner. Catching only the top two layers, blanket-stitch over to the upper left-hand edge, then across the top edge and down the right-hand edge to complete the eyeglass case.