Embroidered Butterfly #14 {Dingy Skipper}

On June 22, 2025July 12, 2025 By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs7 Comments

Greetings friends!

Once again I missed my Friday/Saturday posting day, and have landed on a Sunday (again!) so I think I should just change my posting day to sometime-between-Friday-and-Sunday! I might just be able to stick with that over the summer…the sunshine is just too distracting and I tend to put off sitting and physically typing up until last minute and then find I dislike the photos I’ve taken for said post (which is what happened this week the original ones were really dark).

Still, I’ve got a new needlework butterfly to share with you! I became quite attached to the teeny tiny Dingy Skipper I met during my recent exploration of Penhale Dunes and I wanted to create one to add to my ever growing collection of handmade butterflies.

This is #14 on my Embroidered Butterfly challenge – only 62 more to go!!! If I can make at least one a month that means it should only take like another four or so years!

Dingy Skipper (Erynnis tages) is found in Britain and Ireland but becoming kinda rare. Its grey-brown wings are covered with mottled brown markings and two lines of white spots.

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Embroidered denim jacket {Pt.2}

On June 1, 2025February 19, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Art2 Comments

Hello my friends and welcome!

I scheduled this to post last night (Saturday) but for some reason it didn’t work!?

Anyhoo…

This week I thought I’d post a super quick update of the progress I’ve been making on my embroidered denim jacket!

Watching Alice In Wonderland (the 50’s disney cartoon) is literally one of my favourite childhood memories (along with Sleeping beauty) and I just love the Wildflowers so it made total sense to decorate this jacket with them.

I can only embroider the denim for a few days at a time as its so thick it just hurts my fingers too much (I’ve actually taken to wearing plasters as I hate thimbles!) and I’ve removed the rest of the stick ’n’ stitch paper as it had begun to unstick in places. My new plan is to reprint the design and just stick on each flower as I go – it also makes it look a little less daunting.

So far I’m incredibly pleased with how its looking, the Dandy-tiger is my favourite as it look so 3D!

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Embroidered denim jacket {New project Pt.1}

On April 12, 2025April 26, 2025 By ArtyMissKIn Art4 Comments

Hey friends,

I don’t know about you but as a craft minded person I sort of have a craft bucket list of all the things I’d really like to make (or at least have a go at!) something I’ve always wanted to create is an amazingly embroidered one-of-a-kind denim jacket!

I found this particular jacket at my local thrift joint about eight months ago and totally fell in love with its ridiculously long sleeves, its a bit big but the sleeves are just too cool, plus its really soft.

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A Collection of Crochet Flower Bookmarks

On March 29, 2025April 4, 2025 By ArtyMissKIn Art, Crochet tutorials5 Comments

Hello my friends!

If like me you’re in the UK then you’ll probably know that tomorrow is Mothering Sunday, so this week I wanted to post a super quick crochet flower bookmark idea/pattern tutorial.

They don’t even need to be limited to bookmarks either, they look super cute tied onto bags or even door handles!

I’ve only really just started learning to crochet (I’m teaching myself!) but these bookmarks are so simple to make. To start this mini project off I bought a pack of Hello 100% Cotton 12 Ball Yarn Pack – in a mix off bright and happy colours, but to be honest flowers come in so many shades I don’t think it really matters what ones you use.

Over the last week or so I’ve made almost thirty to gift to the important women in my life and thought I’d share a couple of patterns incase you wanted to whip up a couple yourself!

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Embroidered Butterfly #13 {Brimstone}

On March 14, 2025March 29, 2025 By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs5 Comments

Hey friends!

This week I’ve got a new needlework butterfly to share with you, I became quite attached to the little male brimstone that over-wintered in my butterfly house (my fun and fancy shed!) that wanted to create one to add to my ever growing collection of handmade butterflies.

This is #13 on my Embroidered Butterfly challenge – only 63 more to go!!! If I can make at least one a month that means it should only take like another four or so years!

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Embroidered Butterfly #12 {Monarch}

On February 1, 2025February 8, 2025 By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs7 Comments

Hello my friends!

This week I’ve got a new needlework butterfly to share with you and I’ve been really looking forward to making this one! The Monarch is a beautiful orange and black butterfly that spends its time between Canada, America and Mexico.

As a side note I’ve decided to up the official tally of 61 to include an extra 15 or so butterflies considered to be extinct species of and rare migrants to the UK. As I want to include some of the other rare migrants we occasionally get like the Monarch as well as some of the ones considered extinct in the UK like the Bath white and Large copper – these butterflies still exist in Europe just not here. So my new total is 76! These 15 extra butterflies are all found in The Pocket Guide to the Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland by Richard Lewington, with really lovely illustrations.

This is #12 on my Embroidered Butterfly challenge – only 64 more to go!!!

The Monarch is the largest and possibly the rarest butterfly seen in the UK – in 2023 just three were seen in here. Unfortunately the caterpillars feed on Milkweed plants which aren’t native to the UK, explaining why the butterfly hasn’t bred here, so sadly I’ve never actually seen one of these in the wild.

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Embroidered Butterfly #11 {Grayling}

On January 17, 2025February 8, 2025 By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs6 Comments

Hello my friends!

Back in the autumn I posted a One frame of a rare Grayling and I wanted to create a needlework version for my butterfly challenge. My actual plan was to post this a couple of weeks before Christmas but everything got a little bit on top of me and I never got round to it.

It was awesome to see a basically endangered species just living its best life out in the wild!

These butterflies have a real life wingspan of up to 6cm and as it aways rests with its wings together which is a shame as they’ve got such pretty markings! I created a male as there’s very little difference between the two sexes.

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Embroidered Butterfly #10 {Comma}

On November 9, 2024 By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs8 Comments

Hey friends!

Last week I posted a bonus Butterfly tale about a Comma butterfly that I accidentally rescued on a nettle plant – a rather ragged brown and orange chap who usually lives in the woods, I felt so super excited to have fostered one of these so late in the year that I couldn’t help but want to create a needlework version.

Comma have a real life wingspan of up to 6cm. There isn’t too much difference between and males and females (which I’m glad about as the pattern was super fiddly!) All in all my needlework version has a wingspan of about 11cm to keep it inline with my ‘twice life size’ scale.

Its been great to create a different wing shape, the ragged edges were so much fun to try and recreate although the wire was so uncooperative! I know I say this with every one I make but this one is definitely my favourite so far.

Also this rather lovely fella is #10 on my needlework butterfly challenge (whoo-hoo I’m in double figures!!).

That’s a wrap for this week…another butterfly finished only another 50 or so to go!! I’m really hoping that you’ll stay with me while I needlework my way through our native butterflies. Thank you so much for checking out this post!

Embroidered Butterfly #9 {Red Admiral}

On October 12, 2024October 25, 2024 By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs2 Comments

Hey friends!

A few weeks back I posted a Butterfly tale about raising a bunch of Red Admiral butterflies and I’ve enjoyed their company all summer (in total I will have raised 60 of them this year) so I had to make a needlework version which is #9 on my embroidered butterfly challenge!

A Red ad has a real life wingspan of about 7.2cm, so its definitely one of our biggest butterflies. My needlework version has a wingspan of about 14.5cm to keep him inline with my ‘twice life size’ scale, so it just beats the Peacock I made recently for size. (Weirdly when I think of Red ads they’re always boys, I have absolutely no idea why.)

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Embroidered Butterfly #8 {Peacock}

On August 9, 2024October 25, 2024 By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs4 Comments

Hey friends!

Happy Friday! This week I’ve got a new embroidered butterfly to share with you…

Last week I posted all about my recent experience of raising and caring for nine Peacock butterflies – a very pretty red fellow with large eye spots reminiscent of peacock feathers, I became so attached to the caterpillars and then later the butterflies in my care that I couldn’t help but want to create a needlework version as I really missed them once I released them into the wild.

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