Crossstitchforum - A FREE forum for Cross Stitchers

This is my first posting on this website so Hi to all. I've been stitching forever it seems and I'm usually keen to try new stuff but the current trend for biscornu seems to elude me. How many pincushions can one person use?

However I'm quite interested in making some Humbugs for gifts and tree decorations and would like to have a crack at designing my own. Can anyone tell me if there is an optimum ration height to width for the piece used eg should it be twice as long as broad for example.

Thanks in advance for any help

Hi Nikki and WELCOME its great to have you along.

I've never heard of stitched humbugs so can't help but I am sure someone will be able to help.

Heres a site I've bought from in the past.
Its their tutorial for assembling humbugs and other small things.
Looks like they start with a rectangle- but doesn't specify twice as long as high. Maybe it does if you buy a pattern? Or maybe just any rectangle will do?

http://www.creativepoppypatterns.com/st ... pxl-8.html" target="_blank

Oh and welcome to the site.

I do have a chart of one, by Kell and the dimensions are 30 stitches by 60 stitches, so you were spot on Maggie!

The humbugs I've have made were 76 stitches wide x 38 stitches high (ie 2:1) which I think was used because then you end up with equal edge lengths for all sides (In my case 38 stitches). I think its probably preferable to keep the ratio otherwise the humbug might not sit as well as it should.

I've always wondered what those strange little objects were called

Me too, now I know they are "humbugs" Thanks Maggie.

Glad you found the help you needed. And welcome to the forum, btw!

Thanks to everyone - both for your welcome and the kind help.

A ratio of 2:1 seemed logical but having never done any of these before I wasn't at all sure. I tend to do tree decs rather than Xmas cards for friends - doing cards is nice but folk tell me they hang 'em on the tree anyway so doing an ornament makes it easier. These looked quite nice so I thought I'd give them a try.

As was already noted here, they do have to be twice as wide as they are tall. I found another tutorial with more information than what was in the Creative Poppy site.

http://jcbsleep.wordpress.com/" target="_blank

This blog has more information on the construction of a humbug as well as a couple of free patterns if you're interested.

I hope that you share with us any you do make!

A helpful (maybe if this makes sense ) tip to get a humbug and not a lovely flat ornament, is that once you've folded your rectangle in half and stitched together a 'long' edge and the side, you then have to remember to 'refold' the rectangle so that where you've stitched the sides together now matches up to the mid point of the unstitched 'long' edge, so the final edge runs between the quarter points of the long edge.

Thanks for that suggestion - it's the sort of thing you would probably find out after the event LOL.

kimkat_tkl wrote:I hope that you share with us any you do make!

A helpful (maybe if this makes sense ) tip to get a humbug and not a lovely flat ornament, is that once you've folded your rectangle in half and stitched together a 'long' edge and the side, you then have to remember to 'refold' the rectangle so that where you've stitched the sides together now matches up to the mid point of the unstitched 'long' edge, so the final edge runs between the quarter points of the long edge.