Papertrey Ink Felt and DMC Floss Matches

As I promised in the last post, these are the all of the individual floss matches I found for the Papertrey Ink felt colors that I currently have. I backstitched the thread into the felt to get a better idea of what it would look like on the project. If you click on the image you can see it enlarged.

Autumn Rose - 3687

Aqua Mist - 964 

Blueberry Sky - 799

Classic Kraft - 3864

Dark Chocolate - 801

Harvest Gold - 3855

Hawaiian Shores - 3846

Hibiscus Burst - 602

Melon Berry - 3824

Ocean Tides - 503

Pure Poppy - 321

Orange Zest - 721

Pinefeather - 500

Raspberry Fizz - 3804

Royal Velvet - 333

Scarlet Jewel - 3802

Simply Chartreuse - 734

Smokey Shadow - 535

Terracotta Tile - 351

True Black - 310

Vintage Cream - 3865

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***Edited to add a few more matches! :) I still need to take pics of these 6 below.*****

Canyon Clay - 3776
Lavender Moon - 3609
Limeade Ice - 165
Spring Moss - 3047
Summer Sunrise - 977
Tropical Teal - 3812
And I'm still looking for a good match for Winter Wisteria if anyone knows of one!
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And here are all the felt colors and DMC thread in one pic.

I poked a little hole out of the top of each felt sample and put it on a ring. I've been referring to it often. I also didn't trim the thread off after I sewed the stitch on so that I would have a loose string hanging off the back to also use for reference.

The Apple app store has an app called, Thread Tracker, that can keep track of all your DMC floss colors so you know which colors you have when you're at the store or out and about. I've found it to be pretty useful and definitely recommend it if you have a lot of floss.

I hope this is helpful and makes it easier to find floss colors that match. I'll update this post as I get new PTI colors of felt or new DMC matches. Thanks for stopping by!

Springtime Bunny Coin Purse + a few tips!

Spring is finally here and I got inspired to make a springtime bunny purse! Papertrey Ink has released the best stitching dies and it has been so fun to do some hand stitching and make coin purses.

I used PTI's felt colors in: Aqua Mist, Harvest Gold and Vintage Cream. The ribbon is Berry Sorbet saddle stitch. I backstitched around the edges, used a running stitch for the hops, and whipstitched the bunny's tail (and thanks to PTI, a couple of weeks ago I wouldn't have even known the terms for any of those stitches!)

To create the hopping stitches, I taped a cut out stencil of the PTI Birthday Style confetti dies to the coin purse and used the negative as a stitching guide. (And then I'm using the positive cut outs of the confetti lines for another purse.) This technique could probably work with a lot of other dies too.

The zipper is a 4 inch Mango Smoothie zipper from the Etsy shop that Erin Lincoln (who designed the dies) recommended here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/zipit. It is so fun to stitch in zippers of all different colors!

I also used Erin's tip to add fabric tape to the inside of the purse to hide the zipper stitches. It's a cute addition, and you just have to be careful to apply the tape so it doesn't buckle.

Here are some zipper matches I've found so far with the Zipit zippers and PTI felt:
Mango Smoothie (lighter but coordinates) = PTI Harvest Gold
Copen Blue = PTI Blueberry Sky
Beige = PTI Classic Kraft
Mauve = PTI Autumn Rose
Ocean Blue (lighter but coordinates) = PTI Hawaiian Shores
Red = PTI Pure Poppy
Peach = Melon Berry

At least for me, there has been a learning curve for these purses and I thought I'd share a few tips for stitching the coin purses that seemed to work. Fortunately, it does seem to get easier as you do more purses.

Zipper tips:
1. To backstitch around the 4" zipper uses about 4 feet of floss.
2. It's easier to use a thin strip of sewing tape to attach the zipper then pins. It keeps the zipper in place and aligned and is much more pleasant to stitch. Just avoid putting tape under the actual stitching holes.
3. Align the zipper cut out and begin your stitching at the very start of the zipper (where the zipper head is located when the zipper is zipped), to ensure that it lines up properly. Otherwise you will have an open hole in your purse (learned this the hard way!)
4. Stitch vertically, not horizontally. You have more control if the stitch is facing towards you.
5. Stitch and pull slowly and gently, not only to avoid tearing but so that you have more control over how the stitch looks.
6. Sew the zipper zipped open for a 4" coin purse or closed for a 6" coin purse, to ensure the zipper lies flat properly (this worked for me anyway, is there a correct method for whether a zipper is open or closed?)

And if you are a sewer or have other tips please list them in the comments! :)

To make things a little easier, I also made a swatch ring by cutting a 1 inch swatch of each PTI felt color and diecutting a stitch line to use as reference when making new felt/floss projects.

I took the felts swatches to the craft store and found some good DMC floss matches for the PTI felt colors. Some of the felt colors vary from their cardstock matches, so it was helpful to find new matches with the felt. I will list the felt color matches and show pics of the floss and felt matches in my next post!

Thanks for stopping by today and hope your day is sunny! :)