Back basting on the Garden Smalls Tape Cover

 I haven't made much progress on the Shepherd's Bush Garden Smalls Tape Cover.   All I have managed so far is the back basting.

Back basting is a neat technique that is more often used in applique.  Basically, you trace your shape on the back of the fabric and do a running stitch where you need the placement lines on the front of the fabric.  This way you don't have to worry about pencil marks on the front of the fabric that might not wash out.

While I am not going to be doing any applique on this, I don't want any layout marks on the front of the fabric.  And it does need to have the needlework contained out of the way of the seam lines - neatly inside of a circle on the front and around a 'doughnut' on the back to leave the push button for the tape retracting free under a single layer of fabric.   So the basting will be the stitching line for the assembly in the future.   There is also a strip of fabric that goes around the circumference that will be embellished with ribbon.  I haven't decided if I will couch that or fell it down onto the surface or lace it through a hemstitched openwork area. 

I'll be extracting a couple of flowers with a black work style butterfly and bee for the front and a ring of leaves and buds for the back - all from the chart for the SB "In My Garden" stitching roll.  I often buy an extra kit of the SB needlerolls and use it to make matching smalls.  They make a great swap gift.   Some of the needle rolls have matching fob kits.  This one does.   I have made it already.  And I have a strawberry and an ort's tin plus a needle minder/pinkeep already finished. I'll show those in the finished post since this tape cover completes the set.