ModCloth

Monday, January 23, 2012

Learning Embroidery

The past few days around here have been snowy and cold, so I decided to mess around with something new, embroidery! Inspiration to learn the technique came from a piece of fabric that I picked out for a present that my friend, Liz requested. She adores my scrap fabric embroidery rings on my wall :)

I started by searching for tutorials on basic stitches and found an excellent one that I was able to print out here from DMC. Now, the nice thing that I learned from my venture in to the embroidery world, is that you can stitch free-hand, and since I like to doodle, this kind of got me a little pumped. However, there are patterns out there in case "doodling" isn't your thing. I found a bunch that I am excited to try from Andrea Zuill of 'Badbird's'. Below is one of her designs that I used to practice a few different stitches.




Since I was in the learning process, I just used scrap fabric and leftover burlap from the wedding that I had on hand. Although, I noticed that the majority of people use a muslin canvas for their work and the large gaps in the burlap make it a little tricky to work with. I think it turned out pretty neat though!






12 comments:

  1. What a super cute design! You've inspired me to pull my embroidery stuff out again :)

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  2. Just loved the design. By any chance would you mind to share the drawing? Thanks

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  3. @ Manuela - The drawing is from the 'BadBirds' link above, if that is not working here is the link to her free embroidery list

    http://zuill.us/andreablog/category/embroidery/free-patterns/

    Hope that helps! Thank you all for stopping by!

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  4. This is really lovely! Inspiration for a gift for a friend expecting a girl in June! Thank you!

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  5. Total newbie question here...how do you get the image from paper onto fabric? Is it iron on? Transfer with special pen? It's beautiful.

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    1. I am also a newbie and found many options for getting your design onto the fabric. The one that I used would probably be considered ancient, but it worked for me. I just taped the design on a window, then taped the fabric over the design and traced it with a plain old #2 pencil. I didn't have a lightbox or any iron-on/transfer paper, but these are other options that I have read about while browsing patterns. Hope this helps you!

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  6. So.... when do i get my birthday present?

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    1. You should have reminded me at the birthday party!! As soon as I feel up to par, I will have to get it together and just leave it by the door for the next time I see you.

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  7. Very pretty,detail oriented and colorful!Thank you.

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  8. I love it, I might try it myself! hugs! happy new year!

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  9. This looks awesome!!
    XO, Martina♥

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