Free Embroidery Pattern & the first of "12 Things God Wants You to Remember"!
I'm so excited about today's post!
This is the first in what (Lord willing) will be a 12-month series of free patterns with the theme "12 Things God Wants You to Remember". (I posted more about it here if you're interested. Scroll to #4)
This is January's pattern...um...in February....because well, I had *no* idea what I was doing and it was a little harder than I anticipated.
I had so much fun and learned a lot so I think it will get easier as I go along. February's pattern should be up soon. :)
Edited to Add: It's up here! Also there is an info page with all the current patterns here now.
What you'll need to get started:
-A copy of the pattern (see below)
-Transfer pen or carbon paper & stylus
-Some type of fabric to stitch on (I used muslin, but you can use any fabric or even recycle a pillow case or piece of clothing)
-Embroidery Needles
-Embroidery Hoop
-Embroidery Floss (It comes in six strands, but I separated out 3 strands to use)
-Scissors
This month's pattern has four stitches to practice.
I'll link you to some super, awesome embroidery stitch tutorials so if you're learning along with me you can have someone "show" you via the magic of the internet.
-I used the backstitch on the snow hill, snowflakes, wind, and penguin outline.
-It's pretty easy and one of the basic stitches you'll use a lot for outlining.
-I also tried to use some metallic thread for the snow, but couldn't get it to work very well, it was really wiry. (This could be user error.) So instead I used one strand of the metallic with two strands of plain white and that gave me the sparkle I was looking for, but also worked more smoothly into the fabric.
-I love this one for the texture it creates. I really wanted his scarf to look like a warm, fluffy, crocheted scarf so I used the chain stitch in multiple colors to create stripes. I changed the direction of the stitches on the knot part of the scarf so it would look tied.
-At the end of the scarf I didn't like how the little ribbony ends were looking so I just stitched some loops and then cut and frayed them to look like fringe.
-I also used the chain stitch on the lettering. I just love the texture, doesn't it look like icing made of floss?!
- Satin stitch is used to fill in areas.
- I used the Satin Stitch on his head and wings and a padded satin stitch for his beak.
- The tutorial linked above is from Jenny at Sublime Stitching. She is amazing! And the tutorial comes with it's own free pattern so don't miss it! But if you need a video, this one is good.
- These scared me, because I have never been very good at them, but I knew I needed to practice so besides his eyes, I filled in the heart with lots of little french knots!
- The tutorial I linked you to is so fantastic, I learned it pretty easily from that and didn't feel scared of French Knots anymore after making the heart!
So here is the pattern! I inlcuded an extra one that is blank, so that you could add your own verse or quote if you like. :)
Click here to download the pdf of the pattern (you'll need adobe reader)
There are lots of ways to transfer a pattern to your fabric, but I found that good old fashioned carbon paper worked best for me.
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(You may think that disappearing ink paper used for dress pattern transfer, would work well. In fact you may say to yourself, "hey, it would be great if it disappears when I'm done", but guess what?
It won't wait until you are *done* it will disappear in 24 to 72 hours, so when you go back 24 to 72 hours later to work on your embroidery....your pattern will be bye-bye and you will be sad.
I'm just saying that this may happen to you...I don't know from experience or anything. So you know..go with the carbon paper.)
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Another thing that worked really well for me was to use the stylus from my old palm pilot instead of a pen or pencil. I was able to control the weight of the lines better this way and also didn't accidentally go through the paper. You could also use an embossing stylus.
Next week I'll share some of my favorite embroidery links!
I hope you'll join me in working on these every month! And I would *love* it if you show me a link if you do.
Hope you are having a fantastic week.
Grace & Peace,
♥ Melissa~
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"The LORD will always guide you; He will satisfy your soul in drought." -Isaiah 58:11