#embroidery process

Starting with - a reference picture!

I made a outline drawing from the reference picture (I did this one while I was at the cricket here you can see it in progress) 😎

Then I use a light box to transfer the outline onto my fabric. I like to embroider on a fairly fine but medium weight linen - it holds together well but has distinct holes so you don’t end up ripping through threads as you work!

Once the outline is drawn I started outlining areas with back stitch before beginning to infill with a single colour. Below you can see my progress on Oliver’s arm - I tend to change colours as I’m working to stop me getting annoyed or bored - hence the white and black and not of grey you can see having been done.

I have several different sized hoops, but this small one is my favourite as I like the tension I can get on the fabric!

I did find sewing with white on white frustrating so the shirt sleeve got left for a bit - that’s the beauty of embroidery like this though - you can move around and do different sections depending on your mood!

I really enjoyed being able to play with texture as well - I chose to use satin stitch on the sleeves and ground - using different angles to create depth.

While the flesh of Oliver’s arm and hand and Ryan’s hand I went with a more textured look using ‘random’ stitch placement. This gave me the texture and the ability to build up the shading in more detail than satin stitch would’ve allowed - giving me the more painterly look I was after.

I’ve included a picture of the back of the work so you can see is similar to the front - I live looking at the back of pieces!!

Once some of you helped me decide on the text - I added that - it’s my handwriting for this one - I wrote on paper first then transferred it the same way I did the outline of the arms!

Then I just carried on stitching, and stitching, and stitching! Sometimes at the cricket (good light!!) and sometimes at home - I brought a 6000k white light lightbulb for one of my lamps so I could continue seeing in the evenings when it got dark!

When finally finished I washed the embroidery - in Luke warm water with a tiny amount of washing up liquid- to remove the grease and sweat that would’ve transferred from my hands onto the fabric and threads - this needs removing before mounting as it will start to discolour the fabric over time!

And then I mounted the final piece so it looks like this!! - this was the first time I tried mounting anything myself and it’s not perfect (the ‘yeah’ is a bit wonky) but I’m happy with it 😎

My dramatic posing and some beadwork process of making my ouija brooch~ 👁 I really enjoyed to work on it, I also like the color and the way how this brooch looks like on shirts. Not sure what aesthetic it is though. Half witchy, half magic academia maybe?

Haven’t done one of these in a little while as moving house really eats into ones sewing time - who knew 😂

Anyway - I’ve managed to spend about 15 hours sewing since the last embroidery update and I’ve got Bucks tattooed bands in place and I’ve started the base colour until for Maddies sleeve - I’m very excited to build the texture and shading into this sleeve the burnt oranges are going to be great to work with!

I’ve embroidered the text and the outline of Maddie’s sleeve!

So the black dotted outline around the edge is there to help me keep things square - so that I don’t over stretch the fabric while it’s in the frame!

The next thing to do is outline all the skin areas - this will be a bit different from the sleeve outline because I don’t want the same sort of edge - skin is a little less defined - so I will use a running stitch like the black dotted line that will be more easily absorbed into the proper stitching!