The dog ate my clothes! - Embroidery repair

Lets just gloss over the fact I have a cheeky pup that likes to chew clothes and focus on the fact that said chewed item of clothing is a favourite summer jackety type thing of my 10 year old. Immediate repair was required!

The fantastic part about all of this is that my daughter loves (and coveted) this jacket because of the gorgeous embroidered design on the front. This was VERY handy because I really had no other idea about piecing the chewed parts together and disguising the damage other than using embroidery!

I thought I'd share a little step by step below incase you too should find yourself in a similar 'dog chewed' scenario! :)

I cut a bit of cotton fabric big enough to cover the damage and used a glue stick to rearrange the chewed fabric bits into position.This was to hold everything together and gives me something 'solid' to embroider onto. I avoided adding glue to the fastener and planned to trim the cotton fabric as I embroidered. 

Rummaging through my threads lo and behold I managed to find some pretty spot on matching colours! Yes!

I drew on a flower design which vaguely mimicked the already existing design. The main point here was to make sure that the parts where the fabric had been ripped apart would be stitched over completely using Satin stitch. I added the extra leafy stem to the left  of the flowers to balance out the design and make it a bit more believable that embroidery is 'meant' to be there!

Stitching and trimming begins......

The rescue repair job is complete!!....

When I showed Skye the finished jacket she gave a thumbs up followed by a double take and a delayed 'oh wowww'  after it dawned on her the added embroidery had not actually always been there!

 My work here is done :)

All we need now is a pic of my daughter in her jacket and the dog ....however that sounds far to much like tempting fate!!

New hand embroidered work - A stag and the seasons in satin stitch

I set out the intention last new year to make more time to stitch some originals, which got way laid for a couple of reasons. One excuse I could use would be that I didn't have the time, however truth be told the main reason was that I didn't know what I wanted to stitch.

To me embroidery has always been an art form, and just as the painter expresses his/herself through subject matter, brush strokes and palette, I wanted to stitch something which I could express myself through and which reflected my own style.

This is surprisingly hard to do with a needle and thread, as there is only so much you can do ! However the 2 elements which captivates me the most in all art of any medium are colour and contrast........I think you'll be able to see where this has lead to ;)

I stretched each piece on to board so they could be popped into a box frame of a certain swedish company, but also be easily removed and displayed in an embroidery hoop if preferred. I like the framed finish myself ..but hey that's just me. You can find them all in my etsy shop here.

Looking forward to sharing more soon :)x

New work in progress - embroidered swallows & bespoke purses

Eeek! time is flying by don't you think?....and the sun has been shining. Yippeeee!
I've been enjoying some sunshine stitching as a welcome change from the kit side of things; marketing, assembling and everything else related.

Ages and ages ago (infact it is documented here on my previous blog, so that IS ages ago!), I set out to embroider a bear inspired by a number of artists that use their thread to "paint" with.
I got as far as this.......(which is a little further than originally shared so I DID attempt to finish off poor ol' bear) 

But even despite those pleading eyes I know nothing can tempt me back to finish off this project...why? Well, because (I realise now) a 10" embroidery hoop is way too ambitious a size to fill with tiny stitches for a first time project, especially when I'm using colours that don't "grab" me. 
Lesson learned.
So when I set about  to embroider this time, I was thinking of a more manageable size...the smaller the better! Something that would captivate me and incorporated some bright colours. After flicking through a vintage bird book my Dad gave me, for inspiration, the swallow jumped out as my perfect subject.....

It was really exciting to see this bird come alive in stitches and colour, and while it's not perfect I'm so happy with how this little fellow turned out

....so much so I turned him into a bespoke purse.....

Another day followed and the sun still shone so my roll continued and I stitched another swallow...

 And turned it into another bespoke purse!
I love the idea of wearable art...not sure you can put a purse in the "wearable art" category but I reckon these purses are worthy of a title something a little bit special..... any ideas?

With the summer holidays fast approaching I'll be confining most of my working time to the evenings, and cutting back so I can give my girls the summer hols I had growing up...so you won't see much of me for a while over here.

BUT! my plan is to keep stitching these little embroideries amidst the summer shenanigans, and turn them into something "wearable" , so by the return to school there will be a wee collection to show. 

I look forward to that ...lets see if I can keep it up (unlike the bear!)

Big hugs to you all  xx

Tutorial - How to Embroider a Vintage Style Rose

Ok...confession time...there is something about stitching vintage style roses I LOVE. 

 Yes, I love Satin stitch, yes I love choosing the colours, and yes I LOVE the kitschy outcome. Give me vintage stylee roses any day.

So on the off chance you too have a penchant for these little beauties I thought I'd create a video tutorial showing how to create one yourself.

There is no great mystery to embroidering these roses really, it's all created through simple Satin stitch. However some people do get tripped up by using the direction of the stitches to enhance the design, and navigating curves can also flummox the stitcher. If you watch the video you'll  find a few tips on how I work out the direction and keep myself right!

This video also films the full rose being stitched in roughly 4 mins as opposed to the 3+ hours it actually took (I was like a little kid at this part..modern technology is so clever ..and FUN!) So if you have no problems embroidering roses why not simply fast forward to 10 mins and  enjoy some speedy stitchery accompanied with the quirky sweet tunes of The Wiggly Tendrils.

Pattern & Colour Guide:

Download HERE

Enjoy! x

Embroidery Stitches for Filling - SATIN STITCH

This tutorial has been re-located to my website. You can find it here.