Embroidery WIP

Thank you soo much for your sweet comments on my Polka Dot Dress Refashion.  :)  You guys sure do know how to make a girl feel special!

I just have a quick post for you all today…  This is technically my first little foray into embroidery.  I took an intro to embroidery class last year (a 3 hr class) and it was “just okay”.  At the time I remember wishing that I had something to show for my 3 hrs except my sampler.  But looking back, I did have a pleasant time.

You all may recall me working on this 40’s McCalls 6677 pattern from last fall, which was part of my fall wardrobe planning and I blogged about here and here.

Sadly, it’s been hibernating on a chair for a while now, which was due to the fact that the skirt portion of the dress was too small for me.  I had no idea what I was going to do with it until I found some more fabric a month ago from the same bolt!  I was very quick on my toes and bought a bunch more to ensure I had enough to cover any more hang-up’s.

I’m making it just in time now for next week’s Sew Weekly theme of 1940’s.  YAY!  And I just started hacking into the fabric to recut the back portion of the skirt adding in a bit more ease (3″ or so, just in case).

Anyhow… I got to thinking that this dress would be even greater with some embroidery on it.  Not having much experience with embroidery Lladybird (aka Lauren) came to my rescue when she responded to my twitter post asking for a resource for embroidery.  She sent me to the flickr group: Hoop Love that has tons of scans of vintage transfers.

It was hard to pick just one, but given my neckline I wanted something long and fluid that I could wrap around the neckline.  I picked out this beauty since it looked feminine with the flowers and the running stitches on it remind me of the 40’s for some reason.

Vintage Briggs border

I started working on a sample piece over my lunch break today and while I was on the train during my commute.  I didn’t transfer the image yet, I was just free-handing it to practice.

My first daisy-stitch flower is the larger one on the left, and I used three strings of thread.  And my second daisy-stitch flower is with a slightly darker yellow using 2 strands of thread which I think looks much nicer, don’t you think?

I’m embroidering on a navy blue wool crepe although in the image it looks black.  I’m going to try to keep it simple for this first go, with using varying shades of yellow and a cream for the running stitches.  Instead of feeling like I got nothing accomplished like I did during my class, it was very nice and soothing to just stitch and stitch a picture.  I’m actually looking forward to sitting down to a movie and stitching this on my bodice.

What do you think aka how do you guys think I did?  Any good tips for a newbie like me?  (Thread tension, knotting tips, color choice, or stabilization ideas?)

Oh and if you know any other FREE embroidery resources be sure to leave me a comment.  :)  Thanks!

In: Sewing

Blogger for 6 years and counting, I am a passionate creator who loves to tinker.

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