I needed to do a little research before I jumped right into embroidery. Since I plan on creating pretty much all of my own patterns (and sharing every single one of them with you guys)... I figured that I had better figure out how we can get the patterns from PDF to fabric.
The most obvious way seemed to be to cut them out and then trace around the shapes using a fabric pencil or pen. The only problem with that is that you lose the detail on the inside (and I def do not want to do that). I think for the basic shapes (like the bird from yesterday)...that it would be just fine. But I want to do flowers and leaves and more flowers and loads more leaves (and birds.. did I mention that I want to do about 347 birds too???)! Well I do!! So that means we need to preserve the detail somehow right!?!
So I googled "embroidery transfer" and I think I found something that might work! It's called a heat transfer pencil. There is a terrific tutorial HERE about how to use this little fella. I am ordering this one right away so I can check it out - I'll post on how it does once I get it (and if you have used something like this let me know how it worked out for you ok)!
In the mean time we'll have to stick to the trace around the shape method.
Initially I plan on doing a TON of embroidery on felt. I just love the fuzziness of the felt combined with the silky sheen of Cotton Perle thread! It's just so darn fantastic I can barely stand it!
To get started on learning the stitches - I ordered two embroidery reference books (plus that other crewel book I told you about week before last - this one HERE). All three are pretty darn awesome!!! MomChops was over Sunday morning and has officially requested one of them for Mother's Day (she likes to plan ahead)! The books I will be sharing the majority of my projects and stitches from are from are these two HERE and HERE. Go check them out!
Since I am still working on getting things set up I just have two small patterns for you today. I decided to color them in cause I just could not resist it!
AND
I'll be taking tomorrow off from posting so I can really get things set up for our little embroidery experiment... and Friday I'll be guest blogging someplace else (I'll let you know where on Friday). Just a little secret about my guest post (shhhh) there will be some download and print freebies available there... (it's been a while since I did that!!!)... Sew stay tuned! Next week is Embroidery Week! YAY!
Souper Schmoochers everyone (stay warm and snow free if you can)!
P.S. Let me know what other embroidery patterns / shapes you want to see... and let me know if these are just completely and totally wrong!
P.S.S. I threw my favorite tree stump up there just cause (btw..his name is Hank the Tree Stump). I seriously heart that little fella. We should put him out as a pattern don't you think?!?!?!?
xoxox from me and Hank!
