Michigan Embroidery on Acid Wash Fabric

Today I have another piece to share that I did on fabric that I acid washed. This time around it is a Michigan embroidery on brown fabric, placed in a thrifted oval frame.

 The thrifted frame works well with this piece, as it gives it an antique feel.

 I did a double layer of the back stitch because one line was just too thin and it just sort of got lost in the frame.

I’m really happy with the way this one turned out. I have a second frame that is exactly the same, and I’m working on a cruiser bike (similar to the one I made in the past) to go into it. I’ll have that to share next week!

xoxo.

DIY: Embroidery Hoop Pin Cushion

A couple of weeks ago I was trying to brainstorm how I could make a pin cushion that I could attach to the wall by my sewing machine. In the past I made one that I could wear on my wrist, but I felt it got in the way. The ones I had made for the table (out of a mason jar) always got knocked off, so I was on a mission to find an alternative. I decided to keep it simple and go with a pin cushion out of an embroidery hoop.

Here is what you need to make your own:

Once you gather your supplies you just need to follow a few simple steps…

Step One:

 First get your embroidery hoop and cut two pieces of fabric with about an inch extra all the way around. One piece is for the front, and one piece is for the back.

Step Two:

 Next you make a sandwich out of your pieces so far. On the bottom is your back piece of the embroidery hoop, then your back piece of fabric, about a handful and a half of stuffing, your front fabric, and lastly the front piece of the embroidery hoop.

Step Three:

 Once your ‘sandwhich’ is put together take your needle and thread and sew in a single stitch all the way around (twice) to tighten the fabric). Knot and cut.

Step Four:

 Take your piece of felt, cut to size of the embroidery hoop, and hot glue to the back to hide the mess.

That’s it! Next just hang and sew!

 

Happy Sewing!

xoxo.

Skeleton Bikers Embroidery

A couple of years ago now Bryan illustrated a few skeleton biker guys for a class project, and recently I found a copy of them again. I’ve always wanted to try and do a collaboration piece with him, so this was a good place to start. His line work and style lend themselves well to embroidery as a medium.

 It was also a nice way for me to practice doing something that guys may also like, as embroidery is usually most appealing to the ladies.

 I decided to keep these guys as outlines in black to keep it similar to the original. After I was finished with the embroidery I sprayed it with bleach to give it a little bit of acid wash. I wanted to make it a little more interesting to look at, I think it turned out pretty well (all of the skulls heads ended up turning white!).

  

The best part of the whole piece is that it is something my man and I both put something into.

ps. After this I went on a bleach frenzy with my fabrics…get ready for a bunch of acid wash pieces in the next couple of weeks!

pps. Don’t forget to enter this month’s giveaway! It closes tomorrow night at midnight!

xoxo.

DIY: Fabric Wrapped Frame

Today I have a very simple tutorial to share, a fabric wrapped frame. I’m kind of a photoaholic of sorts, and am always in search of different and interesting ways to showcase them. This weekend I made this:

It was seriously inexpensive, and adds a little personality to an otherwise boring (and outdated) frame. The frame is from Salvation Army, I used scraps of fabric, hemp, and a clothes pin so all together this project was done on under $5.00 (probably more like $3.00).

Here is what you need:

Step One:
Cut your fabric into thin strips (about 1″ wide). I used five strips for this, each about a yard in length.

Step Two:
Thread your string/hemp/yarn (whatever you chose to use) through the clothes pin.

Step Three:
Tie each side of your string to each side of the top of your frame.

Step Four:
Hot glue your fabric to your starting point. I hot glued onto the backside of the frame to hide it.

Step Five:
Wrap your fabric around the frame. When you run out hot glue the fabric to the frame, and repeat with a new piece of fabric until the frame is covered.

All that is left is to put your photo in the clothes pin and hang, or display on your shelf.

Happy making, everyone!

xoxo.

Winnie the Pooh Embroidery No. 2

Last week I shared the first Winnie the Pooh quote I embroidered, and today I have a second one.

It states:
“Someone people care too much. I think it’s called love.”

 The fabric was a grey cotton that I hand dyed with tea (I’ve been doing a lot of this lately). The hoop is a wooden one painted black.

 This piece is also up for sale in the shop.

xoxo.

Cat on a Bike Embroidery

 Why hello, blog, it has been quite some time! Too long, really. I’ve missed updating, chatting with all of you, and sharing new work over the past month or so. I’ve been very busy, though! Since November I have been basically making embroidered portraits non stop (thank you guys for all of the word of mouth, really!), I’ll share some of them with you soon so you can see what’s been keeping me busy.

In the meantime though, I did manage to get this cat riding on a bike done.
I made this piece for an art trade I did in exchange for a couple of ceramic teeth beads. She ask for a cat riding a bike, and this is what I came up with. The fabric is white, and I hand dyed it using red tea (the same as I did for the skeleton, hand, and teeth pieces), I did the embroidery all in a solid black.  This is actually a pretty small piece- only 4 inches. I think the big front wheel gives the illusion that it is bigger than what it actually is. 

 xoxo.

Needle Felted Mushroom

The last piece that I have to share from my hand dyed fabric is done using needle felting. No embroidery at all! It’s not very often that this occurs.

This piece is inspired from a trip Bryan, myself, and our roommate took in the summer time to Nordhouse Dunes.

I didn’t have all of the colors I would have liked to of used, so I had to improvise a little.      

I want to add a little more in, because I feel like it is missing something. I can’t decide what though- any thoughts?

xoxo.

Embroidered Skeleton Hand

Happy Thursday, everyone!

The third piece that I have to share on my hand dyed fabric (using tea) is a skeleton hand. This piece is pretty dainty- it is done in a 4″ hoop, using three stands of embroidery floss. Usually floss comes in six strands, but you can peel away strands to make thinner lines. Since this piece was so small, I decided to do three stands for the entire hand.

Just like the last two pieces I posted this week (the skeleton, and the teeth) the wooden embroidery hoop is painted gold.

 This piece is also up for sale in the shop!

I’d like to do more body/anatomy pieces. I was thinking of doing an image of a full eye- from the side. Any thoughts on what else I should do?

xoxo.

Embroidered Skeleton

Today I have another embroidery piece done on the hand dyed fabric you saw yesterday. The skeleton is done in black embroidery floss, half six strand, half three strand and hangs in an 8″ hoop. I’m really happy with how this one turned out!
This is how the piece looked prior to hand dying the fabric.

….and this is how it looks now that the fabric is dyed. I also painted the hoop in a gold tone.

I think this is my favorite piece that I’ve done yet. I’ve placed it up for sale in the shop if you’re interested!

xoxo.

Embroidery Hoop Picture Frame

This week all of my pieces will share a common thread- the fabric. I attempted hand dying my fabric for the first time. It was  a pretty good experience, I took white fabric and soaked it in water with tea. Each piece of fabric turned out different- which I was really happy with.

The first project I did on the fabric was an embroidery hoop as a picture frame.
 The picture is from a photo booth at my cousin’s wedding last year (it feels so weird to say that still!).  The dye job on this fabric was very mild, which I really liked.  I normally hate the look of plastic hoops, but I was okay with it for this style.

xoxo.