Great Resources for Beginner Hand Embroidery - Waterfalls & Hand Embroidery go great together!

Tweet

THIS POST IS KINDA LONG, SO PLEASE BARE WITH ME!  :)

The below links and pictures are not mine.  I found them while searching for tutorials for Beginner Hand Embroidery.  I found them to be very helpful so wanted to pass the resources along to those new to Hand Embroidery or those that want to try it.  I never thought I would like it, but actually I enjoy it.  I have found Hand Embroidery to be soothing, relaxing, stress free and I can take it with me anywhere in a small pouch.  I can do it in the car, on the plane, etc.  NO PLUGIN OUTLET NEEDED, UNLIKE WITH A SEWING MACHINE! 

My husband likes to go to this Middle Eastern Cafe that has a huge outdoor seating area with 2 waterfalls.  He says it reminds him of home (Cairo, Egypt).  Well, he enjoys it so much that he goes there for a few hours at a time.  Sometimes I go with him but get bored with my internet stuff so Hand Embroidery would be perfect for me to do while he is doing his internet stuff.  We do talk and eat but mostly it's quiet time with each of us on our electronics.  He catches up on Facebook and World News, etc while I do blogging, look at sewing projects and fabric shoppes.  The soothing sounds of the 2 waterfalls while doing hand embroidery projects I think will be awesome and truly enjoyable, not to mention passing the time constructively.

CLICK THE IMAGES TO SEE THE VIDEOS OR GO DIRECTLY TO THE WEBSITES

RESOURCE #1

I FIRST FOUND THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO TITLED 

"5 MOST COMMON HAND EMBROIDERY STITCHES":

THEN I REALIZED THIS WONDERFUL LADY HAD A COUPLE OF MORE HELPFUL VIDEOS AND A BLOG/WEBSITE!  HER NAME IS JENNY HART AND HER WEBSITE IS SUBLIME STITCHING.  HERE IS HER TUTORIAL PAGE, SHE ALSO HAS PATTERNS, ETC ON HER WEBSITE.

"EMBROIDERY 101"

"3 WAYS TO TRANSFER EMBROIDERY PATTERNS"

RESOURCE #2

BLOG DEDICATED TO HAND EMBROIDERY "MATERIALISTIC":

RESOURCE #3

BLOG DEDICATED TO HAND EMBROIDERY TUTORIALS "SARAH'S HAND EMBROIDERY TUTORIALS".  SARAH HAS VERY CLEAR & EASY TO UNDERSTAND TUTORIALS FOR 100'S OF STITCHES.

RESOURCE #4

BLOG DEDICATED TO HAND EMBROIDERY 

"FEELING STITCHY":

RESOURCE #5

BLOG MOSTLY DEDICATED TO HAND EMBROIDERY "WILD OLIVE":

RESOURCE #6

BLOG & YOUTUBE CHANNEL DEDICATED TO HAND EMBROIDERY "NEEDLE N THREAD" BY MARY CORBERT - GOOD STITCH TUTORIALS

MARY'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL - 

STITCH TUTORIALS (CLICK HERE)

===============

HOW TO STORE YOUR EMBROIDERY FLOSSES:

By default, many people who do crafts with Embroidery Floss use Plastic Floss Bobbins/Floss Cards.  You can get a pack of I think 10 for 99 cents at Wal-Mart.  Other craft stores have them too.  Here is how Sedef of Down Grapevine Lane Blog labels hers so she knows what matching colors to get when she runs out.  Plastic Bobbins are very durable but you can't write the color number on them very well.

FOR THOSE THAT WANT BOBBINS WITH SOME PIZAZZ - 

FREE PRINTABLE THREAD BOBBINS BY WILD OLIVE BLOG: YOU CAN WRITE THE COLOR NUMBERS ON THE CARDS

FREE PRINTABLE FLOSS BOBBIN THREAD ORGANIZER BY WILD OLIVE BLOG - GREAT FOR KEEPING TRACK OF COLORS ON PROJECTS

===================

FREE EMBROIDERY PATTERN -
 DAISY WREATH

PAID EMBROIDERY PATTERN WEBSITE (there are lots of them on the internet, but wanted to give you one to start with):

 

 PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THIS EMAIL HAS BEEN OF HELP.  I HOPE IT HAS!  NOW GO GRAB YOU SOME FLOSS AND START STITCHING!

Meet Owlivia & Owlbert!

Tweet

On September 1st I received this email from Melissa who is a blog follower/reader & a regular in the Fat Quarter Friends Swap:

Good morning April!

I opened my Pinterest account this morning and these cute owls were staring at me and they reminded me of you, so I thought I would share!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/78812407/lovely-plush-mini-owl-choose-any-color?ref=v1_other_2

Hope you have a great day!

Melissa

 

============================

Well, I thanked her for the email and was touched that something made her think of me.  It's no secret that I adore Colorful Retro Owls, I'm slowly building up my collection for my future sewing studio.  Then I clicked on the link and thought they were freaking adorable!.  So I got inspired and did a Google search for "OWL PLUSHIE".  I found several that were very cute.  I even started a Pinterest board for Owl Plushies Patterns and started PINNING.  I found a picture of some felt Owls that were small children's toys.

 

Now, at this time of day I was kinda bored.  I was in a crafting kind of mood but didn't want to drag out my sewing machine because my sewing space isn't set up yet and I had nowhere to sew except for my kitchen counter!  Yes, my kitchen counter!  We are just starting out and don't have a dining table yet.  Anyhooo.................I remembered that I had some felt in a few colors, that I had some embroidery floss and some buttons.

 

About a week before Melissa emailed me I became interested in hand embroidery though in the past I thought it was really lame and I discounted ever doing it.  I became familiar with very basic stitches through YouTube.  Anyway, back to being bored.  I thought it would be cute to make an owl pincushion.  I WANTED CUTE FAT OWLS, NOT SKINNY ONES.  Being that my blog banner & buttons have a girl & boy owl I decided to make a girl.  So I drew out a pattern similar to the graphics in my banner/buttons.  After tweeking it a bit on several sheets of paper, I was happy with what I came up with.  So I grabbed the felt and starting tracing the cut out pattern pieces.

 

I made the girl first and decided to give her a cute name with the world OWL in it.  So Owlivia was born.  Then I realized she needed a companion so I grabbed my blue felts and made her a boy-friend.  I named him Owlbert. 

Without further Ado, Meet Owlivia & Owlbert!

This was my first time:

* Doing Hand Embroidery

* Doing Applique with Felt

* Making a Plushie

* Making a Pincushion

I really enjoyed making these and the color combinations are endless.  They finished at 4.5" tall and 5" wide.  I loved how they turned out and the fact that I could put them together and do the hand embroidery while sitting down in front of the what my mom refers to as "THE BUBE TUBE".

The wings are trimmed with the SPLIT STITCH, Owlbert's wings are dotted with SEED STITCHES & his heart is outlined in my version of the BLANKET STITCH.  Owlivia's Hair Flower has FRENCH KNOTS in the center.  Her Heart was outlined with BACK STITCHES underneath as well as SEED STICHES.  The top of her heart has my first attempt at SATIN STITCHING in a wonky sort of way.

The applique shapes (wings, hearts, eyes) were sewn on when I did the hand embroidery, except for the beaks which I glued on.  I attached the front and back body pieces on my sewing machine but I think I will start attaching them by hand with small hand embroidery seed stitches.

The fat bellies are filled with a round felt pouch filled with none other than LENTILS!  I wanted something that would give a little weight to the pincushion & so that the belly won't go flat over time.

I know this post is long, so I will conclude by saying that I really love Owlivia & Owlbert.  Soon I will do a tutorial for anyone that wants to make their own and will upload the PDF pattern when I get it scanned.

So what do you think of Owlivia & Owlbert?