fairy stitchery & tutorial

I finally got some of the things I needed to get working on more projects, so here is the first of many projects to come. Inspired by my daughter's rag quilt, I decided to make some wall hangings to match! I love stitching and especially designing my own patterns.

For those who are beginner stitchers, there's a lot of ways to stitch patterns. I like to do it the easy way. Hopefully I won't sound too confusing, but if I do please feel free to ask any questions you have! Ok, here we go:

Supplies:

Muslin (you can also use cream/white cotton sheets or light cotton fabric)

Warm & White batting

DMC floss

Embroidery Hoop

Embroidery Needle

Scissors (you can use any kind, but I like the small sewing scissors when stitching. Everything can just fit on your lap!)

Water erasable marking pen (you can also use the disappearing ink pen, but I didn't have much luck with it)

Crayons

Frame(s)

Cut the muslin and batting to fit your frame. I just traced the back of the frame with my pen and cut it out. Doesn't have to be perfect, just has to fit inside the frame. 

 Trace your pattern onto the muslin with your water erasable pen. It's okay if you make a mistake, just go over it again. It helps to tape your fabric onto your paper so it doesn't slide.

 Now for the fun part! Decide where you want to start with your pattern. Put the batting behind your fabric, and put them into the hoop. Pick the color of floss you want and cut off a length that you are comfortable using - around a foot long is pretty good, but you might want to start small if you are just beginning. I use 3 of the 6 strands, but you can use as many or as little as you want depending on the detail and size of your pattern. Then thread it through the needle.

I apologize, I tried to take photos of how to do the stitches, but my pictures didn't turn out very well. So I will do the best I can at explaining it. The main stitch I use is the back stitch. Tie a knot at the end of your thread. One or two knots will do.

Start from the back and poke the needle up through on the line. Put the needle down through the fabric about 1/8 inch or so away from where you started, following your traced line. Then bring the needle up about 1/8 inch (or similar distance) away from where you went down. Pull the thread through. Keep doing that until your stitchery is done, changing floss colors and starting new strands as needed. To end on an area when you run out of thread or are done, just tie it off in the back by looping your thread through a nearby stitch and cut it by the knot you just made.

 When your stitchery is finished, run it under cold water to "erase" the guidelines you traced earlier. It should come off fairly easily. Wring out the water from your stitchery and lay it out on a towel to dry. Once dry, iron it out and admire your work! At this point you can leave your stitchery as-is, or you can color or tea-dye it.

 You can color your stitchery with crayons, colored pencils or really anything you want to. I have only tried crayons, but I'm sure there's a lot of other options out there. Make sure your stitchery is completely dry before coloring. Kind of hard when it's still damp.

Depending on the shade you want inside your stitches, lightly color inside your lines until you get the look you want. It's pretty simple. Just be careful if you have a darker color crayon next to a light colored thread (i.e. turquoise & flesh thread) because the crayon will color the thread. When you're finished, place a scrap of fabric or paper on top of your stitchery and iron it to set the crayon into the fabric.

 Then frame, hang up or display your finished product and enjoy!!