More Gifts

I embroidered this apron for my mom for Christmas. She's a great cook, but somehow manages to get food on herself every time she goes near the stove. (It must be genetic, because I have the same affliction!) So, I thought she could use a pretty apron. I bought the apron online from Target and the canvas was just the right weight -- sturdy enough without being too hard to stitch through. The design is from Aimee Ray's Doodle Motifs book, and I decided to do the embroidery in cheerful, bright colors.

The stitching for this project went surprisingly fast. I think it's because, compared to the rest of the apron, the embroidery doesn't take up too much space. I didn't want to go overboard with it. I did most of the stitching at my dad's house while watching an LSU game. My mom seems to have really liked it, so I'd say it was a success!

I made this hoop for my roommate, who loves Paris. The design is from Jenny Hart's "Bon Voyage" pattern, and I adore the vintage jet-setter look of it. I made a few adaptations but stuck with the general design. (The fleur-de-lis was my own addition.)

It took a few tries to get the image on the fabric just right. The lines with the transfer marker were too thick, but the fabric was light enough for me to trace the images with a water soluble marker. I think this may be my embroidery-transfer method of choice going forward. I also couldn't get the mouth looking the way I wanted, which was annoying, but I don't think my roommate really cares! I painted a regular wooden hoop with some cheap gold craft paint to spruce it up a little. The dress and suitcase colors match my roommate's bedroom decor, which she noticed right away, and I tried to get as close as possible to the actual golden brown color of the Eiffel Tower. (Sidenote: In every picture I had ever seen of the Eiffel Tower, it looked black. It wasn't until I saw it in person that I realized it was actually brown! Who knew?)

I think I may have to make one for myself, but with a London theme. ;) 

Christmas Embroidery

It's taking a while to recap all of my crafty endeavors over the past few months, so I'm going to speed things up a bit!

I purchased the pattern for this little bunny from The Floss Box. They have some really cute and inexpensive patterns. I changed the colors a bit from the recommended color scheme and opted not to use beads for the berries/cones. (I used french knots instead, which are fun to do!) The embroidery is on some fancy embroidery-specific material I bought from the craft store, but I think I like working on regular old cotton a bit better. I did find this nice wood-grain-looking hoop, though. I glued down the back of the fabric over some cardboard and felt, and put some felt on top of that to finish it off. I gave it to my aunt as a thank you gift for having me over for Thanksgiving, and she loved it! (She's actually thinking about getting back into sewing and knitting now, too!) Most of this piece was done on the train. (Hooray for commuting!)

I made the Rudolph and Santa tea towels using Christmastime patterns from Sublime Stitching. The handwriting is my own, and I added the red buttons as a final touch. I was planning on giving these as a gift, but I ended up keeping them. :)

(I bought these white floursack tea towels from Amazon and I wasn't a big fan. The weave was too loose and some of my stitches weren't staying put -- I couldn't do french knots here, for example. I wouldn't buy them again. They were also a little on the pricey side. I just found out that Target sells floursack towels, so I'm going to give them a shot next time.)

This folkart-style Christmas tree is based on a free pattern from Badbird's. (I made a few changes based on the limitations of the fabric.) I made this as a gift for my aunt and uncle, as well as this bird:

This is another pattern from The Floss Box. I decided to do this all in red, both for simplicity's sake and curiosity about redwork. I wasn't sure what the big fuss was about -- why not "purplework" or "orangework"?  (Apparently, it has to do with the novelty of red thread back when varieties of colorfast thread weren't so readily available.) But it was kind of nice to only stitch in one color. It keeps the focus on the stitches themselves. I also added buttons to this one since I couldn't do french knots on this fabric. I thought the green tree and red bird looked nice together.

I fell in love with these snowflakes from Polka & Bloom as soon as I saw them. I had to be patient for the formal pattern release, but it was worth the wait. The patterns call for a variety of bright colors -- turquoise, gold, purple, and pink -- but I wanted to stick with silvers and pale blues to give it more of a wintry feel. This was my first time using metallic floss, and it's kind of a pain, but I like the final look of it. These towels are still hanging on our oven door. Again, the handwriting is mine. (It's not very neat this time around, but that's okay...)

This little penguin is another free design from Badbird. I wasn't sure what to do with him after I embroidered him, so I ended up making a quilted door hanger. The quilting isn't great (it was my first attempt) but I love the embroidery and I think it made a festive addition to our otherwise boring white door/white wall area.

And finally, my favorite holiday embroidery project: Charlie Brown's sad little Christmas tree, complete with Linus's blanket around the base! I drew this myself, based on a few animation stills I found online. I'm not all that artistic, but I can handle cartoon or doodle-type drawing pretty well. I outlined all of the embroidery in black to make it more Peanuts-esque, and I finished it off with a hoop I had painted green. It hung from the doorknob to our coat closet.

So, as you can see, my embroidery was off to a running start! The holidays were a good excuse to jump right in. I'm not sure I would have been so ambitious if I had started embroidering at any other time of year. :)