Point of View and Spring Embroidery Art Tutorial

Welcome to this month's Point of View reveal! The theme for April was "spring", and I am really amazed by the talent of the ladies in this group. I can't wait any longer! Here are the Point of View spring-themed projects...

1. Michelle from A Little Tipsy
2. Camilla from Rosy Red Buttons

3. Gwen from Gwenny Penny (scroll down to find the tutorial for my Spring Embroidery Hoop Art)

4. Stacy from Not JUST a Housewife

5. Jonie from Just Between Friends

6. Amy from Ameroonie Designs

Really fantastic spring projects. I love seeing how the members of Point of View interpret the theme each month. You can check out each of the tutorials by visiting each of the blogs listed above, and scroll down here to see the tutorial for my embroidery hoop wall art.

Do you have a spring project, past or present, that you would like to share? Whether you made up your own creation, used a pattern, or used another blogger's tutorial, we would like to invite you to join the Point of View Spring Link Party over at A Little Tipsy. But before you do that, I'd like to share my Spring Embroidery Hoop Art tutorial with you...

Isn't she sweet? The little woodland girl comes from a Doodle Stitching embroidery pattern that you can download for FREE at Lark Crafts! This project does not require a sewing machine and uses one really simple embroidery stitch, so no excuses from my non-sewing friends (you know who you are :). Here's the how-to...

Materials:

• 7" embroidery hoop
• roughly 12" square piece of muslin
• freezer paper (optional)
• fabric scraps for dress and head scarf
• paper-backed fusible web (I used Wonder Under.)
• embroidery floss for arms and hands, eyes, lips, hair, scarf tie, flower stems, and flower attachment
• 3 buttons (I used flowers, but other button shapes would look cute, too.)
• alphabet stamps
• ink pad
• ribbon (about 6")
• craft paint (for hair)
• water soluble disappearing ink pen (or a pencil will do in a pinch)
• embroidery needle
• scissors
• very small paint brush
• glue gun
• iron

Instructions:

Step 1: Download the Doodle Stitching Woodland Children embroidery pattern. Print one copy of the pattern on the non-shiny side of a piece of freezer paper (Warning: Only use an ink-jet printer when printing on freezer paper). Print another copy on a regular piece of paper. If you don't have freezer paper, just print two copies on regular paper.

Step 2: Following the manufacturer's directions, iron paper-backed fusible web onto the wrong side of the fabric scraps that you chose for the dress and the head scarf. From your freezer paper printout from Step 1, cut out the dress and the head scarf pieces. Iron these pieces of freezer paper onto the right side of the fabric scraps. If you didn't use freezer paper, cut out the dress and head scarf pieces from one of your printouts. Flip your cutouts over and trace them onto the wrong side of your fabric.

Step 3: Cut around your freezer paper templates, then peel the freezer paper from the front of the fabric.

Step 4: Peel the fusible web paper backing from the back of your fabric pieces and position them on your muslin. It may help to place the embroidery hoop in the center of the muslin to get an idea of where your pieces look best. Once you have the pieces where you want them, iron the pieces onto your muslin following the manufacturer's directions.

Step 5: Take your second embroidery pattern printout from Step 1, and slide it under your muslin. Line up the fabric dress and head scarf pieces with the pattern, and use a water soluble disappearing ink pen (or a pencil) to trace the legs, hands, hair, eyes, and lips onto the muslin.

Step 6: Take your embroidery hoop apart, and place your muslin in your embroidery hoop, making sure to position the fabric so that the woodland girl is where you want her within the hoop. Put your hoop back together and tighten. Grab your needle and embroidery floss. Start embroidering along the lines you just traced onto the muslin. I used a simple backstitch and three strands of floss for everything that I embroidered. Embroider the legs, hands, eyes, lips, and hair.

After I finished the first row of stitching on the hair, I decided to add a second row of stitches to make the hair stand out a little more...

I then sewed a little bow at the neck to look like the head scarf ties under her chin.

Step 7: After looking at the hair, I really wanted to fill it in with stitches, but that would have taken forever. I am not a big fan of things that take a lot of time. My solution: craft paint! Using a very small paint brush, carefully paint directly on the muslin between the fabric head scarf and the embroidered hair stitches.

Step 8: Flowers! Decide where you want your flowers, and use embroidery floss to sew your buttons onto your muslin. Add stems and leaves using the same backstitch you used in Step 6. If you want you can draw in your stems and leaves before embroidering them.

Step 9: Now it's time to stamp your word(s). You could embroider it, but you already know how I feel about things that take a lot of time. I thought about using "spring", "bloom", "How does your garden grow?" but I decided to go with "grow".

I tested my stamps on a scrap of muslin to figure out how much ink and pressure I needed to use to get the look that I wanted. Then I just stamped the letters right onto my project.

Step 10: Almost done. It's time to clean up the back a little bit. Trim the fabric to within about 1/2" of the embroidery hoop. I used pinking shears to limit fraying, but that's optional. Next, run a bead of glue from your glue gun along the back of the embroidery hoop and tuck your fabric around the back of the hoop into the glue. Do this about two inches at a time until the entire back is glued down all the way around the embroidery hoop.

Tie a bow with a piece of ribbon, glue it at the top on the front, and you're done! Now you have this adorable little piece of handmade wall art to celebrate spring. I smile every time I walk by it, and my girls ask to be picked up so they can get a closer look.

OK, now you can run over to the Point of View Spring Link Party at A Little Tipsy :) I'll be featuring some of your spring projects in a post next week. Hope to see you at the party!




I'm linking up...