Stamping and Stitching with a Tutorial

A project! Shocking, I know! I cannot tell you how great it feels to be back into the swing of things. (at least this week :) )

I have noticed embroidery hoops being used everywhere on the internet and something about them just appeals to me. I am not good at sewing. My mother was the seamstress. But there is just something appealing about creating a little project like this!

As I thought about how I could create my own stitching pattern (because I cannot sew straight), I immediately thought about my stamps! I could stamp the images on fabric and stitch over the top! Oh the possibilities!!

I picked up a small 3” hoop, thin muslin, and a water washable fabric marker. The fabric was trimmed to a smaller size. The inner hoop was traced onto the fabric, to give me an idea of how far I needed to stitch, to fill the hoop. (you might have to click the photo to be able to see the faint image)

Wanting to mimic the pale color of the fabric marker and knowing I would stitch over the top and it really wouldn’t be seen, I used a pale blue ink. Stick with dye-based ink (or fabric ink) because you don’t want wet ink for this.

I stamped the handwriting line from Mint Motif’s School Basics set until the circle I drew was completely covered.

The clear stamps make it very easy to line everything up.

The final stamping.

The stitching. I used a back stitch, so they would be continual.

For the blue and black stitching, I used 3 strands of DMC embroidery floss. For the red lines, I only used two strands, to make it stand out less. Looking at this now, if I did the lines again, I might use only one.

A look at the letters. Just follow the letters with small stitches, especially around the corners. Having never done anything like this before, I am pretty happy with the results. I am off to see what other images I have in my stash…

Some advice from my mom. Thanks, Mom!:

• If you want this to be a project to hang on the wall, pre-wash the fabric.
• Move the hoop around while you are stitching, to keep the fabric taut.
• Keep your hands clean because the oils can rub off and leave marks.
• Don’t leave the project in the hoop if you walk away from it. The hoop could leave marks in an undesirable place.

Another last look at the hoop. It is glued to this card, but it might be fun to make it removable as a keepsake.

Hope you are inspired! thanks for stopping by!

~kimberly

Supplies: Stamps-Mint Motif (School Basics), Fabric-Hancock Fabrics, Michaels (DMC Floss, Hoop, Marker), Ink-Palette (Water Lily), Patterned paper-Kaiser Craft Miss Nelly, Spellbinders-S4-127 Classic Scalloped Squares Large