Monarch Butterfly - Machine Embroidery

All summer I have been intending to have a go at machine embroidery, as I see such lovely things on other people's blogs. But things (or little people) always seemed to get in the way. Also I had the idea that I would have to buy a special foot for my machine, and I thought this might be difficult, as my machine is not very modern. 

Finally have managed to get my act together. I found the manual for my sewing machine, which directed me to this magic little switch at the back, which I had never noticed, which lowers the feeders. It said I could embroider with no foot at all!!! Bit scarey.  I managed to find my embroidery ring, which I knew I owned but just couldn't find.

So here is my first attempt. It has taken me all afternoon, but I have to say I am a bit pleased with it (I know that sounds smug). I thought I would try a subject I am familiar with, but something organic so it wouldn't matter if it was a bit wobbly. 

At first the whole thing was a bit scarey, with my needle swinging around rather wildly. I have also probably used a whole reel of black thread. After a bit I realized that it was actually easier if I got a bit of speed up. I started off using the embroidery ring, but by the end found the whole business of getting it under the needle a bit of a pain, so I abandoned it for all the fine lines.

I had got a book out of the library on machine embroidery, but soon realized it was much too advanced for me. If anyone could recommend a fairly basic book on techniques, I would really appreciate it. I have lots of ideas for projects, but still need to learn a bit. I really wanted much bigger black areas on the tips of the butterfly's wings, but couldn't make my stitch any wider. Perhaps I should have used more applique, or found a way to fill those areas in. I did the little spots by hand, as I do like a bit of hand sewing, especially french knots. 

But now I have to think what to do with my monarch butterfly, which is just on a small square of hessian. I think the best thing may be to incorporate it into a cushion. Any ideas?

A Little Bit of Embroidery

In my knitting patterns I use embroidery quite often. I only just noticed that more than half of my patterns have what I call "a little bit of embroidery". And my two sewing patterns on Craftsy (the Rainbow of Owls and Smocked Headband) have a lot.

It is such an easy way to add a little bit of decoration. Embroidery on knitting also has the advantage that the lines formed by the knitting automatically give you a bit of a grid to help you measure and position your embroidery.

But embroidery can be a bit daunting, especially if you are new to it, so I thought I would make a small section of my blog that shows how to do these stitches by picture tutorial. I made a single page recently on how to sew a French Knot, and had some nice feedback. Most of these stitches are quite simple, but you may need to practise a little to get the hang of them. There are other places on the internet that show stitches, but not often done using wool on knitting.

I have put the links in my sidebar. I really wanted to put them as links from this page, but as I have said before I am a bit of a computer half-wit, and just can't work out how to do that. I may move them down from the top eventually, but they will stay somewhere in the sidebar.

I think embroidery can really enhance your knitting. Have fun with it.

If you have found this interesting please bookmark the pages. I plan to add some more stitches in the future.

French Knot

Some of my knitting patterns include a little bit of embroidery. And although there are a lot of places on the internet that show how to do this, particularly on Youtube, I thought I would show how to do some of these stitches on wool using wool. If you haven't done much embroidery they can seem a bit daunting.

I thought I would start with the french knot, which I have used in my ladybird, butterfly patterns, and starfish. It can be really useful, especially for making eyes on little creatures.

First fasten on at the back of your knitting and stitch through to the front

Wind the wool around your needle twice

Sew into your knitting, close to where you came up, but not through the same hole

Troubleshooting: The main ways your french knot might go wrong are if you sew in too close to where you came up. If this happens you will find all your wool seems to disappear with no knot.  Just have another go. A bit of practice and it get easier.

The other thing I find can happen is that if you have too long a piece of wool it just get tangled and does not make the nice little knot. If this does happen just untangle and have another go.

Pull the wool through and you should find yourself with a perfect little french knot

Simple. If you want to make a slightly larger knot you can wrap the wool around the needle three times.