A bit of embroidery practice . . .

Last weekend, I thought I'd have a bash at a bit of embroidery practice - I've been wanting to embroider the features on my Rag Dolls but haven't really had the time to practice. I had bought some embroidery thread and a hoop a few months back so I decided to take the bull by the horns! I actually used the same material I use to make my Rag Dolls which is a curtain lining fabric but used it double-fold.

I tried a bit of chain stitch to start off with . . .

Here's the book I used (but not this particular page - that's a bit too advanced!!). It had really good illustrations though.

. . . I just made up shapes as I went along to practice the stitches with,

I ended up with a piece of 'freeform' embroidery using chain stitch, french knots and finally stem stitch. I love the way 'french knots' add texture - it's a cute wee stitch!

I like the way that the embroidery hoop keeps the fabric taught and you feel like you're working on a piece of canvas. I almost felt like I could doodle away once I'd mastered some of the stitches. I did find it really time consuming though, but that's coming from an amateur embroiderer! 'Feeling Stitchy' is a great blog to see some really inspiring embroidery and has great tutorials if you get really interested!

I might adopt it as a new hobby to unwind from stuffing toys! Don't think I'll ever become a master 'embroiderer' though!

Bye for Now!

(I've just realised I've done en entire post without mentioning Harris Tweed - now we can't have that now - hee hee!!)