Create Custom Embroidery Patterns for National Embroidery Month
15 February 2010
Author: Catherine Matthews-Scanlon
Embroidery is making a comeback. Everywhere I look I see people posting pictures on their blogs showing some really cute embroidery projects they’ve made. So celebrate National Embroidery Month by making your own custom embroidery patterns. Whether you are an old pro or you've never picked up a needle, you can easily create your own designs and embroider them on anything you want!
Creating custom embroidery patterns isn’t hard, really. If you can draw a heart with an arrow you can turn it into something to embroider on your pants pocket or book bag. You can embroider your doodles onto a piece of fabric and turn that cute piece of fabric with your handwriting and funky drawings into a cozy for your iPod or camera.
Beginner Kits:
If you aren’t comfortable with free-hand embroidery you can purchase a beginner kit that demonstrates the basics of creating the stitches, has color coordinated threads and usually a pre-printed pattern on a nice quality embroidery fabric.
Advanced Kits:
If you’re experienced with embroidery you can find advanced kits that contain all the thread, patterns and fabric to create exquisite designs. Some kits come with a pattern that you can iron on to fabric included with the kit. If you prefer to stitch on something else you can iron the pattern on to whatever fabric you want – from a t-shirt to your pajamas to a piece of linen you can make into that same iPod cozy.
Using Your Own Doodles:
If you want to turn some of your own sketches and doodles into embroidery patterns you’ll need a few easy to find tools. You’ll first need to find some transfer paper to transfer your design from your paper to your fabric. Of course if you want to, you can draw your design right on your fabric, be sure to use a pen with disappearing ink so it will disappear or wash out later. If you choose to use transfer paper to transfer your designs onto your surface, layer the fabric, transfer paper, and image in that order trace the original design to transfer the design on to the fabric.
You’ll also need:
- Scissors
- Needle
- Floss
- And a hoop to keep your fabric taut as you stitch
You can find these items in the embroidery aisle at your local craft store.
Embroidery and Paper Crafting
You can easily incorporate your embroidery into many of your paper crafting projects. Instead of transferring your pattern using transfer paper or disappearing ink, you’ll need a tool called a paper piercer and a soft surface to work on.
To transfer the design to paper:
- Place the pattern over the spot where you’ll be embroidering and poke holes for the stitches using a paper piercer.
- Stitch as you would on fabric, but do not pull the threads too tight as this can rip the paper.
Before National Embroidery Month is over, you should try your hand at embroidery - you’ll find it’s an easy project to take with you when you travel, and is very relaxing as well!