First finished hand-embroidered patch. *Very* late Timasomo entry...
So I realize I didn't quite make the end of October target - in fact I finished this piece just this evening, right in time for Christmas tomorrow (it's intended as a Christmas gift for my sister). I didn't get many early progress pictures, so all I have are some from the last couple of weeks. The whole thing is hand stitched, including the whipped edge.
Nearly finished piece without the outlining:
https://postimg.cc/kB5HYKnM
Outlined:
https://postimg.cc/7bHtb0Jh
Off the hoop, washed, cut, and whip-stitched.
https://postimg.cc/FfbGHH9C
I think I'd like to try some more variety on the types of stitches I use to fill areas next time. I pretty much only used basic back stitches and satin stitch for this. I tried a tight seed stitch initially for the dog's fur, but didn't like it and spent a whole evening picking it out.
I also found the process of washing the piece (this isn't strictly necessary but I had used water soluble pen to trace the image and needed to wash it to get the ink out) and cutting it very nerve-wracking. It took so damn long to sew and I was terrified I was going to fuck it up right at the end. There were a couple of spots where I felt like I didn't cut it quite as evenly as I wanted, but after adding the stitched edge you can't really tell at all. I also had no idea what I was doing when fusing the initial piece to the felt backing with interfacing, and the interfacing didn't fully adhere to the fabric in a few places, but it worked out fine.
All in all it took forever and there are a few noticeable mistakes, but overall I'm pretty proud of it and I'm hoping the next one doesn't take so long.
That's incredible!! I'm really impressed!!
Thanks! It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be - the stitches I used are mostly pretty straightforward, it just took a really really long time.
Great job finishing the project, it looks great! Any idea what the rough hour count to complete this was, out of curiosity?
Also, Merry Christmas! :)
This is really amazing. Is there any difference between this and embroidering/cross-stitch? Or is it the same stitching techniques with the finishing process to make a patch? It would be pretty neat (but obviously very time consuming) to make my own custom patches.
Thank you! Yeah the patch is embroidered on a hoop first, then I took it off and used a heat activated fabric interface to fuse it to a heavier felt backing, then cut it to the size and shape I wanted and stitched the piece and the backing together with a whip stitch around the edge.
Cross stitch is, to my understanding, a subset of embroidery that uses a specific stitch (the cross stitch) arranged in a grid pattern.
So yeah I think you could do this with pretty much any type of embroidery. It was pretty time consuming, but since it's freehand embroidery (you don't have to count stitches like you would with cross stitch) it's really easy to just get in the zone while watching a show or listening to video essays or whatever. Also I don't think the next one will take three months, I definitely learned some things that will cut that time down, I think.