Embroidered Rocket

 

My embroidery masterpiece!

I knew nothing about embroidery stitches before I started this...you may say I still don't.  I remember doing a bit of embroidery with my granny when I was very little but think I'd probably just done a bit of running stitch.  So I'm very pleased with myself that I've managed to learn a few different types of stitch while doing this.  Stitches the masterpiece includes: chain, satin, back, couch, running.  And I NEVER want to have to use silver thread again!  It is a nightmare!!  Really difficult to thread and gets knotted up very easily.  I tried a few different brands and they all drove me crazy. 

The Process:
I don't have a very logical brain (or a scanner) so I spent quite a lot of time working this process out!!

Here is the initial idea I drew into a sketchbook.  It was a very tiny illustration - the rocket is only about two inches. Sorry it is a bit blurry.

This was the design I created straight onto calico. Very useful here was a roll of masking tape which I used to stretch the calico flat onto my kitchen table:

Aforementioned kitchen table.  My flat was being decorated while I was doing this so my kitchen was the only 'living room' I had for 4 days.  I was working on this while people were walking back and forth through my kitchen with buckets of water and paint and the whole place was very dusty and uncomfortable.  Really, working on this bit of art for my baby was what kept me sane.

I decided that I actually wanted to use the navy blue fabric (in picture above) to embroider onto.  I liked that the tiny white flower pattern on it looked to me like stars, which meant I had to transfer the illustration off of the calico and somehow get it onto the navy fabric.  So I traced it onto some greaseproof paper from my kitchen cupboard!  I also walked round to the newsagent and did a photocopy of the design so I have got a hard copy of it for future reference.  I don't have a scanner at the moment which means I am employing some quite old-fashioned ways of working!

After this I still had to get the design onto the navy fabric.  I just put the greaseproof paper on top of the navy fabric and traced over the design very firmly with a biro and, I don't really know what greaseproof paper is made of, but the result was that the design came out on the navy fabric as a very very feint line.  It was really difficult to see though so I used a chalk pencil to go over the design on the fabric so I could see it better. I wonder now if there is some some of white tracedown paper on the market that can be used for transfering designs onto dark fabric and paper?  Like a chalk version of carbon paper?? I've never seen such a thing.