Simple embroidery projects

I’ve never embroidered before. This is something I’ve always wanted to try but never have. With handmade gifts to make I figured what better time then now!

The first gift I made was my daughters handprints for my Mom & Dad. Using a pencil I traced each of their hands on to the fabric.

Then using embroidery thread & needle I started at the bottom of the first hand. I used a split stitch……

You make a small stitch and then bring your needle up through the center of the previous stitch as you make your next one. You’ll need to work with at least 4 strands so that your able to split them while you stitch. Looks impressive, but is super simple! It almost looks like a braid.
Once complete, I then framed it. I loved it so much I made one for myself as well!

After I found out how simple embroidery can be I decided to make my sister a tote. She & her husband live downtown Chicago and are avid bike riders. My sister even rides to and from work daily until it snows. I made a embroidered version of her bike.

I made this the same way as the handprints.  I printed a picture of a bike & then traced it onto the tote. From there I just used the same split stitch in the colors of her bike. For the “metal parts” I twisted 2 black strings & 2 white. I then threaded the needle with that combo to create a more gray color. I love how it turned out. And most important, I think she really loved it too.

Don't you just love her antlers!



Now that I gave it a try, I’m going to look into more things to embroider & more detailed ways of doing it. If you’ve never done it , I would definitely give it a try. It’s a nice change from crochet or knitting. All three of those are great “watching TV’ type projects. But whats nice about these simple embroidery projects, you can easily complete one in 30 to 45 minutes.

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