Hand embroidery is such a delight to stitch Sometimes known as stitchery. It's not as rigid as cross stitch where there's a right and wrong way. In embroidery it comes down to free form and every stitch is a testament of the stitcher's inherent skill. I have been stitching a long time and even then I am nowhere near perfect. I always do try to get neat and uniformed stitches. The journey is what it is all about.
I've since sewn a new apron and it's my curse for not being able to leave a solid fabric alone! :) I'm thinking of embellishments even before I cut the fabric! I love the Hungarian embroidery designs by Kate & Rose. Their having a year end sale up till NYE. So I had to get the Faraway Garden Pattern that I've been eyeing. I've even stitched a free pattern by Kati on a top some time back. Also I've been meaning to sew up the Roza top pattern naturally with some Hungarian embroidery.
The apron is a natural cotton twill that I bought from Spotlight. It's thickish and hence copying the pattern was difficult. So I've settled on my next favourite method of transferring the design using chalk tracing paper (I prefer the Clover brand) that is commonly used in dressmaking. I copied the design to a small piece of interface (paper works just as well) and then place it on top of the chalk tracing paper. I used the sewline nib (a pencil / pen is also fine) to outline the design again. As you can see the results are very clear.
I stabilised the reverse side of the design with a a good quality soft fusible interfacing that does not bubble, unlike the other local variety. It is available in my Facebook Shop if you would like some. I use a 7" Morgan embroidery hoop. My favourite embroidery needle is by Richard Hemming & Sons in Size 4. I use 3 strands of embroidery floss to mimic the thickness of Perle No. 8 thread.
Now that I've got my embroidery all prepped, time for some quite hand stitching tonight :)
