A journey into embroidery

About a month ago I saw an offer for a new sewing magazine to get the first 3 issues for £5 – bargain! I wasnt really sure what to expect but when my first copy arrived I read the entire thing from cover to cover twice! The first time there was lots of “oohs” and “ahhs” and exclamations of “where’s my sewing machine! I want to make it now”. The second reading I was more restrained as I’ve set myself a task when it comes to sewign to not have more than one project on the go at once. Instead, I turned down the page corners of everything I want to try – and pretty much every page is turned!

However, I couldnt resist but do something from the magazine before the next issue arrives in a couple of weeks. So I managed to convince myself that embroidery does not count as sewing and so it was perfectly legitimate to start something new!

I have never embroidered before but is something I have always liked the look of and thought about trying. So it seemed like the perfect coincidence that there was an entire article on backstitching – one of the mst simple embroidery stitches. There was a tutorial of how to do it and a pattern that only uses this one stitch. There was also promise of more stitches in the next issue!

On my trip to Hobbycraft a few weeks ago I had bought an embroidery hoop and a blank canvas bag in anticipation of starting this new project so I could quickly get to work.

The pattern was for a bicycle which I placed underneath my taughtened bag and traced using a blue pencil (as recommended). I think this was the trickiest part as it was quite hard to keep the pattern still underneath the fabric. At least now I know for next time I should try pinning it down or something.

Once I had started stitching I realised that this is in fact a really fun new hobby as it is quite relaxing and I enjoy the precision element to it. Also, you can do it whilst watching the tv! and better still if you go wrong you can just undo the  one stitch that needs changing unlike in knitting where the whole thing has to get unraveled!!

Anyway, I think it turned out really well for my first attempt and am really looking forward to trying some more stitches to produce the amazing range of textures and styles you can see in embroidery. I think I will fill the whole bag with my practicing!

Backstitched embroidered bike in embroidery hoop

Backstitched embroidered bike on a tote bag

backstitched embroidered bike