Blue Bird, a free pattern in celebration of World Embroidery Day

A while back, I came across a stack of embroidery files in a charity shop, one of which contained some old transfers. There were a lot of floral designs, but in among them was this cheeky bird, cut into three pieces.

I imagine someone had a plan for the transfer, but didn't get around to it as it hadn't been used.

Something about the design lodged in my mind and when I began thinking about putting together a free design to celebrate a day dedicated to embroidery, this little bird popped back into the forefront.

I've rearranged elements from the transfer to create a design that fits into a 6-inch embroidery hoop. It lent itself to hoop framing, in my mind.

So set aside some time to embroider this month, especially on 30 July (it's a Saturday). And if you decide to stitch Blue Bird and share it on social media, use the hashtags #WorldEmbroideryDay and then #KFNeedlework so I can find your version. Or tag me @kfneedlework on Instagram.

The free pattern is available to download for free.

Embroidered insect #7: Anatomical Wasp

I seem to be on a bit of an insect-slash-superhero bent. Whereas I loved the shape and structure of the ant, the striking colours and delicate wings were what drew me to the wasp.

And this one looks very much like a superhero to me, despite its anatomical correctness. Coincidentally, Marvel’s Wasp and Ant-Man were among the founding members of the Avengers, if you’ve seen the recent films.

But the first Wasp character I was drawn to was Lisbeth Salander from Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy. She’s the girl with the dragon tattoo and the hacker name of Wasp, after the Marvel character if I remember correctly.

Either way, this is my new favourite of all the insects I’ve embroidered. Probably because it’s the most recent, but also because the wings turned out better than I’d hoped and the colours are so enticing.

If you feel the same way, the pattern is available in my Etsy and Craftsy stores.

Embroidered insect #6: Anatomical Ant

An ant has become the sixth design in my Anatomical range of embroidered insects.  

Elizabeth emailed me quite a while ago now with the suggestion of an ant – her kids were apparently loving the stitched insects. Her other idea was a spider, but I just didn’t have the stomach to sit through designing and embroidering one... I was already casting about for other insects that'd work well as embroideries, so it was a timeous mail. Thanks Elizabeth.

The design came together fairly quickly and then I hit a snag: colour. I knew I didn’t want to embroider the entire ant in black or grey, but couldn’t get my head around how to introduce additional colour while still staying true to the original idea behind the Anatomical designs, which was to keep the insects as lifelike as possible.

Enter Ant-Man.

Anatomical Ant had ended up languishing among my other half-finished designs and sketches, waiting for inspiration to strike. Which happened halfway through the movie. It hit me that Paul Rudd’s costume featured red accents and that this was how I could liven up my embroidered ant.

I’ve added some white as well, to lift the design, as the charcoal grey and rust red are quite dark, strong colours. And taken one or two liberties with ant realism for the sake of engaging stitching.

The pattern is available on Etsy and Craftsy. 

Daisy chain monograms in black and white

Fresh and modern, Daisy Chain Monograms are for stitching your stamp on anything fabric, from personalised notebook covers to hand-crafted wedding favours. The pattern features four variations of a striking but simple alphabet incorporating different and unusual chain stitches, including lazy daisies if you were wondering how the name came about. 

I've always wanted fabric-covered sketchbooks with an embroidered element and have gone for contemporary black and white. The way I've constructed the notebook covers creates a fabric pocket inside each of the front and back covers for storing ideas scribbled on to slips of paper and small inspirational items such as beautiful packaging, thread and even leaves, grasses and flowers. Pastels or bright thread colours would give the monograms a different feel for different personalities and/or occasions.

Weddings kept popping into my head while I was embroidering the monograms. But really, they're suitable for tea towels, cloth napkins, fabric-covered boxes, Christmas tree decorations and stockings... anything you'd like to personalise. Great for gifting handmade.

They're easy to transfer on to fabric and quick to embroider, in stark contrast to traditional monograms that require hours of painstaking satin stitch. Hopefully this is a happy alternative.

The pattern includes step-by-step photographic instructions on how to make the notebook covers - from measuring your notebook to creating a sewing pattern to embellishing it with the embroidered monogram. It's available as a digital download from my Etsy and Craftsy shops.

Lucky Fish alphabet and lettering

Based on my original Lucky Fish pattern, Lucky Fish Lettering is a complete alphabet that can be embroidered as is or split up to create monograms, names and phrases - or personalised rosettes.

The design sat around on my computer for absolute ages. It was only when I started playing around with typography - my Deco Alphabet and ABC patterns in particular - that it fell into place in my mind and has now become part of a bit of series of alphabet, lettering and monogram patterns.

I knew they worked as lettering, as I expanded on my Lucky Fish pattern to create the full alphabet. If you're not familiar with the story behind that pattern, lucky fish is really just a South African way of saying, "Lucky you." As in, "You lucky fish."

I wanted to arrange the letters so the pattern could be embroidered as a complete alphabet or broken up into individual letters, to give it legs (as they say in the ad industry). The idea is for you to stitch the design as is or use the letters to create your own monograms, names, words and phrases. And the personalised rosettes are a fun idea for monograms.

In addition to the complete embroidery instructions with close-up reference photos, the pattern includes step-by-step photographic instructions on how to make two different rosettes. It's available in my Etsy and Craftsy shops.