Bunny - the freehand machine embroidery tutorial

I' ve just listed my new Bella pouch. This time I've adorned it with an embroidered bunny and I wanted to put together a short tutorial - since I didn't have any water soluble film I used a transfer pencil to carry the drawing onto the fabric.

1

First I looked for a nice picture of a rabbit; I wanted a clear side view to make a simplified silhouette. I didn't want to just copy the image so I outlined the basic shape of the bunny in Photoshop, made its tail a bit more obvious and added another ear for more depth. I printed out the drawing and traced it on a piece of transparent paper - I could have also used a picture from a magazine or some other printed image and traced it directly from there.

2

Since I wanted my bunny to face right as it did on the original photo, I turned the transparent paper over to get the drawing's mirror image and drew over the lines again, this time with a transfer pencil, the kind that can be washed away later. I carefully placed the drawing on my linen canvas and ironed over it on medium heat. The transfer pencil left a visible enough trace - it was later completely covered with embroidery thread, otherwise I would have gently cold washed the canvas to get rid of the drawing underneath the embroidery.

3

I then fixed some tear-away stabilizer paper on the back of my drawing - I used tape but could have also used a more fancy self adhesive stabilizer. I adjusted my sewing machine to freehand embroidery (which means I dropped the feed dogs and installed a darning/embroidery presser foot) and slowly followed the drawing with my needle. I'm just starting to get the hang of this freehand embroidery so I like to go over the drawing several times to create a "hand drawn" look rather than trying to create a perfect silhouette. When I was done, I carefully pulled all the cut ends of threads from the front into the back with a don't-ask-me-how-it's-called-in-English tool and tied them firmly together so they don't unravel later. It is a boring task so I try to "draw" my embroidery in one piece (in this case in two, the eye was sewn separately).

In the end I tore the excess stabilizer paper away. Done!

4

Picture 4 shows how the bunny looked on both sides of the fabric...

...and this is the final result - the Bella zipper pouch.

A new listing and a new Treasury feature

My to-do list is shorter for one entry - today I have completed my new zipper pouch and have just listed it on Etsy. The Bella pouch is made of Basque handvowen linen canvas which I've already used for the Love Hope Peace tote.

This time I used the thin red line on the striped canvas to perch a small machine embroidered bird upon. I adorned it with some off white cotton lace and added a thin black leather cord with wooden beads on the zipper. I intend to make some more of these pouches, perhaps featuring other woodland creatures.

Today was also a day for another Treasury feature - this time it was Julie of meiguidesigns who was kind enough to include my Sakado wooly backpack purse in her yummy mocha inspired collection. I love the way she combined all those shades of coffee and cream with different textures.

Thank you, Julie!