Embroidery is a great way to create a bespoke pattern or image for decorating fabric using thread and yarn. Or even incorporating materials like pearls, beads, and sequin.
Total Project Time: Approx. 3 hours
There are some phrases that are utterly unforgettable. At some point during our campaign of Oath (by Leder Games) someone asked “Do Citizens Dream of Oracular Pigs?” And I fell in love with this saying. Not only is it a great spin off (what I believe to be) the original phrase; Do androids dream of electric sheep? But it also fits the world of Oath so well that I wanted to create something with this phrase. So why not embroidery? While embroidery is not one of my typical mediums, it is something I’ve always been excited to get into.
Check out the Craft section of MCG for more fun patterns in forever fabrics or more unlimited ideas.
Supplies
For this project, I put together the following:
- Needlework Fabric
- Thread (Purple, Blue, Pink)
- Embroidery Needle
- Embroidery Hoop
- Design Pattern
- Fabric Tape
The design pattern (which I will talk about more in the process section) was generated with quite a few colors, but I decided what color I wanted each word. I figured the royal purple fit well with the color of the empire. I wanted to word dream to fit the blue of a clear night sky. And the pink was best choice for the Oracular Pig. For obvious reasons.
Process
Since the pattern I wanted wasn’t an established design, the first step in the process is creating that pattern. I found it was easiest to start with an image. I made up the following image in photoshop but, considering the simplicity of it, I probably could have put it together in photoshop. Then I used www.myphotostitch.com to convert that image into an embroidery ready pattern. I wanted to image to be large, so I picked the [150 stitches x 119 stitches] setting. I couldn’t control the color of the image easily, so I just picked a grayscale and ignored the recommended colors. But I imagine this tool will work very well with a colorful scene.
So a majority of this project was just doing a cross stitch following the patterns. I am aware there a lot of fun embroidery stitches, but I wasn’t adventurous enough to try them out this time. I started the project just holding the fabric as I began to stitch. Very quickly realized that the fabric was a little unwieldy to work with. So I turned to an embroidery hoop. That was a good investment. Made the project easier to hold and allowed me to work faster! But I did have to iron it out after removing the project from the hoop!
To finish off the project, I wanted to square off the piece. To do this, I folded the Needlework fabric to create the shape I wanted. I then used fabric tape to secure the side of the fabric and keep the piece in the desire shape. Now when I was making this, I didn’t think about the final shape and how I wanted to display the piece – maybe I will make a frame on an upcoming post!
Lessons
Why Use an Embroidery Hoop?
Is an Embroidery hoop necessary? No. But does it help? Absolutely. An Embroidery hoop with help stabilize the work by creating tension across the working fabric. This will help prevent puckering and clamping in the fabric.
Files
“Do Citizen Dream of Oracular Pigs?” Embroidery File