u/Makibadori

I don't think I will ever see female bird coloration as "boring" or "dull" ever again. The female was MUCH more complex to make than the male!

Made with size 3 yarn and a 2.75mm hook.

My 2.5 y/o daughter got a hold of a ballpoint pen and decided to test it out on her one-day-old pants 😅

After debating on how to remove the markings, I decided against it as the scribbles legitimately resembled flowers. I asked my daughter if that's what they were and if she wanted me to embroider over them, and she excitedly said yes. I finished within the day, and for months of use and enjoyment I feel it was well worth it.

"I like my flowers, my flowers pretty!" -my daughter

The entire thing was done with two strands of floss and stem stitch. I found the easiest way was to keep my dominant hand inside the pants and non-dominant out.

128 hours across 37 days, and it's finally done. Two whole weeks before the deadline! And that's actual embroidering time, not counting the initial design work and rework (LOTS of rework 😅), planning, pondering, etc. I did a whole test piece before starting and changed nearly everything about the flowers in the actual piece 🤣

All I have to do left is finish the hoop, and I do have a couple questions about that because I've never done this before. If I back it with felt and blanket stitch, will that prevent the fabric from sagging in the hoop?

Also, should I remove the whole piece first to potentially wash it (if so, how) or center it better, or can I just leave it as is?

These were the initial inspirations for each flower, but I made quite a few tweaks in both color choice and physical form to make the flowers make more sense anatomically.

Lilies - https://youtu.be/x-aScrwaSNw?is=7MLV8-R\_Ug1sisqC

Orchids - https://youtu.be/dJ52sKffulc?is=vjJGWbKZM4LdcqMh

I am SO close to finishing this project, but I noticed my letters slanting down and had to unpick, and the holes are super blatant. How can I get rid of this?

EDIT: Not holes, but thread fuzzy bits. Still need help getting rid of

I wouldn't care normally but I literally just bought these yesterday 😅

They haven't been in the laundry yet, can I get this out somehow?

I decided after 3 or 4 hoops of yarn and aida that my daughter was ready to try real fabric and thread, and she absolutely blew me away! She decided pretty early on that she was making grass, and then picked all the different colors to add the "flowers."

She's already started on her next hoop (second photo) and I can see her improving by leaps and bounds already.

The thread is single strand doubled over and tied at the end so it doesn't come off the needle. I had to experiment to find the right length so that I wasn't cutting it so long it was unusable for me, but a little longer than I usually would so that she wouldn't run out of thread in three stitches.

If you have a little one, I highly recommend letting them try, and you may be surprised! She absolutely loves to "broider"

You all loved my daughter's french fries & ketchup, so I thought I'd share her latest works! Top one is "Untitled," bottom one is "Dragon Duck."

Thanks to the suggestions to double over the yarn to prevent the need to rethread, and a smaller tapestry needle (because I lost the bigger one 😅) making it easier to poke through, she has gotten QUICK!

I have spent 38 hours across 12 days on these two flowers, I have two and a half more lilies to do, a bunch of orchids, stems, leaves, and then text, and 39 days to finish it all 😬

For my sixth embroidery ever I MIGHT have bitten off a bit more than I can chew 😅

Wish me luck!!

Photo one is my completed practice piece doing one of each flower of my intended full size piece. Photo two is my current tentative stencil for the full piece (names removed for privacy).

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I will take any and all improvement suggestions and advice!

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I am also wondering if it is too late to change the coloring on the lilies to match actual stargazer lilies, or if that would be too ambitious to attempt without doing a whole other practice flower (which I really don't have time to do). I would love to hear others' thoughts/opinions! Would you care if the embroidery design doesn't match a "real" flower as long as the design looks good? Or is accuracy more important?

Every stitch was her own placement. I had to rethread her needle after NEARLY every stitch, so rethreading may be the next skill I teach her 😅

I am doing a test piece for my upcoming project and I would like some feedback. Compared to the reference video, do I need to be using more red or going deeper with it? (First pic mine, second pic reference)

Any other advice or feedback is welcome and appreciated. I have time to adjust my technique as needed while I'm still working on the practice piece.

Here is the reference video if anyone is interested: https://youtu.be/x-aScrwaSNw?si=l-XPZGRyTtrLcSAI

I was so excited to start my next project... but alas.

I'm doing a test piece for a wedding gift so if I need to order higher quality materials I am willing to. Does anyone have recommendations? This is all single strand and I feel like it's pulling the holes way wider than it should.

Female mallard, completely freehanded. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! The wings with all the color changes were a pain in the butt. They took about 5 or 6 reworks, and I had to do one wing left (non-dominant) handed to keep the shape symmetrical to the other one. I'm considering using a brown sharpie to add in the feather patterns as a finishing touch, but I haven't decided yet. Has anyone tried sharpie on yarn before?

And I still have to make three more 😅