I've often added small amounts of hand embroidery to my felts but rely heavily on my sewing machine to add detail and texture with free machine stitching. Last week I was dealt a blow when my machine threw a wobbley and decided it was no longer going to wind the bobbin! It was taken to the repair shop and I was left wondering how to work without it. Every time I came up with an idea I realised that I couldn't complete the picture without my sewing machine.
I decided to experiment with LOADS of hand embroidery. First I fused fabrics of different textures and colours to a prefelt with my needle felting machine. Next I wet felted quite thinly over the top so that they would show through in places. I decided I wanted a simple image and our fields are brimming with flowers at the moment which prompted me to try flower fields. This is what I came up with at first
Can you see how the stitches in the yellow field are tiny and the ones in the foremost field are much bigger? This helps to give a sense of perspective. The further away something is the smaller and less detailed it seems. I wasn't entirely happy with this so I added more flowers.
I felt that the extra colours made a big difference and there was lots of texture. Here is a close up
I did enjoy making this and was pleased with the final result but it took hours and hours to create a relatively small piece of work with thousands of stitches. It measures 10.5 x 6.5 inches and I would have to charge at least £50.00 if I were to sell it. That is around $85.00 for my US readers. Bearing that in mind I have decided to keep it as a sample for my own reference. Back to the drawing board!
If, by any chance, anyone disagrees with me and would like to purchase this piece feel free to message me.
