Handmade Christmas: Part 3 {Embroidered Portrait}

Several months ago, I decided I really wanted to do some sort of special wedding-related embroidery for my brother and sister-in-law (who just got married back in April). I've seen lots of cute ideas, like using woodish fabric and embroidery floss to mimic initials carved into a tree.

 

I was searching online for ideas for embroidered wedding portraits, and I came across rigg art. And that was exactly the sort of thing I wanted to stitch. So, taking lots of inspiration from those gorgeous pieces, this is what I made as a Christmas gift for the newlyweds.

 

I am so pleased with how it turned out. It might seem like I say this all the time about my different crafty ventures, but this is one of my favorite things I've embroidered. :) And I honestly had a blast doing it, mostly because I was stitching cartoony versions of people in my family. It was so much fun to try and make it look like them...the same colors and the dress design and everything.

I started off by sketching out a picture- I used two different wedding pictures for references. {I started off with Rachel because I thought it would be hard to get her dress perfect, but Cody was the difficult one! He was too short. Then he was too fat. Then his eyes were creepy. Then when I got him just right, I realized that the two of them were standing too far apart. One sideburn is still thicker than the other.} When I was finally happy with it, I traced it onto my fabric (a linen blend). Then I cut out some white cotton for the dress and appliqued it on. Then came the rest of the stitching...black embroidery floss for everything except the color details and metallic silver for the veil. One of my favorite parts was using a bit of lace and beads on the dress, and clear beads on her earrings and necklace.

The only little thing I'm not completely happy with is the fact that her dress is wrinkly. I thought it would press out later, but it turned out to be the spots where I didn't put fusible web (which I used to hold the dress fabric on while I stitched). Also, I knotted the floss as I went because originally I was planning on framing it in a hoop. I ended up using a real frame, and so when I put the piece on the mounting board, some spots are lumpy because of the knots.

Until next time,