Alyice on May 17th, 2010

How To Embroider A Picture

The inspiration behind this work came one day when I was thinking about my now deceased mother. She had hand painted a pillow case for me that I couldn’t help but think would make a lovely hand stitched, or embroidered, reproduction.

That same day, I received a stack of 4×6 photos I had ordered from an online printer and found myself highly disappointed in the quality of the printing job. It looked as though the printer had begun to run out of ink and instead of replacing the cartridge, let the print job finish.

At first, I thought about returning the photos and asking for the images to be reprinted. But then I thought about the embroidery idea and realized that their mistake could be my good fortune.

“How cool would this photo look with embroidered accents?” I thought to myself.

So I pulled out my husband’s embroidery thread (a project he had long given up on), a seam ripper, a crafter’s cutting board, and a sturdy needle for hand sewing and got to work.

An hour later, I had turned a negative into a positive.

I liked the way it came out so much that I created one for a Christmas present for my sister Candice, another for a friend’s teenage daughter, and another for me. Then I pulled out the remaining six prints and little-by-little, I stitched my way to six more works of art!

How To Embroider A Picture

Create an 8×10 painting on watercolor paper. Let dry.
Photograph, or scan, painting.
Have 4×6 copies of painting printed.
Remove some of the shine from the print by spraying a light coat of spray adhesive on the image, followed by a matte acrylic sealer. Let air dry. (This creates a little texture to the photo paper and makes it a bit sturdier when stitching.)
Punch holes, using a seam ripper, throughout the print, outlining the image.
Use embroidery thread and a hand quilting needle to stitch the design, making sure to tie it off on your first stitch and again on your last stitch. (French knots make great leaves and/or flowers.)
Hand paint a sheet of watercolor paper to create a background paper. Let dry.
Place the glass, from the frame on the background paper and trace. Cut out the 4×6 rectangle.
Grab a few self-adhesive risers. Adhere the hand embroidered print, slightly off-centered, to the background paper.
Hand stamp a single word, from top to bottom, on the right side of the background paper using acrylic paints. Let dry.
Frame the work in a simple, black wooden frame.

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Comments (3)

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Roberta says:
Alyice, I LOVE how you turned those photos into beautiful works of art! What a fabulous idea! Thank you for sharing the instructions too. They turned out beautifully…and are so unique. They will make wonderful gifts!
Posted at 12:53 pm May 18th, 2010
Alyice says:
Thanks Roberta.
Posted at 6:56 pm May 18th, 2010
TANNIA says:
AWESOME IDEA!!!! Keep it up.
Posted at 11:43 am May 25th, 2010

AlyiceEdrich.com
I'm a freelance writer, mixed media artist, SMVA, and the owner of The Dabbling Mum.

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