Ok, here we go, how to complete a simple embroidery project!
First you need to find a pattern, pattern bee, flickr Hoop Love group, and Needlecrafter are all great places to find patterns. However, today’s pattern is a vintage Vogart provided by Jessie (thank you!). The first thing I did was download the pattern and open it up in Adobe Photoshop, I looked at the size and decided I didn’t want to change it, sometimes I shrink or enlarge patterns this way. It doesn’t matter if the pattern you print has slightly blurry lines, you are going to ink it crisp and clear.
2. Print Pattern
I use plain old white printer paper, does anyone have any other suggestions?
3. Use a Sulky Pen or a Heat Transfer Pencil (if you don’t have either- here is a great resource for other transfer methods) and trace your pattern, make sure you mark in clean crisp strokes.

4. Use your iron to stamp the pattern onto your fabric. I’m using an organic cotton flour sack towel that I grabbed at Target. The weave is very loose and I do not recommend it, Target does sell a fantastic white flour sack towel with a very tight weave!
5. Once your fabric is stamped pull out your embroidery threads and select color! I find that if I select colors ahead of time then I can make sure all the colors look good together.
I’ve chosen white for the bunny (however if you are stitching on a white fabric I would recommend a brown bunny), pink for the nose, blue for the eyes, black for the lashes (grey for the whiskers) and green for the tie.

6. Place fabric in an embroidery hoop, choose one large enough that you can stitch your whole design without having to move the hoop.

7. Whatever color of thread I will use the most is the color I start with, so I started with the white for the bunny. Embroidery floss consists of 6 tiny threads wrapped together. When I stitch designs I use 3 strands, so you’ll want to split your thread after you cut a length. When I do lettering I use 2 strands.
8. The outside of the bunny I stitched using a stem stitch, although I think a chain stitch would look nice here too. (I tried to take pictures of me doing the stitches for you, but they turned out just awful! So please follow the links to better illustrations.) Next I did the pink nose in a satin stitch , I also did the blue eyes that way too. The black lashes I did in a back stitch, I like the way it makes the lines of the eyes look crisp. The Whiskers are done in the same stem stitch as the bunny outline. For the green tie I demonstrated how the chain stitch looks, it is great for outlining things that you want to stand out a bit- think of it as the bold feature of stitching. For the dots of the tie I used french knots, this is a tricky knot. As your needle is coming up from the fabric wrap the tail of the thread around the needle 3 times and then pull the needle all the way up tightening the thread as you go. There is a great YouTube video showing how to do a french knot.

Ta Da! You are done! This little bunny took me about 45 min if you subtract all the photographing that I did! Please leave me a comment or shoot me an email (heather -at-heatherhalesdesigns-dot-com) if I lost you anywhere or you have questions about this project.
SURPRISE- One lucky reader can win this perfect easter towel! Just leave me a comment and let me know that you want him, I’ll pick a winner on Monday 3/10.

Also, Average Jane Crafter is giving away the yet-to-be-released new Sublime Stitching book of embroidery patterns, quick the contest is only open until Friday 3/7.