Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Holiday Stitching Fun - Vintage Santa

If you've followed my blog for very long, you know that I absolutely love hand stitching. While most of my experience has been with cross stitch, I've begun to branch out into different kinds of hand embroidery as well. To that end, I had planned to work on several different kinds of stitching projects for the holidays. I still have some stitched pendants in the works as gifts and maybe as items to sell, and I'm also working on some ornaments right now as well. This embellished stitch vintage Santa is a little bit too big to be an ornament, but I think he would be adorable as decoration on my mantel or on a shelf/table.

Here's the finished piece. I haven't decided if I'll attach a thin ribbon to the screw at the top of the piece to hang it or if I'll add a loop to the back of the piece. I think either option would work just fine.


 I wanted to photograph a couple of detail shots for you too. I used French knots on the holly berries and on Santa's eyes.
 The rest of the stitched are mostly just backstitch or a couching stitch. There's a small wrinkle on the bottom left of the hoop where I didn't pull it tightly enough through the hoop or where the fabric puckered a bit as I worked the stitches around the ball of fur on the hat. I think that's something I'll get better at managing as I continue to work with this weight of fabric and these stitches.
 That metallic thread was a bear to work with, but I think the effect of it is really cool. I've read a few tips/tutorials about working with it, so I'm hopeful that the next project won't be fraught with such difficulty. That metallic thread is definitely challenging.
 And here's a shot of the piece propped up against a frame on my mantel. I think this one is in a 6" or 7" hoop, to give you an idea of the finished size.

If you're interested in making your own version of a hoop like this, here's where I bought my supplies --
     Michael's craft store: silver tassel ribbon roll, wood embroidery hoop, metallic silver dmc floss, hot glue sticks
     Hobby Lobby craft store: printed Santa fabric, regular DMC floss (black, red, green), white felt for the backing
     Supplies on hand: glue gun, scissors
     Total materials investment - approximately $5 (This is an estimate because I have extras of all the supplies left over and could make other projects out of the initial items I purchased.)
     Total time investment - approximately three hours

If you decide to make one of your own, I hope you'll share it with me, so I can see your work. I'm considering doing something similar with ornament sizes of hoops that are about 3" or 4" to hang on a Christmas tree. Would anyone be interested in purchasing that kind of thing? I'm not sure if I'll have time to make these to sell, but I'm open to the idea. I'd love to hear what you think about that.

Don't mind me, I'll just be over in the corner stitching. I have to say, this whole stitching thing makes me happy, and this little vintage Santa makes me giddy.

2 comments:

  1. This just revived my childhood memories. I so used to get scared of this then as i started growing up I realized that this is Santa Clause and started to love this. Can I still get one of these?

    ReplyDelete
  2. New approaches needed for implementation of new operating procedure. It actually increases your work efficiency. This article actually helps me out.Nursery Embroidery Designs

    ReplyDelete