Lazy Daisy Embroidery!
...Lazy Daisy Embroidery (on Jeans!)
Hello craft lovers! Hope you've all been making the most of the (mostly) lovely weather! I definitely have! With a happy accident of 7 days between shifts, I've been sitting outside as much as I can, as well as getting back into fitness by doing some outdoor personal training sessions (my legs hurt!).
This week, I've ventured back into the embroidery game...You may have noticed it's been a while since I did my embroidery hoop art for Valentines Day! That's because I swore off needlework when my thumb went numb and stayed that way for a good few days! I'm over it now and back with a vengeance to show the needle and thread who's boss!
I have a plain pair of mom jeans that have just been calling out to me for some customisation and one day, when I was scrolling through pinterest looking for some inspiration, I found some cute embroidery daisies that were super easy to do - lazy daisies! They are probably the easiest stitch you will do to get yourself an embroidered flower, so of course, I was well on board! This design I'm going to show you includes not only a lazy daisy, but a french knot as well! Two very easy stitches that will bring some creativity to up your jeans game considerably!
So how did I start? Well, all you need is a needle and thread, and obviously, the garment or material you want to embellish.
The daisy pattern itself is very simple - just how I like things! Tie a knot in your white thread at the end of a semi-long piece. First, thread from the inside to the outside of the jeans, as I have done below.
Then, take your needle and as close as you can to the exit point of your thread, slip your needle in and under as long as you want your petal to be.
Don't pull it all the way through just yet, first you'll need to hook your thread around the needle, where it is kept in place as you then pull the needle through - as below.
You'll see that once it's pulled through it makes a petal shape! Now to secure that, you just want to make a small stitch through to the inside, right at the end of that petal shape. Then repeat this whole process as many times as you want petals! I did around 6 to 8 for each one.
You can obviously leave it like this, I was very tempted to as it looks quite minimal and effective, but I wanted to add a yellow centre for a pop of colour! To do this, we're going to use a french knot, a deceivingly tricky knot as I found out, but once you get it, it's very simple! I followed these fab instructions from Sublime Stitching which I would definitely recommend if you don't understand my ramblings!
Once again, take your thread from the inside to the outside of the jeans. You then want to pull the thread tight with your non-needle hand. Wrap the thread between 2 to 5 times around the needle, depending on how big you want the knot - I went with 5. Be sure to more the non-needle hand to wrap the thread, and not the needle, this is one way that the knot can go wrong - needle hand still!!
Making sure to keep pulling tight and not to let the stitches slip off the end, poke the needle back through, next to the original exit point. Pull your non-needle hand down slightly to bring the knot of thread to the point where the fabric meets the needle and you can then pull the needle through to the other side and that's how you create your knot! Don't worry if this takes a bit of practice, I kept doing them and it would just come unravelled into a normal stitch, but I eventually got it.
I ended up with quite a few daisies on the left hand side of the jeans, I'm still undecided if I'm done with these or if I want to add more - I'll keep you updated! However, to finish off this simple design, I did some more french knots, but this time in green, dotted around the daisies to give some more colour and I think the finished design (so far) looks quite effective!
I styled these with a simple mustard yellow, linen crop top for that summery feel!
Hope you enjoyed reading this week's Chloe Makes, as always, I love creating something and sharing it with you all! Be sure to send me your recreations of this week's make, I love to see what you've done!
Stay safe and keep well...
