This article is brought to you by Brown Paper Stitch, my business that makes your wardrobe pawesome by embroidering your pets on clothing.
Over the past couple of weeks, I haven’t had a lot to show in my studio. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working! I have many pet portrait patches and shirts that are on deck, so I’ve been creating the sketches for all those projects.
I typically don’t share those sketches unless it’s or pictured with the embroidery itself. While important, sketches aren’t as exciting as seeing the stitches, and it’s also a way to protect my intellectual property; I’ve had folks trace over my custom sketches and recreate the embroideries for themselves (!).
Scroll down to see what I’ve been stitching in my studio lately. To see what I’m doing in real-time, follow me on !
Sweater Pup on a Sweater
, but one big reason I love to take on custom work is that your ideas help to push my embroidery in new directions. This can be seen in one of my latest completed projects, Cooper the pup. When the client sent me a sweater, I was a bit befuddled about how I am going to stitch Cooper’s portrait onto it. After all, the collar wasn’t like the typical collared shirt. After going back and forth with sketches and placement, the client and I landed on putting the dog on the chest with his name nearby.
Embroidering on a knit is nothing like the chambray that I usually work on. This particular sweater was also pretty loose and directly stitching on it—with all the details I like to include—just wasn’t an option. So, I decided to first embroider Cooper on felt and then once done, adhered him to the garment with a stabilizer. I then stitched around his edges to further secure the embroidery.
The name was done completely freehand on the collar, which lent itself to direct stitching since the knit was tighter and chunkier.
All in all, I’m really pleased with how the sweater turned out!
Pup Patches in the Works
I’m now stitching a trio of pup patches. I have a client who ordered three patches of the same dog and so I’m stitching him in three different ways. It’s a great excuse to bust out my 10-inch hoop (that I’ve never used before) and embroider all of the patches there.
1 Year of Stitches: January is Done!
January 31
I started my projects off with a detailed portrait of my parent’s late Golden Retriever, Maddie. (Refresher: I am stitching a different animal portrait each month for a year. I’m calling it my #creaturecoat.) During the first week of January, I had a lot of time to stitch Maddie. This proved crucial, as the design was complex and I was able to make a lot of progress. As the month went on, I had less time and ended up finishing Maddie on the evening of the 31st.
February 2
Now, I’m on to my February portrait: my beloved Pauline. She’s not quite as detailed as Maddie was (here’s a peek at the ), which is probably a good thing—especially with February being a short month!
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