hand stitching – kerricreates

I have been wanting to try my hand at reverse applique for quite some time, but life has been busy and I haven’t had as much time for creative ventures. However, I had some pretty floral fabric scraps and an old white crewneck that was just crying out “upcycle me!” So I made some time, and I am so glad that I did.

This “PRAISE” sweatshirt turned out even better than I expected, and I found so much joy in the process. Hand stitching each letter was calming, and cutting out the top layer to reveal the floral pattens underneath made me giddy. I’m counting the days until it’s cool enough for me to wear this adorable creation and dreaming of a million variations that I can start working on once life slows down a bit.

For this project you will only need to know one simple embroidery stitch. Using 2 full strands of embroidery floss, backstitch along the traced letters for the outline of the word “PRAISE.” If you are not familiar with the backstitch, you can find tutorials on youtube. For the letters, print a font of your choosing from your home printer, onto card stock, and cut the letters out to trace. I used a pilot frixion heat erasable pen.

Here is what else you will need if you are going to create your own reverse applique sweatshirt.

a plain crewneck sweatshirt

fabric of your choosing (I like this set from Amazon)

heat and bond lite (to iron onto the back of your fabric scraps for more support when stitching)

tender touch (to put over the back to cover your letters & make it softer against your skin)

Be sure to comment on this post to let me know if you are going to make a similar sweatshirt for yourself and subscribe to my blog for more creative content.

Making embroidered necklaces for my booth at a local shop in my city is one of my favorite things. I recently found these super fun wooden necklace bezels on Amazon and they make the coolest landscape style, hand embroidered necklaces. They are lightweight and reasonably priced. They come in a pack of 10, so you can make a bunch on necklaces and the cords come already attached.

When I make my necklaces, I embroider the scenes first onto a piece of hooped fabric. Then I cut out the stitched circles, with enough of an edge to do a running stitch around. I cut out a small circular piece of cardboard to insert into the bezel. You can also use a button. Next, stitch a running stitch around the outside of your fabric circle and cinch it closed around the back of the cardboard or button.

Add a dab of glue to the inside of the bezel and glue your embroidered landscape to the inside of your bezel. My favorite glue is E6000 clear odorless glue .

I use clothes pins to hold the embroidery in place for 12-24 hours until the glue has set completely.