#hand embroidery resources

[intermittentstitcher]

If you are struggling to pick a colour palette for your embroidery project , there is a website called Stitch Palettes that has over 1593 pre made colour palettes for DMC embroidery floss.

Link : https://stitchpalettes.com/explore/

Here’s their Instagram :

[tmae3114]

so I've been looking up advice about hand embroidering on velvet for a project idea I had and I just found an article that was ABSOLUTELY written via AI because, well

[wolkewatcher]

i saw this come across more on reddit n why was i searching there? bc i hv the same problem but i dont hv an account there so im gonna just share the resources here. so some ppl struggle with creating embroidery designs bc they just genuinely cannot draw and arent skilled with design etc and finding ref images can be hard even more so if ur creating things to sell and want to avoid any possible copyright issues. and the answer is really just look for vintage images there are tons of websites dedicated to compiling vintage images that are royalty free that you can play around with which is super cool and also ofc clip art

dover books (... or)

dover books clip art (you can also search this site in general)

the graphics fairy

french knots (those are more actual embroidery patterns also has crochet applique and knitting)

vintage crafts and more (Sewing, Crochet, Knitting, Embroidery, Quilting and More! patterns)

oh so nifty vintage graphics

british library albums

heritage type

free vintage illustrations

reusable art

[the-skin-inthe-bath-is-mine]

Here's the embroidery planning for the obm demons. This is my first time doing something like this on this scale with this amount of detail so I'm praying it goes smoothly. My other Levi I drew his face by hand and not digitally. I'm planning on doing Levi first again. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to skip on Asmo's little fangs (a complete and utter tragedy tbh)

[nsves]

nsves cc making resource pack.

dl | patreon | further details of what's included under the cut. people wanted a resource pack i curated so here it is! it's a free for all, do whatever you want! all of it is BGC and texture are from paid packs so you don't have to own/download them

pose making rigs (set for a flat view for easiness, 2.7+) that has almost all animals, plus sized bases (made by me), and mermaid bases.

textures that are pretty useful such as embroidery patches, fur textures, knitted bralettes, piercings (for the included piercing mesh), pins and rips, badges, and a crochet pattern strip i created from the punk stuff pack

facepaint setup i personally use for 2.9+ as a sketching base (short explanation written on the provided preview)

piercing mesh from university that you can do anything with!

useful images such as uv maps and what they include, facial expressions for pose making, sort layer numbers.

animations created by me! two are plain 360 spins that go twice around for preview gif making, the other is a set of hand poses meant for rings/bracelets/etc. there is a gif preview for all of them to show what they look like

sim bases that i personally use to just use as a start up with no CC or custom presets (even though it says it does, it's probably just seeing all my custom presets and sliders). they're available on my gallery id: alienflesh

[the-merry-otter]

I was wondering, would you have any resources on medieval embroidery, specifically edge embellishment? I wanted to add a decorative band to the capelet part of my hood but I just don’t know enough to have it feel medieval.

Also I am in deep, deep envy and awe of the speed you hand sew at.

What time period? My usual go-to for planning embroidered garments (I have some planned, but not made yet lmao) is to look at clothing depictions in manuscripts of that century to get a feel for what their designs were like. In the 14th century for example, I’ve seen a lot of geometric patterns - circles, lines, etc.

If you don’t hugely care about primary sources, and just want something with the right vibes, you can also look up what other reenactors are doing (eg “14th century hood reenactment” on Pinterest. Sticking “reenactment” in there will get you way better results than if not).

Examples of potential embroidery in manuscripts:

Examples of reenactors’ interpretations:

(Note: 14th century-based info, since that’s my specialty :P)

Honestly I don’t think I even handsew that fast, I just spend a lot of time on it 😂. I personally feel like it happens agonisingly slowly.

Also sidenote: I absolutely adore your URL. Every time it pops up in my notifications I’m like “wow, that’s a bit hit in the gnome community”. 10/10, no notes.

[thequeenofmyownscreen]

It is Done. I've finished embroidery on my blouse for the Laudna cosplay

Ever since I've seen the first episode of Campaign 3, and even before any announcement of cons, I was seized by an idea. I just had to do a Laudna cosplay, even though I've never done one before in my life. I was inspired by the wonderful official design (by @agarthanguide), bought a simple blouse, taught myself really quickly hand embroidery, and got to work. And I'm really happy about how it turned out !

(more photos and details under the cut)

I started in January 2022, with no pressure for a year, so I took it very slow. And then when the MCM London was announced, I finished almost half of the project in under 3 months ! Unfortunately, because I'm still new at this, I didn't exactly count the total time I spent on this, but it's more than 60 hours for sure, and probably around 140 hours in total (including initial drawings, trials on other materials, re-drawings on the final blouse, washing, etc.).

The little yellow square were my enemies for a time (some do not resemble squares... but I got the hang of it after a while). In general, I think the lines are not really straight, but when worn, no one will see !!

This project changed my life, in small ways (like everything you do in life). It was not only a part of my first cosplay ever, but especially the thing that made me do embroidery. I discovered a passion, and techniques, and resources (thanks Internet people everywhere !), and since then I've been working on other projects - not CR related, that I may show later if people are interested. Also it's been a constant companion of my intense watching of the later episodes of campaign 2 : picture me if you will with my needle and thread and my project watching the best team that no one in Exandria has ever heard of save an archfey, not-really-kill an archmage, and save the world while still being chucklefucks.

So yeah I'm excited to share it with the world, a little. London awaits !

[briscrochetunderground]

Reminder that almost any truly vintage and antique knit or crochet pattern can be found FREE on many sites including:

On both internet archive and project gutenburg it helps to know what book or magizine you are looking for but you can still do a regular vague key word search and find something.

Even your local library and ravelry might have antique pattern books on file! On ravelry you will have to exclude all purchasable patterns instead of just looking for free for some reason, then get past the first page or two of patterns people thought "looked antique" but once you get to the black and white photos you are golden!

So please don't buy an etsy shop's antique pattern when there is really no reason to, and if you are one of those selling these patterns, know I am judging you big time!

[boin-de-bindery]

Borrasca - C.K. Walker

This is a /r/nosleep story published in four parts in 2015, with a subsequent fifth part shared by the author on their blog.

Morbid choice for a first bind—it's not dissimilar to Manacled in terms of dark content—but as a tale I read back in my creepypasta phase and recently rediscovered, I thought it'd be fun to have a physical copy for my shelf.

The case is bound in green bonded leather, courtesy of an amazing local store that has a plethora of bookbinding supplies. Gold adhesive backed vinyl for the cover text, while the corner-guards are from a random Amazon seller.

The text block is bog standard A4 printer paper. Body text is in Noto Serif 12pt with titles/headings/pagecount in Bahnschrift. 59,000 words and 387 pages total.

Reflections on mistakes and lessons learned under the cut with more pictures.

I learned a LOT about typesetting, booklet printing and using a Cricut in making this. I still made a few silly mistakes with my next projects, but not so many as I did with Borrasca.

It's a rookie's first bind and it shows—the text block fits rather badly in the casebinding, because I goofed and made the spine support too wide. This doesn't look too bad from the front or the spine, but in opening the book the textblock shifts rather awkwardly.

I also scuffed the leather in parts, and totally misstuck the title on the spine. This is before I realised what transfer tape was for 🫠 Having the title running from bottom to top is novel, but I didn't want to risk gumming up the cover further by fixing it (not to mention my horror at the thought of repositioning everything by hand).

I'm pretty happy with the handsewn headbands though! I followed chezlin's tutorial and used tissue paper to secure the twine to the spine before sewing on embroidery thread. While the thread used was a little too thick, the headbands add a nice touch.

I had no idea what to put in the copyright page, ahaha. I've put a template together now, which does a better job at identifying the resources used and linking to the source material.

[unbizzarre]

Barrayaran Uniforms

My laptop’s still broken so it’s been a messing-around-with-gouache-paint weekend! I always draw too small so doing the deatails on this one was rough! 😫

Modern imperial dress greens on the left, and an attempt at vorkosigan house livery on the right (I don’t love how the vorkosigan house one turned out so I’m probably gonna rework it some more before adding anything to the ol’ headcannon)

NOTES ON IMPERIAL DRESS GREENS

-book mentions stiff high uncomfortable collars, forest green color, riding boots and side piping. There should also be two ceremonial swords but I got lazy

- I wanted to put an emphasis on embroidery and hand details in barrayaran fashion in general so I picked side piping a little more intricate and ornate than just a simple stripe

- originally I was put piping across the front like in the reference, but it got too busy and I wanted the chest to be a little simpler that way medals and other stuff would stand out better against the fabric. Plus having fewer fiddly bits helps it feel more sleek and less out of place in space.

Reference photos:

UNIFORM OVER TIME

- Barrayar as a setting has had to basically speedrun 600 years of fashion history as they make the leap from midieval to space-age in a single generation. In order to show the shift in eras I made a little timeline(ish) of the general changes in the uniform silhouette.

- biggest change in the general silhouette is the gradual shortening of the coat/shirt element from calf lengths tabards to thigh length coats to to waist height jackets

- armor and chainmail fall by the wayside, and guns are picked up. Early occupation uniforms eclectic and a hodgepodge of old midieval weaponry + stolen cetegandan ordenance. They are not uniform at all as the barrayaran military is mostly small gorilla outfits with each fighting force cobbled together from the resources at hand. New Uniformity would come with the return of central government and the implementation of infrastructure for mass production. The uniform would probably stay relatively consistant during the conquest of komarr through the pretendership. Another major shift in in uniform style would probably occur during the regency or Gregor’s coronation in reflection of the successful regime change and the continued push towards a more modern barrayar

Here’s some rough outlines:

Reference Collages from photocopies of a fashion history book I picked up from the library a while back. Don’t remember the title. Will edit post when I do Left is Russia (not sure which century). Right is references for occupation fighters pulled from various pages, time periods, and nationalities (Russia, Mongolia, Crete and turkey maybe? Idk) I wrote all the page numbers down on the collage but I returned the book so now they’re useless.

Thanks for reading!

[intermittentstitcher]

Embroidery Thread Skein PSA to prevent tangling

[phoenixyfriend]

Ko-fi prompt from @becauseforoncethisisme:

So I’m worldbuilding and I have a vision of a world without poverty. I know a few things: 1. People can use magic to grow food really quickly, if not instantly, on demand. 2. Things like “apples or cheese from Normandy” are still prized, which means some people have to run farms and they’re financially successful. 3. They use self-generated magic to power things like stoves and street lights (the latter by donating self-made batteries), with most of the donating being done by abled adults in the community; the elderly and the (magically) disabled (I guess people whose disabilities sap a lot of energy from them would also fall under disabled for magic generating purposes) are given the excess that isn’t needed to power the city/town/etc (also the young, but typically their parents, guardians, and/or caretakers have that handled). So, we don’t have to worry about food or power, and neither does anyone else in the world. What do we have to worry about on a household level?

A few things, but there are two things that come to mind immediately:

The first is Industry. There are a lot of things that can be run on this free power, but someone still needs to make them.

A common style of suburban house requires concrete, timber, piping, iron rods, wiring, siding, insulation, and so on and so forth. That means you have mining (for the metals and lime), either collection or creation of sand (for the concrete), petroleum refinement (for the plastic, if it exists), lumber processing (you can grow the tree, but can you cut it into the right size and shape to build, or does someone need to do that for you?), and that's before even getting into the labor. You need to hire contractors to dig the hole, lay the foundation, raise the frame. You can power these with magic, in your setting, but you still need to have a scoop/digger to make that basement, and a spinning drum to keep the concrete liquid until it's ready to pour.

This would apply to almost anything that is, in some manner, a human creation. Early in human history this would probably be things like mills (for flour) or transportation (is it cheaper to hire someone to bring giant rocks to Stonehenge than it is to use horses). This also depends on how early magic entered the human consciousness. Does it only apply to things we would consider to be battery-powered, or anything that requires mechanical power?

Plus, how many people does it take to battery power something like a skyscraper crane?

Someone also needs to design the technology that this magic powers, from the street lights to that house I mentioned: your architect and engineer are there to keep you from building something that will collapse on your head!

Even if you can feed yourself (at least in terms of raw, vegan ingredients) and produce power, anything that can be called a product most likely needed to be designed, created, and transported by someone. If you don't know how to blow glass, you have to buy a cup from somewhere, and if you aren't wealthy, then you get the cheap ones. Just like in real life, the objects we surround ourselves with are often symbols of wealth, and an intersecting element of that is that if something requires obvious Human Hand Work that couldn't be done by a machine running on magic-battery, like gold embroidery or crochet, that's going to skyrocket in value.

And that's where we get to the other thing: Education.

Who is taught magic? Is this information gatekept? Is the information on how to build machines that can more efficiently process magic batteries shared internationally, or is it kept to a handful of countries or even just companies?

A reference/lens through which to analyze this could be countries that have lots of natural resources other than agriculture, and countries that gatekept some kind of technology.

The most clear-cut example in history is probably the majority of Africa (most notably the DRC), a continent which is rich in many mineral resources that the world relies on, and was fucked over immensely by the people who managed to develop guns first (Europeans). Now, some of the modern politics could be skirted around, since oil (North Africa, Nigeria) and nuclear fuel (Namibia, Niger) aren't necessarily factors in a your setting due to the power issue. That said, other mined substances like copper, gold, gemstones, zinc, iron, titanium, aluminum, and so on? There are still plenty of uses for those other than power, and they require mining... and unfortunately, resources are historically the biggest cause for oppression, violence, and war.

So... what are your non-food, non-power resources that are still near vital for survival? What do you need for shelter, community, and education? Which resources need to be provided to avoid waves of war and occupation because someone thinks trade isn't providing enough of something at a low enough price to satisfy the demand?

[inexplicifics]

Having been reminded that beetle wing embroidery exists, and that whole bit about ichor-based dyes, what other embellishments might people use in the AWAU or Wolfblood verse? Obviously insect wing cases, but what about scales, carved claw or bone? Would they retain any properties that might affect the design or the garment itself? (Does Lambert surprise Milena with a lapful of souvenirs from a hunt after he finds out about the practice?)

Oooh, what a cool question. I think I have it somewhere - possibly in a WIP - that Witcher armor uses some monster parts, but I doubt they would have thought of using it for fashion until Jaskier and Milena came along.

Ciri's outfits for the Progress are going to be ornamented with monster bone and scales, aren't they? Gods, she's gonna set utterly unachievable fashion standards by accident. Milena's going to be so proud.

And I wouldn't be at all surprised if Witchers did scrimshaw on monster bones or fangs and claws. It seems like a good portable hobby with resources they'd have on hand.

Anyone who knows more about fashion than I do, please chime in with monster bits that could be used to adorn clothing, because that's a really cool idea!

[funkylilworm]

Name: Scotty

Full name: Scotty Scout Dimmadome (Scotty being a Nickname from his actual name Dale gave him, that being "ScottMeister1000" )

Gender: Male (transmasc)

Pronouns: He/Him/His

Age: 13 yrs old

Voice claim: Gideon Gleeful from Gravity Falls

Race: White

Species: Human child (teenager)

Height: 5'3 ft tall (short for teenager)

School: Dimmadelphia high school

Occupation:

☆School rich kid, trouble maker, and/or class clown

☆Possibly a second clone of Dale Dimmadome's (Scotty knows and doesn't care)

☆ ScottMeister1000 (original name from his father)

☆SproutX-tremist (YT persona)

Loves:

Crazy stunts, parkour , rollerskating , vlogging , social media, web surfing , getting likes ,getting followers and/or subscribers, challenges , breaking records, chimichangas (favorite food), cotton candy (favorite food), mango slushies (favorite food) , oreos (favorite food), baking , cooking , himself , his younger brother (Dev), his dad (Dale) despite the way Dale treats him, sketching and/or doodling , Robotics, and video recording

Hates:

Wasps, Mosquitoes, Eggplant, Yo Gabba Gabba! 

,Sweat ,Botflies, The beach, Sand , politics, group projects ,hang nails , his crippling fear of rejection, abandonment (fears it), spoilers , idiots , long lines , New Jersey, loud chewing, know-it-alls , and people that fucks with his baby brother

Personality :

▪︎Positive-

Creative, passionate, protective, energetic, funny, hyperactive/ energetic, Happy-go-lucky, loyal (once he warms up to someone), competitive, compassionate, passionate, ambitious, and Cunning

▪︎Negative-

Greedy , short tempered ,jokes around way too much , cocky , arrogant, reserved, insecure, perfectionist , irresponsible, childish, rambunctious, defensive, and mischievous

▪︎Nuetral-

Loves to bother the shit out of / tease his younger brother (Dev), withdrawn , depressive (keeps it well hidden),he has one of those over-the-top challenge youtuber personas, skepticism, adaptable , empathetic, resourceful, easy going ,and sensitive

Hobbies:

Crazy stunts, parkour , rollerskating , vlogging , social media, web surfing , getting likes ,getting followers and/or subscribers, baking , cooking, scrapbooking, embroidery, sketching and/or doodling, robotics , and video recording

Homelife: His , Dale Dimmadome barely pays him or his younger brother ,Dev any attention and Dale would either often forget who Scotty is , blame Scotty for everything, or him and Dale would often get into a lot of arguments

Physical appearance:

5'3 ft tall, chubby, dark blue eyes, a few pimples , orange soft and curly orange hair that's in a mullet , white pasty skin, and freckles

Clothing appearance:

Golden bracs, gold chain, smart watch (created it himself by scratch) ,white and gold cargo capri overalls with a a few embroidery patches and pins , sleeveless dark blue hoodie underneath, golden fingerless gloves, gold and white backwards hate , and glow in the dark white and gold heelie shoes

Family Members :

☆Dale Dimmadome [Scotty's father]

Scotty and Dale's son and father relationship is rocky and extremely confusing, while similar to Dev, Scotty still loves his father and seeks for his love and approval ,he would often get into the most altercations with his father ,while Dale on the other hand would either forget who he is, completely ignore /not acknowledge him, or would straight up argue with him.

☆Devin "Dev" Dimmadome [Scotty's baby brother]

Scotty and Dev's relationship is the usual sibling dynamic which is playing, joking around , teasing ,and with a few arguments fights and altercations here and there, the only difference is that because of Dale's incompetence, Scotty is always left doing the parenting towards Dev.

Design Inspiration for Scotty Dimmadome:

(I thought it would be cool to make Scotty look more the say Dale did when he used to be a teenager)

[sinswearslaughter]

We all love the taking-no-shit Leia and rebelious-unstoppable Leia, but where is learning curve Leia?

Not talking about a learning curve in being a leader or a politician - she was raised to do this, she is great at both. I'm talking Leia who just struggles with laundry. Leia who has no idea how to do certain every-day things, because she WAS a princess.

She tries her best to be self-sufficient, always has, but some things come out... wonky? Not wrong or sloppy, just different...

Perhaps she only knows embroidery sewing and can't really just slap two pieces of fabric together. Her clothes are usually quickly mended by her own hands but the patches always resemble traditional Alderaanian flower designs. When she tries to make her patches plain they just fall apart.

Her rations are always a little too watery, because the ones she could afford for herself as a princess were of better quality and absorbed fluids better. She struggles with adjusting the proportions.

She struggles with cooking. A lot. Good that Rebels have no resources to do it often.

Sometimes, halfway through doing an elaborate hair-do she realises that she needs at least 2 other people to finish it. She, physically, is unable to manage a festive hairstyle because it was taught to her with an expactation she'd always have someone helping her. She simplifies them, but they are not the same.

She is a teenager. Let's be real. Some of y'all are still not done figuring out laundry at 25 and you expect Leia, aged 19, who is a princess to be any better? Shame on you.

[lacerotalong]

Time for another lace style...

We will eventually get around to learning all of these, which one do you want to learn first?

Also we have many more styles planned, these are just the styles we have good tutorial resources for so far.

These styles all require some specialty tools/supplies, which I've listed below the cut in case that's a deciding factor for people. Pretty much everything can be DIY'd or repurposed from some other common objects, and this information will be shared as part of the lace-along :)

Bobbin lace:

Thread (e.g. sewing thread, embroidery floss) (edit by mod Rex: crochet cotton or perle cotton preferable for beginners)

Bobbins (24 for the sampler we will do)

Bobbin lace pillow

Pattern printed or drawn out

Pins with small heads (a whole lot of em)

(edit by Mod comfy: I dipped my toes in this already, you can use clothespins as bobbins (basically everything that holds some thread and can be moved around comfortably), and some sturdy cardboard as a pillow. Your "pillow" just needs to be sturdy enough to keep the pins in place for the time you work on the lace, so if you have a couch pillow that could work, go for it)

Drawn thread lace:

Plain-woven linen or cotton fabric, with large enough threads you can comfortably see individual threads at a comfortable working distance

Sewing thread in the same colour as your fabric

Fine blunt-tipped needle

Fine tipped scissors or seam ripper and a steady hand

Lacis/ filet lace

Sturdy thread/ twine/ crochet cotton

Netting shuttle/ netting needle

Netting gauge/ mesh stick (e.g. dowel, knitting needle, smooth popsicle stick or similar)

Blunt tapestry needle

Some method of tensioning the net for embroidery: mesh frame/ embroidery hoop/ stiff paper to tack net down to

Needle lace:

Paper pattern printed or drawn out

Backing fabric (e.g. sturdy medium weight calico) (will not be part of finished piece)

Sticky backed plastic/ clear packing tape

Lace thread (e.g. crochet cotton, perlee, stranded cotton, silk thread)

Regular sewing thread in a contrasting colour for tacking down pattern (will not be part of the finished piece)

Sharp needle to tack down pattern

Blunt needle to make lace

Tweezers

Fine tipped scissors

Thimble (optional)

Sprang:

Sprang frame (e.g. empty backless picture frame, DIY frame made of sticks, two dowels tied to sturdy objects an appropriate distance apart)

Sturdy cord or crochet cotton

Smooth dowels/rods, 4-6 of them?