Happy Earth Day! I just want to say having witnessed the power of Mother Nature this week in its full force (check out the flooding we had in Houston, TX) I am still in awe of how small we as humans are, but what an impact we can have too...I wish that Houston were more environmentally friendly and conscious and maybe catastrophic events like this can help people realize that it is not OK to litter the bayous and waterways to the point where they clog easily and overflow when a storm comes (I am aware there is more at play than that but I have lived a lot of places and Houston takes the cake for most overall polluted).
Joyeux jour de la Terre! Cette semaine j'ai été impressionné encore une fois par la puissance de Mère Nature (Houston, TX a souffert des inondations assez importantes). Cela me fascine à quel point les êtres humains sont petits, mais d'un autre côté nous avons une grande influence sur l'environnement...j'aimerais que Houston prenne conscience de ce fait et que la ville soit plus écologique, j'espère que les évènements de cette semaine montrerons aux gens que la pollution (surtout des bayouts et autres petits canals) n'aide pas la situation quand il pleu des cordes et que les passages d'eau sont bloquées.
Anyways, descending from soapbox now and bringing you a tutorial that has helped me help the planet. A few years ago I was going through clothes I wanted to get rid of but felt bad about wasting when I saw how much was about to be thrown out/donated/sold. I thought of how I could transform the articles of clothing in a way that would make them appealing for me to wear them again. My main complaint is that they were too plain for my current tastes, so I thought about what I liked. I LOVE embroidered details and quickly set out to see how I could add this little pizzazz to my boring snoring shirts in an easy and inexpensive way.
Bref, je me calme, et je vous apporte un tuto bricolage qui m'a aidé à sauver la planète (bon j'exaggere...). Il y a quelques années je faisais le tri de vêtements chez moi et le nombres de choses dont je me débarasser me faisait mal au coeur. Je me suis donc décidée à ne pas gaspiller et de faire un projet pour rendre mes chemises que je trouvais trop simple un peu plus intéressantes. J'adore les détails brodés et je me suis lancée dans un projet bricolage pour embellir mes chemises d'une manière simple et économe.
You will need:
- embroidery hoop (pictured in shots 5,6,8 this one was very inexpensive and I get a lot of use out of it)
- embroidery floss in colors of your choice and darning needle or other large-eyed needle ( shot 7)
- transfer/tracing paper (shots 1,2)
- pencil with soft lead (6B is a good lead for this, pictured in shot 3)
- good quality eraser
- sewing pen/marker with water soluble ink (very inexpensive and easy to find, I also get a lot of use out of it, seen in shot 3)
- scissors
- a plain article of clothing of your choice :)
Vous aurez besoin de:
- cercle à broder
- fil à broder et aiguille à broder
- papier calque
- crayon gras
- gomme
- feutre de couture
- ciseaux
- un vêtement simple de votre choix
1
You will probably want to decide on your design's size and location on the clothing first, make sure that if there are seams or pockets or buttons etc...you take that into consideration before starting. Also, if your fabric is dark consider investing in a white soft lead pencil so it appears on the fabric
.
You can find ideas for designs to embroider anywhere on the web, some are free templates some are not, so do be conscious of that. I got a lot of my ideas from my brain but you can find some neat ones here.
Start sketching your design (or copying if you're getting it from the web) on the tracing paper with your soft lead pencil. Make sure the lead is nice and thickly spread on the design.
Vous allez vouloir vérifier que votre dessin ne passe pas sur des coutures ou des boutons, poches, etc...et si votre matière pout le vêtement est de couleur sombre assurez vous d'avoir un crayon gras blanc.
Si vous ne pouvez pas inventer votre propre dessin, il y a des modèles en ligne, certain sont gratuits et d'autres payants. J'en ai trouvé beaucoup ici mais vous pouvez faire vos propres recherches.
Commencez à dessiner ou bien recopier votre dessin sur le papier calque. Assurez-vous que le crayon gras et beaucoup de depots sur le papier car celui-ci va être reproduit sur le tissue de votre vêtement.
2
When you are done tracing it on the tracing paper and going over it with the pencil, lay it with the side you were just sketching on face down ON the fabric you are going to be embroidering (the extra graphite will be transferring the design).
Start gently rubbing and rolling the pencil sideways over the design to apply pressure and allow the extra graphite to transfer.
Quand vous avez terminé votre dessin, mettez le papier calque à l'envers sur le vêtement à l'endroit où vous le voulez. Commencez à frottez doucement avec le côté du crayon pour faire le transfert du calque à la matière.
3
If you mess up in the tracing or transferring stage you should still be able to erase your marks and recover the project ;) except yours Gretchen, yours is a lost cause...bahaha just kidding I don't even know a Gretchen, sorry if a Gretchen reads this and gets offended.
The transfer will be light but should be visible enough for you to then retrace it with the sewing marker. The sewing marker basically erases off of fabric with water, I promise it WILL go away once you wash the project.
Retracez les marques de crayon avec votre feutre de couture, malgré ça couleur vive, l'encre disparaitra une fois qu'elle sera lavée.
4
5
Phew, you have traced this design so many times by now you will be able to embroider it with your eyes closed. Now for those amateurs who need to keep reading this is for you.
Make sure when you buy your embroidery hoop that it is large enough to suit the majority of your project needs, you may like this enough to keep doing it and may want to do bigger designs down the line...
You will need to stretch the fabric pretty tight, but not so tight that it compromises the threads and may lead to breakage of the pattern and fabric later; I find it easiest to kind of set the back hoop on the inside of the fabric and adjust the top part that I can see and basically mess with it until I get it to be easy for me to manage as I work on it.
Maintenant que vous avez retracez ce dessin autant de fois vous pouvez le broder avec les yeux fermés. Ok tuto terminé hahaha.
Achetez un cercle à broder assez grand pour votre dessin. Étendez le tissue des deux côtés avec le bas du cercle en premier (je trouve que le cercle du haut et plus facile à manipuler) mais assurez vous que le tissue ne soit pas trop tendu autrement il sera fragile quand vous allez commencez à passer l'aiguille et le fil autour du dessin.
6
You are now ready for the embroidery floss and the darning needle. You need a needle with a larger eye because unless you plan on stitching your project with sewing thread, passing the floss through a sewing needle's eye will be quite challenging.
Il faut du fil et une aiguille spécial pour faire le brodage, une aiguille avec un trou assez large pour laisser passer le fil qui est plus épais que du fil à coudre.
7
Make a knot in your embroidery floss and start working on your design from the back. You can look here for different stitches to use and practice them on other fabric if you'd like. I kind of just go for a fill in the space look hahaha, though I did show two different kinds of that look (I wouldn't normally do that, just trying to show some options). Once you are done with part of your design (to start a different part like a different flower, or if you want a different color) make sure to tie down the thread on the back of the fabric.
Faites un noeud dans votre fil et commencez à faire le tour de votre dessin. Si vous voulez des coutures spéciales vous pouvez en trouver ici, moi personnellement je fais un peu comme un coloriage, je reste entre les lignes hahahaha. Une fois que vous avez fini une partie (soit vous changer de couleur ou bien un motif différent) du dessin faites un noeud dans le dos du tissue et recommencez.
8
 I am not done with the one from the tutorial, I was actually planning on dying the fabric so that will be part of another tutorial :) but here is the finished design on one of my other blouses. Je n'ai pas encore fini le dessin de l'autre tuto, mais je voulais teindre la chemise d'une autre couleur donc ça devra attendre et j'en ferai un autre tuto à l'avenir :) voici un ancien dessin que j'ai realisé il y a un certain temps.  |
| two of my finished products (all original designs) |
This pink button-down was a gift from a friend, it was purchased from H&M originally. The white button-down was a hand-me-down from my mom.
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| sassy because all my stuff is thrifted/recycled |
White corduroy jeggings from thredUP, originally GAP; $11 (they were also featured here)
Vintage shoes from Vinted: $18
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| and saving the planet makes me happy |
