This project has been designed by Little Miss Fancy Frocks – the dynamic mother-daughter duo who lovingly create handcrafted clothing for adults and children. Visit their Facebook page here.

Minerva Crafts have kindly provided the materials for this project. Visit them for all your sewing and crafting needs.

Paint and Stitch a Scene

Paint a silk background and use free machine embroidery to stitch in the details. A lovely way to practice the technique of free machine embroidery and produce a delightful countryside scene.

You will need...

Picture frame approximately 45cm x 55cm

Piece of silk, cotton and wadding approximately 20cm x 25cm

Fabric paints – green and blue

Threads in brown, green and floral colours

*You will also need water and a paint brush, an embroidery hoop, a plastic board and sticky tape, a fabric pen and a free machine embroidery foot (sometimes called a darning foot).

Instructions

Tape the silk onto a plastic board. Paint the top two thirds in blue and the bottom third in green. Be bold and slapdash - if the paint is uneven it gives a more interesting effect. Allow to dry. If you can’t wait you can use a hairdryer to speed up the process.

 Layer the fabrics and place the silk on the top, the cotton on the bottom and the wadding in the centre to form a sandwich. Using an eraseable pen outline the finished picture size - this will help you to position the tree, the landscape and the flowers. Draw two lines indicating the landscape and a triangle for the tree. Place the fabrics in an embroidery hoop.

 Lower the teeth and place the free machine embroidery foot on your machine. Set the stitch length to 0 and lower the presser foot.

Starting with the tree – bring up the bottom thread, work a few stitches and cut the threads - this will prevent the threads from tangling. Work from the base of the tree up to the top of the tree spreading out the branches.

Stitch the two landscape lines using several rows of stitches.
 

Stitch up and down in straight lines for the stems. Make sure you always drop below the edge of the picture outline with your stitching.

Using different colours stitch the flowers using simple star shapes. Gently pull the threads to start each flower head. When each colour has been worked cut the joining threads.

 Here is our completed picture.

Here are some other examples to inspire you!

 Take a look at our other free projects to have a go at!