The Dragon-Cat Jacket Embroidery, part 1

 

    In this blog entry, I wanted to share my experience creating a charming cat-dragon that landed on my son's jacket and now happily lives there. I named it "Kitty". I enjoy creating my own designs and experimenting with them. "Kitty" was one of these experiments. 

    At first, I did not have the intention of putting it on any clothing item, but my son Mark loved it so much that he suggested creating an embroidery patch that we could put on his denim jacket. 

    Here is a detailed description of the process steps. I hope it inspires and helps you. 

When creating your own designs, planning is crucial. I usually begin with a line drawing and then decide on the colors. To lay out the colors, I prefer using watercolors. 

Here's a little tip: if you're not experienced in color matching and decide on the colors on your own, it's best to go with traditional color schemes that you can find on the internet. Alternatively, you can generate your own color schemes. I suggest visiting this cool website to experiment with your colors. 

For this particular design, I chose a split complementary color scheme. I used yellow and yellow-orange colors and balanced them with purples for a nice contrast.

The next step in embroidery is to transfer the pattern onto the base fabric carefully. It's best to use plain-service cotton that is not too thin so that it can hold heavy embroidery well. Every embroidery artist has their own method of transferring designs onto the cloth, but I find that stretching the cotton over a lightbox works best for me.

When it comes to stabilizers, I think it is essential for any kind of embroidery. Some artists even use double layers of stabilizer to ensure that the embroidery does not wrinkle the fabric. I highly recommend the stabilizer I purchased on Amazon, which is reasonably priced and iron-on, which I prefer. You can find it HERE.

I started with two browns as the first layer I

I am not exactly sure about the official name for the kind of embroidery I do, but I like to call it "painting with a needle". This refers to the way I layer colors as I would if I were painting. I usually start with the darkest colors and gradually work my way up to lighter ones. For the lower layers, I use double floss and for the upper ones, I use more delicate stitches and single floss.

This is what finished stitching on
 the face looks like.

I wanted to experiment with 3D embroidery for my project, which is why I used glass eyes and "Fiberfill" for some parts. Although I loved the eyes, I didn't like how the fiberfill became completely flat when stitched. However, in my next entry where I'll continue talking about the "Kitty Dragon" embroidery, I'll share a more effective way to create 3D embroidery."

The little guy is coming
along a few weeks later.

"I had to cut out the little guy and iron him onto double-sticky patch maker sheets to put him on the jacket. I also stitched him onto the garment to make sure he didn't come off after washing. In my next post, I'll show you the front of the jacket with the additional embroidery elements. I'm also excited to share my more successful 3D embroidery."

Here you have it, a journey from the concept to reality.  What are you doing with your embroidery? Just store it? Frame it? Add to practical items, like napkins and towels? 

Check out "Kitty" - the charming cat-dragon that landed on my son's jacket and now happily lives there. #DIY #embroidery #design #creativity #inspiration #handmade #crafting #catdragon #denimjacket #personalized