Embroidered princess

Princess Francesca

This is Gracie's Italian princess, one of her drawings from our holiday. Of course I didn't explain that Italy hasn't had a royal family since 1946. Nor did I offer her my opinion regarding the existence of royal families in the 21st century - after all, she is half English.

I found this little project surprisingly tricky to do and I have newfound respect for people like Jennifer at Craftsanity, she's made an entire quilt of her daughter's drawings.

Gracie's lines were so bold and clear for transferring to cloth, I thought it would be easy. I got too hung up on making it look just like the drawing, wonky frame and all but I found even the slightest movement of a curve altered the spirit of the image. Gracie agreed we should simplify the outline of the dress and the spots and we're both pleased with the outcome and how much it does look like her drawing (although I like her drawing better.)

Francesca will probably be stapled to a canvass and hung like a portrait, hope it doesn't hurt.

Comments

[cindy]

I love this, it is perfect. How did you do the transfer? I always struggle with this. I either end up free handing it onto the fabric, or laying the pic on the fabric and poking through the paper with a pen, you know, dot, dot. Neither one works out very well.

[joanie]

I've struggled with transfer methods. As Gracie used such a dark line I actually taped it to the window, taped the fabric over it and traced it with a pencil that disappears with water - it worked well. I've also tried transfer pencils which you draw with and then iron on (limited success with these.) I just recently bought carbon pattern paper, haven't tried it yet but works the same way as traditional carbon paper works - trace over it get an image undereath. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Anne]

Oh, I bet Gracie is so proud of this! Not only did mama validate her art by making an embroidery out of it, but you elicited her feedback in the process. This is priceless!!

[Jody]

This is just lovely. It was so fun to see that you did this project of embroidering your child's artwork. I just did this project the other day and blogged about it. My daugther is so proud of the collaboration that we both put into our project. Ours is a birthday present for her baby brother so she is quite proud. Yours looks fantastic!