It's week three in a row of doing 5/5! A perfectly patched pair of jeans and a soaring dragon await. Keep on scrolling for five creatively inspiring things and five ways for you to DIY.
👉 ICYMI, this embroidery in a tree was the most clicked link in the last 5/5 email.
✨ 5 creatively inspiring things
1️⃣ If I hadn’t seen this embroidery in a hoop, I might think it was a real, shiny balloon. Lucy of Peacocks & Pinecones does an amazing job of stitching photorealistic objects with reflections. Just check out her glassware!
2️⃣ Mia of Red Hat Creative has not just patched a pair of jeans. Her patches comprise nearly half of the pant's surface area—it's spectacular. The garment is a good reminder that you don’t have to stop with one patch. Put them together and watch a whole patchwork artwork grow.
3️⃣ Embroidered books are having a moment. Cat Rabbit recreated A Treasured Treasury of Beloved Characters using felt, embroidery thread, stuffing, and more. It’s so cute!
In addition to the book, Cat Rabbit makes great plush characters out of felt—like this poodle on roller skates. I’ve got a couple of her pieces, and they're some of my favorite things I own.
4️⃣ Mixing and matching embroidery techniques is fun; doing so adds visual interest to a piece. Just look at how Lina C of Lin Island stitched an intricate dragon flying among voluminous clouds.
5️⃣ I keep seeing short-sleeved sweaters back for this spring/summer. If you know how to crochet, this sea turtle top by Ty Bailie is so cute—it has side ties! (Pattern is released on Friday, May 17.)
🪡 5 ways to DIY
1️⃣ Fact: I bought one of these cute bird bezel trays and never did anything with it. (I intended to embroider a design in it, but never settled on anything I liked.) You can buy one and make a super cute brooch or even necklace with it! [affiliate]
2️⃣ I cannot get enough of these possum embroidery patterns. They always make me laugh! A mood for sure.[affiliate]
3️⃣ If you’ve ever wanted to learn to darn like Collingwood-Noris, aka Visible Creative Mending, you’re in luck. She has online workshops that are introductions to darning (with and without materials). With some practice, you can save your socks and sweaters by adding dazzling designs on them.
4️⃣ This is a fun DIY for how to make a bobbin frame. It’s a cute and easy way to add a little pizazz to an otherwise ordinary frame and complement a print or original artwork.
5️⃣ My book Threads of Treasure: How to make, mend, and find meaning through thread, is out on April 28, so I’d be remiss not including it in this newsletter! While the book contains 13 artist profiles, it also has three DIY projects encouraging you to create things inspired by the concepts covered in the artist profiles. Here’s where to get your copy.
Bonus: Yep, this checks out.
Talk to you next week,
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Sara Barnes
Embroidery illustrator and writer
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