Turning Cherished Hand Drawn Pictures Into Embroidery
While most of my art is snarky, NSFW, and political, there is still a point where even I get tired of the word “fuck.” Recently, while I was on one of those kicks, my son showed me his drawings of three different flowers he had done that day. He is 8, super sweet, loves nature, and I had never seen him draw flowers like that before. My heart melted with seeing progress in his drawings and the subject matter. Let’s face it, he is usually drawing pictures of space pirates in armor, medieval dungeons, and the like. To see these delicate flowers was a nice change. 😂
The Inspiration
The Original Drawings of the Three Flowers
As a mother and an artist, I saw a potential to include my son in the art form I love so much. I asked him if I could turn his drawings into embroidery, and his eyes lit up! Selfishly, I was super excited, and we set to work! I was able to take him through my process of creating embroidery, from the drawing out on Procreate, picking out the fabric color, transferring the pattern to the fabric, and choosing the thread color palette. He even got to transfer one of the patterns himself! After all of this, he turned to me and said, “this was more fun than I thought it would be.” Yay! I will take any meaningful moments I can get.
He informed me that since they are his original drawings, he should get a cut of any sales. (It was his decision to sell the embroideries I made. I didn’t take advantage of my son for sales) I respect the hustle, so I had to agree to 20% 😂
This was such a fun process, and I wanted to create three different styles of flowers that would represent the three different styles of flowers. The first one I stitched was the “daisy” and it was stitched in the “traditional” embroidery style.
The Daisy
“Traditional Daisy” with French Knots and Stem Stitch
The tulip was next, but what style? Mmmmmmmm…..why not floral pop! Floral Pop is a style that uses french knots and floral stitches to fill in the space. It is a style I am very new to, but also very drawn to. For the best representation of floral pop design, I recommend checking out Jedicatlady on Instagram. Completely inspiring!
My son and I chose colors, we settled on purples and greens, and I just kind of played around with the location of the certain floral stitches and french knots. What ended up coming from the fiber and thread, we call the “Yoda Flower”
The Tulip
Floral Pop Tulip - The “Yoda Flower”
Close Up of Floral Pop Tulip
The Purple “Sunflower”
With the two of three flowers done, I wanted to do something special for the third flower. I enjoy adding non embroidery aspects to my embroidery, and I thought using sew on crystals would be perfect! This entire endeavor was all about play and having fun, so I was going to do something fun and new!
What resulted, honestly, is one of my favorite embroidery pieces I have ever made. It was a great reminder that there is tons of room to experiment, play, and have fun in my job.
It was supposed to be a sunflower, but I am a rebel, so it is NOTHING like a sunflower 😂. Even though I went off script, my son gave me his seal of approval.
The “sunflower” that is NOT a sunflower 😂
The gem really makes this flower embroidery one of a kind.
This unexpected flower embroidery trio got my creative juices going, healed my soul a bit, and got me thinking about how fun it would be for other families to experience this too.
Our kids draw a lot of pictures and some are worth hanging, and some, let’s face it…..won’t be missed 😂😂😂 However, having paper everywhere or hanging in the hall isn’t always practical. They also grow up, and a lot of times those cherished memories get tossed or stored in a box somewhere in the garage. Why not have those drawings turned into embroidery, so they can be admired and passed down?
I would be honored to turn your kids/grandkids/childhood drawings into a forever piece or assist you in making your own! Fill out the free Custom Art Consult form and lets start stitching your memories!