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Hi everybody! I’m Emily, and I blog over at The Boy Trifecta.
In addition to being a mom to three awesome boys, I work full time, and teach at a local university. If I’m going to get any handmade gifts done, the projects have to be portable. One of my favorite portable projects is the embroidered pendant.
If you’re looking for a portable project that results in a really great, custom piece of jewelry, then this project is for you. They make amazing gifts!
It’s super simple to make, and because it’s small, it is a great project to keep in your purse to work on when you have a few minutes here and there.
Supplies:
Small embroidery hoop
Fabric – just enough to fit in your hoop
Embroidery floss in 4 colors
Hand-sewing needle
Pendant – I ordered mine from this etsy seller, and was pleased with the quality and service.
First things first – trace the embroidery pattern lightly onto your fabric. You can use my peacock feather design, of create your own! You can use an water-soluble ink pen to trace the pattern, but I just do it lightly in pencil. Then, place your fabric in the embroidery hoop.
This pendant uses two types of embroidery stitches – a satin stitch and a back stitch. The back stitch is incredibly easy. Satin stitches take a tiny bit of practice to get the tension right, but are basically just back stitches worked next to one another rather than in a line. Trust me, you can master these stitches.
I started in the middle of the design with a navy blue embroidery floss. Embroidery floss comes as six strands that are loosely wound together. I separated my strands so that I was working with three strands at a time.
I used the satin stitch on the four inner sections of my design. The “eye” of the peacock feather is a dark blue. I started my satin stitch in the middle of the eye and worked outwards towards the edge.
Then I stitched the next section around the eye in a bright turquoise. These smaller sections of satin stitch are the easiest.
Next was the large gold section. You can see here where I started the satin stitch for this section – right in the middle. I wanted to make sure those large stitches would be straight, so I started there and worked outward.
For the last section of satin stitch, I started at the bottom, since it was the largest section..
And finally, I used the back stitch to cover all those little feather lines. I wanted these lines to appear daintier, so I only used two strands of floss for these stitches.
And that’s it for the embroidery! It looks like it takes a long time, but really those satin stitches fill in quite quickly – you’ll be surprised how fast it comes together!
Putting your hand-stitched art into the pendant takes nearly no time at all! The pendant comes as three separate pieces – the front frame, and inner piece to wrap your fabric around, and a backing piece. Simply wrap your fabric around the center piece, and use a little tape to hold it in place.
Then, just place it inside the frame and fold the prongs down on the back.
Place your brand new pendant on a chain, and you’re done!
If you’re in the mood for more sewing patterns for you or the boys in your world, you can check out some of the other projects and tutorials I’ve done here!
Thanks for having me!!
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Christy says
What size pendant does this fit? (The etsy seller has several sizes.)
Tess @ Tips on Life and Love says
This is beautiful. What would you recommend for those of us who don’t know how to stitch– or at least don’t know how to stitch well?