Dear Sarah, I am so happy I’ve encountered your channel. I am from Ukraine 🇺🇦 and here, with all these daily and nightly air-raid warnings, shelling, and deaths around, your gentle, calm and friendly voice imbues me with a hope. You might even not realise how crucial it is for me. And you are a great professional indeed. Thank you! 🙏 and the UK for support🇬🇧
Your message was very moving Natalie; thank you for the timely reminder to not complain about little stuff and to be thankful to be able to sit and stitch in peace and safety. I don't know where you are in Ukraine but I hope you and your family are all well and out of danger; there is much support for you all here in the UK, your flag is flying in many places. I'm glad my videos are contributing in some small way, if there is anything you would like to see particularly that I haven't made yet, then let me know I'll see if I can make it for you! xXx
Fantastic, Sarah! My grandmother taught me quite young, but just getting back to embroidery. You helped me see beyond what I'd seen before. So excited to go "maveric" without an iron-on! Your system is So helpful. I love the brain work before starting the piece, seeing the stitches, even doing a color story. Brought me back to what I loved about embroidery from the beginning. So much room for each individual to even use a pre-designed image, to make it their own, to really enjoy the design aspect. Thank You!
I am a beginner and am enjoying all of your videos. I am a chainmaille jewelry maker and I like to keep my hands/eyes busy creating. Your videos are so helpful and this Jersey Girl (USA) could listen to you talk for hours. Soothing and informative 🙂
Absolutely brilliant, just what I needed, and if it's good enough for Sarah Homfray it's good enough for me!. Thank you - Oh and not forgetting Ginger cat, adorning the set beautifully too
I have created my own designs before; seems I always have a head-full of ideas which should be put to paper. Somehow, it never occurred to me to sketch out the stitches instead of hoping I remembered. Thanks for the reminder of doing a sample of the stitches that are intended to be used. Sometimes the color also makes a difference. I do this on the sewing machine when doing some fancy thing; I should remember to do it for hand embroidery. The same thing would apply to choosing which thread because threads come in assorted sizes, textures, sheen, etc.
Oh my gosh, Sarah! Thank you so much for this extremely helpful tutorial. I've been wondering about what stitch to use where and for what and why. So far, I've only done a little cross stitching, but I've recently gotten some ready-to-make kits using other than cross stitch. Starting with a kit just seems less intimidating than my own original project design. The kits have which stitches to use where and in what colors all laid out for the bottom level beginner. But, by the nature of a kit, there's really no expression of my own creativity when making a project as instructed. After watching this tutorial, I now have hope and I'm encouraged to give a go at my own designs. Thanks again!
Kits are a good place to start Michelle while you learn stitches and processes; you can make changes slowly, perhaps a different stitch or add in another colour. The rest will come! X
Thank you. I mainly make Sashiko and your video confirms that I was on the right way when I started to make everything works fine on paper first. Great way to understand how your pattern 'works' and to do 'trial & error' without any damage ;-)
Another thought provoking video. Doing things this way I’m sure will help me become more confident. Knowing that there is no wrong way is starting to sink in. Thank you once again.
Hello Sarah, 🤗 it’s funny the most hated stitch for me is the French knot but it’s the most used stitch I have ever used when doing flower arraignments as the French knot makes for babies breath in the flower arraignment I think nearly 90% of my works I have don’t French knots in all of them😹😹and if not French knots then it’s been seed beads(Charlottes they are smaller than he seed beads) in place of the French knots😹😹😹
Thankyou Sarah. This is a very useful tool for planning a piece of embroidery. Much more useful than "winging it". Great ideas for stitching as well. Looking forward to giving this method a go. xx
This was so helpful. Thank you Sarah !! I am new to embroidery and so happy that I found your channel. I am learning so much and your voice is so reassuring and your calm attitude is inspiring. You are telling me that I can do this...... 🙂 Thank you for that...... P.S. I love seeing Ginger Cat !!!
@@SarahHomfrayEmbroidery Thanks Sarah. You are making me believe that I can. At the age of 78, I just did my first embroidery stitches 🙂 I made a felt needle book, following your directions in another video. I only had one problem. I wanted to write what type of needle was on each page (crewel/embroidery, chenille, etc) and I couldn't find a "pen" that would write on felt. Any suggestions?
Edit: just found it in your IG account. Beautiful dragonfly piece! Another informative and inspiring photo but I want to see a close up of the piece behind you. 😂. It’s probably featured in one of your videos, I’m making my way through them all so I’ll see it eventually 😊
Sarah! you are a genius and a guru!!! Thank you for giving us all this information for free!!! This is incredibly helpful and I now know I need to make a stitch sampler like asap! You truly are my embroidery guru and inspiration!!! Thank you! Now I’m off to watch the color theory video. Btw that mandala was amazing!!!
Quality information and I love how your design turned out. The mandala piece is really pretty too - I think it would be ok to take inspiration from one of those mandala or adult colouring books as long as one doesn’t copy exactly and then sell them - maybe stick to personal use only. Thank you x
I like your way of planning because it's logical and structured. Now I won't need to invent the wheel while planning my embroidery. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Hullo from South Africa. 🇿🇦 Lovely, helpful videos, with attention to detail. Am learning a lot, for someone who paints, but have never embroidered, (well at least not half decently without chaos on the wrong side, simply because, I've never been shown any other way. 😯) The mandala is gorgeous. Hope this brings peace as it has for me, to those in stress and difficult situations. It's rather relaxing to slow down and focus on one small moment at a time. Many thanks 🙏
Love your approach to preparing the work! Like many, I can get overwhelmed but just looking at the pattern but not knowing where to begin and how to begin! Thank you so much!
I love this, it's really taught me the value of seeing the fabric through the embroidered areas. I have very little space and too many art supplies so I've been sketching my plans over a reference photo first on my tablet. Then I take a photo of the sketch on fabric and draw the stitching plans over it. Very quick and easy to erase or adjust as I go. It also stops me from getting too fussy over a paper sketch.
Thank you Sarah. I've found this video very useful in helping me plan future projects. I love seeing Ginger Cat's seal of approval for you videos, indicated by his presence. 🙂
Wonderful seeing the process Sarah, thank you.... some of the decision-making simplified. And it's easy to see how in the long run the "process" will be less angst ridden🤗
Thank you! I have a lot of ready to stitch projects I got when they were on clearance. I also have pdfs of machine embroidery patterns. Big showstopper for me was what stitch to do. This is perfect! Thank you.
This is wonderful! I like how you showed different ideas and then chose elements from the different sketches to put into you final design. I am definitely going to try this. Thank you.
Loving the glitter nails and earrings Sarah. The thing is I don’t like to overthink things but I get the idea 💡🙏🏽 need some coffee first! Oh I do love sampling just like swatching palettes right now…I’m doing watercolor at the moment w/ Diane Anton Studio & Louise De Masi but I always come back to you…You’re my #1 gal. In fact I got an RSN book of for further study…🙏🏽🙋🏻♀️👍🏽Mia
Excellent video! Really detailed and informative. Thanks much Sarah. Your methodology makes sense and I think it’ll really take away that “overwhelming” feeling when I first approach a piece. Both pieces turned out lovely and had a nice nap too! Lol
I really should do this! I plan it all out "in my head" and then proceed to keep changing it as I go - which does not always work out and takes up a lot of time. ALSO, I am really having a lot of fun with my temperature embroidery!
It’s fascinating to see the process of a planner! I’m an improviser, so I just do most of my stitching spontaneously. I'm capable of a bit of planning, as I absolutely have to be for my gold work designs. But I just can’t bring myself to plan like this! 🤷🏻♀️ I can definitely see the benefits, as this would help prevent some of my unpicking, but I just go with the flow, lol. Maybe I'm just too impatient.
Thank you Sarah. I'm having to redesign my Certificate piece. You have been such a life saver when it comes to choosing stitches. As you know, there are mandatory ones. I think it would make sense if I set those first and then add others. I know, I'm picking your brains, forgive me. Tabitha Tortishell cat sat purring at my screen. When she patted it, following your pen I know, it looked like she was trying to wake Mr Ginger Cat up! She often purrs at the screen.
We have a tortishell cat next door and Ginger Cat does get on well with it! Are you doing Jacobean? Work out what will be filled in and what will be open first, then fill in the obvious ones like trellis stitch and stems and go from there
Yes, I am doing the Jacobean technique. I've got my drawn design, now I'm starting to work out my stitch designs. I've quite literally divided my design into 2 parts horizontally, fortunately it works that way and putting the 2 back together gives a cohesive design. This video gives me so much to take in and think about. I've not done much using positive and negative spacing. It's going to be an exciting journey. I'm also doing something I usually skip - using a sketching/water colour book and putting all my working designs in it. Both in words and in drawings. That way I can then watch how it all grows and become the final stitched piece.I Thank you so much for your skill and encouragement. I'm gaining some confidence.
Could you make a video on design- what is ‘inspired by’ and what is copied. I see so many embroidery designs that are incredibly similar that I’m not sure where the line is that designers should/shouldn’t cross. For example-William Morris designs- if you take certain aspects and embroider in your own colour palette in crewel work or whitework where is the line drawn on copyrights?
Since nobody else has answered this yet, I'll give it a go. The difference only matters if you intend to use your work to make money off it in some capacity or other. As long as you're only making things for yourself or as gifts to those close to you it doesn't matter if you're copying someone else. If you intend on selling your items, selling patterns based on what you're making, or using it to make money in some way then it's a different matter. The exact line between "inspired by" and just copying can be difficult to agree on if it's not exactly the same but still very similar. One important consideration is how unique or different the original item is (be it a pattern, a technique, the full piece, a stylistic choice etc), and how close you are to that. If it is a very common style, look, technique etc then it needs to be very similar or even exactly the same before you could claim it is a copyright issue. If you intend to sell what you make, or in any way do something that would make you money off what is essentially their work, then many people do sell commercial licenses where you can make and sell your work that you've made using their patterns in some way.
I’m making a patch. Giving life to old clothes and embroidery id so pretty. Lol I think I’ve chosen the wrong tutorial . Ill go back and learn how to actually do stitches first haha.
@@SarahHomfrayEmbroidery Mam ny proposal is that I want you to send me your email address so that I can send you photos of my motifs as I have only an email & you can all select what you want from them.
Well, I am not an artist so I will rely on people like you who know what they are doing. I would be fearful of doing this picking of how to choose stitches.
