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Sew: Fang Embroidery {DIY Stitched Dog Portrait with Hoop Finishing Mini Tutorial}

August 26, 2015

I started this embroidery forever ago. I was just a few rows of stitching in when the subject of this embroidery, Fang, passed away suddenly. We were devastated. Completely broken hearted. We are animal people and the loss is enormous. Even as weeks and month passed, I couldn’t bear to continue but I knew that eventually I would. I spent a couple of days at home feeling less than fabulous recently and managed to get it done!
Sew: Fang Embroidery {DIY Stitched Dog Portrait with Mini Hoop Finishing Tutorial}
It’s not easy to embroider a dog! I have no artistic talent when it comes to either drawing or photoshop but luckily Mr Ask does. He started with a photo of Fang and did some sort of magic in Photoshop to turn it into a black and white line drawing. I printed it out and traced it onto muslin using a water erasable fabric marker and an iPad as a light box. It sounds easy but it’s hard to make the marker lines thin and thick without becoming a blue blob.
Sew: Fang Embroidery {DIY Stitched Dog Portrait with Mini Hoop Finishing Tutorial}
I used 2 strands of black floss and stem stitch throughout. I didn’t really work left to right or top to bottom, I just did bits here, there and everywhere! That was good because I could go back and add bits as the overall shape took on Fangs resemblance. The eyes and nose are still 2 stand stem stitch, just worked in rows as a fill stitch. Things progressed nicely, I think the whole thing took about 15 hours and 1 1/2 skeins of floss. I was updating Sister Ask with my progress, so there are lots of progress pics!
Sew: Fang Embroidery {DIY Stitched Dog Portrait with Mini Hoop Finishing Tutorial}
Finally it was time to remove the marker and finish the hoop. So there are a few ways to finish a hoop off. Last time I finished a hoop, I glued the embroidery to the frame, using this method and just used tacking stitches to hold the rick rack to the glued backing. But Mummy Ask is a perfectionist at heart and I knew that one day, maybe far into the future, she would want to wash the embroidery. That ruled out gluing and brought me to a sew in method. This is how I did it:
Sew: Fang Embroidery {DIY Stitched Dog Portrait with Mini Hoop Finishing Tutorial}

I started with the outside of the hoop. I’d decided on putting pom pom trim around the outside. I cut the trim to the correct length and put some fray check on the cut ends. The I glued the trim to the hoop with tacky glue and set it aside for later. I used the inner hoop to mark and cut out a circle of black felt too.
Sew: Fang Embroidery {DIY Stitched Dog Portrait with Mini Hoop Finishing Tutorial}
I took the embroidery out of the hoop and used a fabric marker to draw a circle 1-2 inches bigger than the hoop. I used a decorative stitch on my sewing machine to outline the circle. It’s not necessary but it will help prevent fraying and if you don’t cover the back, it looks pretty. I trimmed of the excess fabric from outside the circle.
Sew: Fang Embroidery {DIY Stitched Dog Portrait with Mini Hoop Finishing Tutorial}
I hooped up the embroidery and got everything positioned correctly. I used a full 6 stands of floss and stitched around the edge (not too close!) with a running stitch. Once, I’d sewn around the whole thing, I cinched it up and tied the loose ends in a bow. You could leave things there but I wanted a flat backing. I stitched a label to the felt circle from earlier and catch stitched it on to the back. I only used a few stitches, so it could be removed easily. I whipped up a bow to cover the screw clamp. I slid a tiny, thin ribbon through the back of the bow, so it could tie on and be removable too. And that’s it!
Sew: Fang Embroidery {DIY Stitched Dog Portrait with Mini Hoop Finishing Tutorial}

This was a gift for Mummy Ask and I couldn’t wait to give it to her. I wasn’t sure what her reaction would be, so I used Sister Ask as a body shield and made sure were together when I gave it to Mummy Ask (sisters  right!)! As expected, there were tears made of joy, sadness, longing and love. Mummy Ask says:

I can’t believe the love and care that went into this and it exactly reminds me of Fang. To have Sarah, as a child is like an ongoing ‘poem in my heart’ (for Fleetwood Mac fans)! She can make anything work and it is always mind blowing. I still cry when I see the embroidery, it’s so realistic and I am reminded of my fluffy one. But when I see the embroidery, I think that Sarah always has an artistic way to bring things home. So now I feel like it’s all come home, at the right time and it’s so nice to have such a homage.

So folks, dog portrait embroidery?
Difficulty            –   4/10
Effort                 –   6/10
Sentimentality   – 100/10

I would highly recommend giving this a go, for yourself or another animal lover. A couple of days of Netflix and a needle and could make an awesome, lasting homage to your favourite pooch or puss xxx

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