This Watercolor Feather Embroidery Pattern came to be as I was playing with combining embroidery and watercolor painting. As you may remember, in the fall I watercolored fabric prior to embroidering leaf designs. Yesterday I reversed the order and embroidered the outline of a feather first and then watercolor painted in the blank spaces. I’m happy with the results. I’m not sure what I will do with the finished feather design, but I think I will be incorporating it into a mixed media project.
Watercolor Feather Embroidery Pattern Materials
- muslin fabric
- feather pattern
- black or dark gray embroidery floss
- sewing hoop and needle
Stitching the Watercolor Feather Embroidery Pattern
I used two strands of embroidery floss and just back stitched the feather design. Even though in the pattern I filled in the stem of the feather black, I only embroidered the edges of it and painted the inside black. You could also use a fill stitch or satin stitch if you prefer.
Painting the Watercolor Feather Embroidery Pattern
Before I painted directly on my embroidered design, I played with different watercolor techniques on some scrap muslin fabric. I tried using watercolor pencils and watercolor cake paints. In the end I decided to use the watercolor paints but the pencils would work fine too.
EDITED TO ADD: I found that I did not need to pre-wet the area. There was enough water on my brush to have the paints bleed together. I did a test sample on wet fabric and one on dry and prefered the dry fabric look. Do some samples before you start to find what what you liked the best. I used both a dark blue and a purple paint and played with some shading.
I really like how some of the color bleeds out under the edge of the feather embroidery design. The overall effect is quite pretty.
You can also use Inktense pancils to paint on fabric. Once dried and ironed it becomes waterproof too.
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