Grid paper, embroidery floss + hoop + fabric, scissors…
Basically, up until a few weeks ago, neither of us had considered our cake topper at all. We had kick-ass letterpress stamps of A&E before and well, we’re just so excited about the INSIDE of our cake (rainbow!) more than anything else to do with the cake. But then I got sick, laid up in the bed all day, and my crafty fingers got to itchin’. It was time to make something for our wedding: our cake topper.
Inspired by our rainbow ‘cross-stitch’ RSVP cards, I pulled out our copy of the card, my grid paper, a pencil off Alex’s desk and my favorite cross-stitch reference: Subversive Cross Stitch by Julie Jackson. Ok, actually, that’s what I got out to do it right the second time. The first try, I attempted winging it from mimicking the design x for x off the RSVP card… It was WAY too big. Like “going to be bigger that the small wooden hoop I had for the cake topper and it was only the word ‘the’” too big.
So, I did a bit of re-thinking and decided to make a trip to the haberdashery department of John Lewis to pick up some smaller count embroidery fabric, new floss, and possible another hoop. (I was feeling well enough that day for a crafty adventure!) Success was had and it was good:
Too cute, no?
Here’s how you can make your own embroidered creation:
Supplies
- Embroidery hoop (1-2) depending on size of finished piece
- Embroidery fabric, 18-count
- Embroidery floss & needle
- Scissors
- Grid paper & pencil
- Alphabet template for embroidery
- Subversive Cross Stitch or a computer to visit www.subversivecrossstitch.com/
- Big-ass button
- A sense of adventure
The Steps
- Buy Subversive Cross Stitch (I swear I don’t work for her, you just won’t regret it!) or browse blogs such as Feeling Stitchy, Purl Soho, Etsy, or Sublime Stitching for patterns and ideas. Some sites have links to embroidery alphabets or generators for you to make up your own phrases, and buying independent patterns from artists is always cool. You can also find tutorials at these sites and others for how to cross stitch if you don’t already know.
- Map out your design on grid paper in pencil. You will mess up and have to erase. I’ve found that it is standard to leave 3 rows between each line of text and 1 column between each letter. I also figured out how to centre the ‘The’ above ‘Brides’ by counting up the total stitches of ‘Brides’ (29), subtracting the number in ‘The’ (17), dividing the remainder (12) by 2 (6), and then allocating the answer to either side of the ‘The’. Yeah math!
- Pick a spot somewhere on the fabric* (There could be technical way to do this, but again, I was winging it) and start stitching. Be patient, rip out if necessary, have good lighting and enjoy. *I first started 14 count fabric but after the first row realized it was way to big so I switched to the 18 count fabric to give the petiteness I was after.
- Once the cross stitch is complete, transfer and centre the fabric to the final hoop (if you weren’t using it to start with). I used a larger hoop to actually do the embroidering as I wanted more manoeuvrability, but it’s up to you!
- Google ‘How to finish an embroidery hoop as a frame’ and pick your method. I haven’t done this part yet so I can’t offer advice at this stage but I’m going for the trim close the edge and glue techique.
- Prop on cake with desired effect! (In our case, with a big, red, polka-dot button!)
All photos by me. More to come in October!
The beautiful art …..Lovely color tone is the mixing og colourful thread is lovely…..