There is a box in every crafter’s home, that is filled with old unfinished projects,
and stuff you thrifted in the hopes of upcycling.
That becomes abandoned, that becomes forgotten.
Well this is the series that tackles that forgotten box.
This is the Style Pile!
Hello!
The item of clothing that’s coming out of the Style Pile box today is this light green
skirt, that I recently thrifted from the Red Cross Op Shops for $7.
It’s already a pretty cute skirt, BUT, I also just learned a new embroidery style,
called “Daisy Chain” stitch, and I wanna apply my new knowledge to this skirt, because
I think they’ll go really well together!
So I opened up my box of embroidery threads, and I decided to go for classic daisy colours
– white for the petals and yellow for the centre.
The first thing that I did was to draw on small dots where I wanted each flower to go.
I’m using this water-soluable dress-maker’s pencil to do this.
Each flower is spaced out approximately 5 inches from one another - in metric, that’s
about 13 cm.
And I did the same thing to the back of the skirt as well.
And the next step was to start embroidering!
So, a couple of hours later – I'd finished the back of the skirt, and this is what it
looks like!
And now I’m going to show you all how to stitch one of these daisies up close.
So first things first: This type of stitching is a lot easier if you have an embroidery
hoop, like this one.
The smaller, inner hoop goes under the fabric that you want to work on, so I slipped that
inside the skirt, and then the larger hoop goes on top of the smaller one, like so.
And then, after the larger one is fit on top of the smaller one, you just tighten the screw
on the larger hoop, to hold the fabric in place inside the hoop, and the fabric should
be pulled nice and taut across the hoop, because it makes the fabric easier to stitch on.
Also because my fabric was thick, very denim-like, I didn’t need to use any stabiliser, however
if you’re using stretchy or thin fabric, then I recommend using embroidery stabiliser
or ironing interfacing to the back of your fabric first, before stitching your flowers
onto it.
Okay, now I'm going to show you how I thread an embroidery needle, using these 4 items.
This is a little bit more involved than threading a regular sewing needle, and I have a couple
of helpful tips as well, so pay close attention if you’re new to embroidery.
So first I cut off a length of embroidery floss that’s about the length of my forearm.
Now embroidery floss actually consists of 6 smaller threads all twisted together.
I separated these into two groups, each strand consisting of three threads each, and I pulled
them apart like this.
And I only need one strand for now – so I put the other aside for the next flower.
To thread my embroidery needle, I used this thing called a Needle Threader, and OH BOY
are these useful, especially if you have shaky ol' hands like me.
They’re really easy to use – you just stick the wire end through the eye of the
needle, which is a lot easier than sticking thread through it.
And then you push the thread through the wire loop, pull the needle threader away – and
BAM - the needle’s threaded!
Now, I usually pull the tail end of the thread downnnn like this to match the other longer
end, so that the thread is doubled over.
This means I’m working with a total thickness of 6 threads while I sew, but I also won’t
lose the tail end while I'm sewing, which is why I like to do this.
Anyway after that, I tied a couple of knots in the end of the thread, then I cut off the
excess thread from the knot, and now I’m ready to start stitching!
To stitch the centre of the flower, I went up through the back of the fabric, at one
of the pink dots that I drew onto the skirt earlier.
And then, I brought the needle back down about an eighth of an inch (which is around 3mm)
away, and pulled the thread all the way through.
And then I just brought my needle up and down a few times like this, until I had created
a small circle of yellow on the front of the skirt.
To finish this off, I brought my needle and the thread through to the back, and I tied
a couple of knots in the thread, close to the fabric – and then I cut off this excess
thread tail.
Next is the petals!
I brought my needle, threaded with white thread this time, up through to the front, JUST on
the outside of the yellow circle.
I pulled the thread all the way through, and then I inserted the needle right next to the
spot where the needle just went up before.
And then I pushed the needle through, but only HALFWAY, like this.
Then, I grabbed the thread that I pulled through before, and I wrapped it around the needle
once like THIS.
See how it’s creating a petal shape?
After creating a loop with the thread, I pulled the needle and the thread all the way through,
and now I have a petal!
I finished off this stitch by putting the needle back down through the fabric, just
on the other side of the thread (on the top of the petal) and I pulled the thread all
the way through to the back.
And that’s it!
That’s how you do a daisy chain stitch.
So to make this into a flower, I just continued this stitch all the way around the circle
of yellow, bringing each new stitch up just next to the last one.
Annnnnd… timelapse!
[music plays]
To finish the daisy off, I did the same thing as before – I brought the needle and thread
through to the back, and I tied it off with a couple of knots.
Now, I could get away with just tying knots at the back of my stitches because this skirt
isn’t close-fitting to my body.
BUT if you wanted to do this on a tight-fitting piece of clothing, or something with thin
fabric, and if you think the knots will cause small visible lumps through the fabric, or
you think the knots will rub against your skin, you CAN avoid knots altogether with
another method of tying off your threads, and I’ll pop a link to a great tutorial
for that in the description box below this video!
Anyway, that’s it!
Pretty easy, right?
Now while this is an easy stitch to do, hand-embroidery is pretty time consuming!
Even though each flower only took about 10-15 minutes each to stitch, with more than 20
flowers on this skirt that time adds up!
I recommend sitting and chilling out and watching some TV or a movie while doing this – it’s
actually a very relaxing evening activity.
Oh - one last thing that I had to do - as you can see, this skirt has pockets, and it
was very hard trying to stitch flowers on to these pockets while also not going through
them... and, you know, trying to keep them functional as pockets!
So, I actually half-removed the pockets by snipping out and removing the stitches on
two sides of each pocket, which let me get my embroidery hoop in under this fabric much
more easily.
And then after stitching the daisies onto the pockets, I simply sewed the pockets back
on with some matching thread and a straight stitch, following the faint, leftover lines
of the old stitches!
Aaaaand here’s the final reveal!
[Music] Man speaking: "1, 2, 3, Funk It!"
[Music plays]
I love it!
It’s such a simple but effective upcycle.
I’m definitely going to be doing this on more pieces of clothing!
I decided to wear this skirt with two different outfits to show you all, the first is more
Wintery and I think it would go well with a pair of tights and a coat, and the second
is more of a Summery outfit.
Which outfit do you like better?
Anyway, that’s the end of the video!
Thank you so much for watching, and I’ll see you all next time.
Bye!
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allow me to continue making videos for you all.
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