My Bad Ass Embriodery

......Or maybe just Bad! It certainly started that way at least.

My Nanny was a great embroiderer, she had pincushions, table runners and trinket bags galore. She passed this skill on to me when I was about 8 years old. I would stay with her on the south coast in my summer vacation, watch Mary Poppins and embroider. My tiny blanket stitch was legend amongst her sewing group. "Look at those french knots!" she would say. I was at the top of the embroidery game -

But where have my quick nimble fingers gone? Dormant or gone for good?

I recently decided to revisit embroidery after being inspired by Casey's posts on sprucing up vintage cardigans. I dreamed up a nautical themed garment (yet to come), complete with a hand embroidered anchor embellishment.

This is attempt number one...

FAIL!!! That's an anchor?? For some silly reason, and because I hand no embroidery thread on hand, I used plain sewing thread (great idea molly!) this was very clearly my first error in judgement. Having forgotten all my stitch types I just started fiddling. The fiddlings looked dreadful, so I gave up.

This is attempt number two...

FAIL!!! This time I purchased embroidery thread. Things were starting to look up. But then, they started to look down again. My satin stitch (if I can even call it that) was all over the place and my chain stitch was made of a hundred different lengths. I was becoming distressed and just about ready to throw the whole embroidery debacle in.

Then, I found a second (third more like it) wind and decided to try again, this time I was going to try an "M", because, frankly, if I had to look at another anchor I might have screamed. This time....

SUCCESS!! This time I went all out.I purchased stitch'n'tear, I spent a long time drawing the perfect "M", then tracing it in utter concentration onto the the stitch'n'tear and then just taking my time and getting it right.
I must admit, I am very proud of my "M". I took a photo on my phone and sent it to my mum for applause, then decided to send it to some friends, show some colleagues, oh and now blog about it (quick, someone burst me, I'm getting a big head!)

Granted I find a huge stock of patience, I might just add embroidery to my repertoire.