Welcome to my first experiment with finding a new hobby. This month I decided to take a shot at embroidery. You know, where you somehow take a needle and colored thread and make a very beautiful design. Honestly, some of the pictures I have seen have blown my mind. Now I have tried this one in the past, so I thought it was a perfect place to start. A few months back I even reviewed an embroidery book because I dabbled in it. You can find that here: REVIEW | Coloring with Thread by Tula Pink.
When I finally decided that I would give this a real try I scoured the web for patterns and raided my local craft store. I also raided the homes of one of my friends who had a ton, A TON, of thread to spare. While I want to try a new hobby, I didn’t want to invest a ton of money in it. In my exploration I found an awesome etsy shop called StudioMME. Here she has a ton of kits for projects and she also has a subscription service where you get a kit sent once a month to your house. This included the fabric with stencil, thread, and directions all I needed to buy was a hoop and some needles. I placed my order right away!
The main reason I approached this hobby by getting kits was due to the fact I had no idea how to pick thread, determine how much I needed or how to properly transfer patterns. I felt like the best way to truly test this hobby was to have everything could have messed up on picked by someone who knew what they were doing. This way I could truly see if I enjoyed it without the possibility of me just getting frustrated at my own mistakes.
Here is the progression of me doing some of the embroidery.
So embroidery is not something that is done quickly, it takes a lot of time and concentration. One thing I learned was you need to be very careful where you place your needle, because it will show up uneven if you aren’t super careful. You can kind of see an example of this if you look at the letter C. Over all I am very proud of what I created. I have never finished a project previously and for the first time I don’t think it is that bad.
I also enjoyed the process. Every time I sat down to work on my welcome pineapple I would either catch up on a television show on netflix or listening to an audiobook. Even with all the concentration it was very relaxing. I found myself rushing home a few times so I could work on it. Something I never thought I would do.
Verdict: I will 100% continue doing this. In fact I already started a new project!
Even though I have found something new I enjoy, I still want to explore more hobbies.
Which hobby should I try next?
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Bookish Luna 
Embroidery had always been something that seemed way beyond me. As you say just figuring out what needle and thread to use is daunting enough without even stitching a design. I’ve always stuck to cross stitch, no going wrong just following the squares. But I’d never thought of printed embroidery before….hmmmmm..
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It really helped me, I a bit more confident with it now.
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Cute!! Have you tried making jewelry? That could be fun!
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The one time I made a piece of jewelry my best friend at the time and I made a piece for each other. Come to think about it, I did enjoy it. Thanks for bringing the idea up!
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I wish to try it too . I don’t know why but I have always have a feeling one should know how to draw , if they want to do embroidery 😬. That’s why I have stayed away.
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I can’t really draw, but honestly the printed fabric helps so much. They also have iron on patterns as well. 🙂
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I’ve been wanting to try embroidery but I’ve never seen it with the image already on the fabrics before. Thay seems alot less daunting than the projects I’ve seen at the craft stores!
Glad you found a hobby you enjoy can’t wait to see what else you try!
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Thanks Arya! The printed fabric made it so much easier to learn. I feel like it is a good first step instead of trying to master everything.
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Wow, that looks stunning!
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Embroidery sounds great! I think that it looks lovely, too, but I’ve never gotten up the nerve to try it – the small threads look a bit difficult to manage, for me. Have you tried crocheting? That’s the hobby that I found – I was on a hobby search quite similar sounding to yours over the summer, and I ended up with kitting. When that didn’t really satisfy me, I moved on to crocheting, as you can make a lot of cute things like small dolls and animals, as well as larger pieces like clothing and blankets. If you’re still looking for something crafty, what about scrapbooking? That’s a love of mine too, even though I’m not a great photographer 😛 I hope that your hobby journey goes well!
Best of luck,
-Lizzie
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Thanks for all the ideas! I have knit, but I have kinda gotten sick of it because I did it so much. lol
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Haha, yeah, I’m tired of kitting as well 😛
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Ohh it ended up really pretty indeed !
What are you gonna do with your creations ? 🙂 You could totally piece a few different patterns together to form a sort of blanket, no ? or just hang them around the house in frames or gift them.
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Thanks Kristina! I haven’t come up with a concrete plan, but I was thinking about gifting them to some of my coworkers for being awesome and maybe putting a few around the house. I love the idea of putting them in a small frame. Right now I have one still in the hoop sitting on my bookshelf.
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ah im sure they’d appreciate 🙂
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Do you have any recommendations on where to get preprinted kits for embroidery? I’m a hard core hooker (crochet for those who don’t know) but I’ve been seeing some AMAZING cross stitch and embroidery lately and I’m thinking I’ll start a new hobby
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Etsy has a ton and some craft shops have them as well. I use StudioMME.
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This is so cute! I feel if you do another creation you should do another post about it.
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Aw, thanks! I might. I am working on one right now so I may end up posting it on here or on twitter when I am all done with it.
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That’s so exciting! I can’t wait to see it when you finish it.
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