The final product :)
Week 3 of the yellow dress! 🦋
Week three of the yellow dress is now complete - with a lovely whitework inspired butterfly!
While cleaning out some old projects, I came across the samples I did for our whitework embroidery unit. Whitework embroidery is a traditional technique that creates delicate, lace-like designs—often seen on antique linens, christening gowns, and heirloom bridal wear. While traditionally white on white, it doesn’t have to be!
Since this dress is a lovely, butter yellow linen with a nice open weave, I thought this was a perfect opportunity to make a simpler version of my old sample!
Inspiration - old broderie anglaise sample!
Now - let’s get started!
Some of these stitches are considered a bit more advanced - however, once you get the hang of them, they are easier than they look!
If you are someone who enjoys learning new stitches and want to upskill in embroidery, I highly highly recommend the Royal School of Needlework Book of Embroidery*. While working on this butterfly I referenced it to refresh myself on the stitches!
A great free resource is the RSN stitch bank. It has a ton of stitches with pictures, written instructions, and video tutorials! I’m going to link them in the steps - I think they are more helpful than me writing out the instructions.
Supplies needed*:
Embroidery Hoop (I used a 6 inch one wrapped in bias tape for tension)
Embroidery stand - this will make life mucccchhh easier for these stitches. Optional though!
Fabric of choice - an open weave, like linen, is ideal. Avoid fabric with stretch.
Step 1: Transferring the design + prep
I simply traced my design onto the dress this time - however, you want to be careful, as these are not forgiving stitches. Trace lightly, or use a water/heat removable pen.
Tension is absolutely key here. Your fabric should be drum tight in the hoop - this is why wrapping your hoop is really important, as it protects your fabric, but also keeps it in place while you work. You can use bias tape, or simply a strip of scrap fabric.
Step 2: Stitching!
We want to do our stitches in a certain order for this design. The eyelets - the technique where the fabric has been cut away - can change the tension of your fabric and make the other stitches difficult to complete.
Start with the trailing stitch to outline the wings - video linked! I used 2 full strands (so two strands of 6) of stranded cotton embroidery thread as the base, and used 1 single strand to cover.
Use a basic back stitch to outline any other areas you’d like - I chose to do the legs, antennas, and some of the wing detailing. You can choose how many strands to use - I used 4 (meaning I removed 2 threads from the standard 6 strand)
For the body, we are going to do a padded satin stitch. I filled the body in with a split stitch, and went back over using only 1 single strand.
Time to do the small eyelets! This is where your large size 13 chenille needle will come in handy.
Now for the shaped eyelets - I chose to add some shape to mine by not cutting out the whole shape. If you’d like to do this, you’ll want to ensure you done a double running stitch along all edges of the shape. The video linked will help make sense of this. ADVICE: try this stitch out on a spare piece of fabric first. Once you’ve cut your fabric away there is no going back!
Clean up - if you have any left over tracing lines remove them with heat/water - and ta da - all done!
Next up: 🐰
*I’ve created an amazon store front as a way to share my recommended supplies. I do get a small commission if you purchase from my links - however, if you’d rather shop elsewhere, it is a great guide for key words and what to look for!
