Snowflake Ornament

[kaz814]

Tonight, I cracked open my machine embroidery stuff and went to town.  Or rather, I made one ornament.  There was a steep learning curve, since this is my first machine embroidery cutwork ornament, but it didn't turn out too poorly.  I plan on keeping this one, since it was a first attempt, and using what I've learned to improve on future ornaments.

Anyway, here it is:



And with a business card so you can see the size (though I guess my hand in the previous one also showed that.)




I'm still working on figuring out how to get the edges as neat as I want them to be.   Any comments and criticism is very much welcomed!

[Aliped]

Wow, I love it!  Do you think it would be possible to do something similar by hand?

[kaz814]

Oh, I'm sure it would!  You'd just need a pattern for what you're going to make, an X-acto knife, and some embroidery thread.

There's also some stabilizer in between the two sides to make it stiffer.

[Aliped]

Excellent. I have everything I need, and time before Christmass!  Thank you so much for this inspiration!! 

[kaz814]

  You're very welcome!!!  Will you show me how it turns out?  I can't wait to see it!

[HSG]

Beautiful! 

[kaz814]

Thank you, HSG!

[dfabbric]

I like to do ornaments like that with wash away stabilizer and organza. The organza gives it a sheer look and you can get sparkly or pearlescent organza. I then use a Stencil cutter (tool that gets hot, end is like a curved toothpick) and trace the edges. This melts the organza and seals the edges. Make sure you use rayon thread or go carefully around polyester so as not to melt the thread too.
i have some pictures on my blog
http://fabbriccrafts.blogspot.ca/2010/11/cut-out-embroidery.html

[kaz814]

Thank you so much, dfabbric!  I wouldn't have thought of using organza - but it has such a neat effect.

Is the stencil cutter hard to use?  And do you have to use 'cutwork' specific embroidery patterns or would any work?

[rackycoo]

I think it's beautiful.