Kids Art Work Embroidery: from Drawing to Keepsake

I am one of those parents who find it hard to throw away my children’s art work. I ooh and ahh over just about anything they make.

I keep all art work in our craft cupboard and once a year I go through the painfully long process of selecting what stays and what goes. You see, each year they go through these phases of doing things a certain way and I want to remember that.

I want to remember that for almost an entire term my daughter didn’t draw anything but rainbows and then went through this awkward stage of folding all of her art work and taping it closed with cello-tape. We’ll never know what masterpieces are hiding inside those bundles of plastic!

Then I file what I want to keep in a folder, for ‘future projects’. I have not the faintest idea of what I might one day do with this ridiculous amount of art work, but I’m going to keep it all just in case. Even if it’s only for memories’ sake, that one day I will sit down in a pool of melancholia, thinking about my days as a stay at mom of two little children, wishing I could do it all again.

Now imagine that while going through the pile of last year’s art work, I came across these little cut out figurines. And I remembered as if it were yesterday:

My newborn baby boy was sleeping and my then 3 year old daughter made her first family portrait. I was so proud. She had just started drawing people and for the first time she decided to draw our family of four.

I remember thinking I needed to keep this drawing forever, frame it and hang it in her room. Then, half an hour later my daughter decided to cut up her drawing and tape all the people to the wall individually.

I had to turn around, I was so so sad. I really wanted to keep that drawing forever. Our first family portrait.

When I recently came across this cute cut up family portrait, I knew I wanted to recreate it somehow. Inspired by a fellow Etsy artist, I decided to turn these drawings into a little embroidered art work.

Embroidering Children’s Drawings

This little mommy craft is pretty straight forward, so I’ll quickly show you how I went about it.

I cut out a piece of plain off white fabric and outlined the hoop in pencil. Then I cut the fabric out with a couple of inches ‘seam allowance’ (which we’ll need at the end).

I copied the drawing onto the fabric. You can do that on your light table, against the window or just draw free style.

Then put on some music, grab your hottie, fleece blanket and a cup of tea. Get comfortable and stitch away. (I only used the good old simple back stitch on this project.)

Five minutes into my embroidering, my daughter started playing with her little cut out drawings and managed to rip them all up. Ideally I would have kept them nearby so I could check the accuracy of my copy and how I might need to adjust colours and stitches. But I had to finish it blind, so I improvised here and there.

When you’re finished with your embroidering, you’ll need to finish off the back.

Most people would cut the fabric off very close to the hoop and leave it at that. Others add a bit of glue to where the hoop sits.

I worry about the fabric coming loose as the fabric sometimes stretches or who knows what happens and you can’t manage to get it back into place. I wouldn’t use glue as glue travels and stains. It would be horrible to ruin your beautiful at work in the last minute!

Here’s what I’ve seen a few people do and what works best for me: you just loosely stitch around the edges, pull it in and tie a knot: done.

Then find the perfect place to hang your precious little keepsake. If grandma doesn’t want to take it home on her next visit that is!

 

Displaying Children’s Art Work

This embroidery project turned out stunningly beautiful. It really is gorgeous and looks so pretty hanging on the wall. My daughter knows it’s one of her drawings (“from when I was little”, bless) and is very happy with what I did with it. I guess she is considering it to be a collaborative piece of art. Which it is!

Given more time, I think I will make a few more of these kids art embroidery hoops and hang them in her room or somewhere in our play space. I think it’s a very cool way to display children’s art. Time intensive, but cool.

In the meantime orders have already started coming in … unfortunately I don’t make or sell these little works of art in my Etsy shop, but Scribbleandsew does, in case you’d like to outsource your next hand made present.

But if you’ve got some time and are slightly handy with needle and thread, I highly recommend you give it go yourself. There’s something special about recreating your children’s art work by hand and they’ll greatly appreciate your interest and efforts.

Do you love handmade projects and are you looking for some inspiration? Have a look at my DIY Toys  and Mommy Projects boards on Pinterest for an amazing collection of gorgeous simple handmade creations you can easily make at home.

And if you loved this post, you might also enjoy reading about these cute little felt sleeping bags we made for our figurines, the tooth fairy pocket we sewed on to our beloved favourite soft toys and the princess hair braids we made for our dress up box.

Thanks for visiting today, take care and stay in touch via facebook or Instagram. I’d love to hear from you!

Ann*

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