Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hello and welcome to my
second-hand embroidery class. If you were in my
first class about embroidering on
paper, welcome back. I'm over the moon that
you came to this one too. In this one, we will explore a new material that is
all around us, leaves. But in case this is the
first time that you see me, let me introduce myself. My name is Diana Escamilla and I was born and raised
in Monterrey, Mexico. Ever since I was a little kid, I would find myself playing with different materials
to create all things. I would sometimes
alter a few things in my house and it would
drive my parents crazy. I still think that my
dad's vinyls looked better with my glitter
and doodle interventions. My biggest passion has been making and
creating things with my hands especially if the craft allows me
to take my time, slow down, and rebel against
the urge for immediateness. I am constantly
seeking inspiration, finding new crafts and techniques
that I would enjoy and value from creating stained-glass plants
to making bronze. Once I find my next craft, I go all in and
we'll learn all I can to create something
with my personal touch. After I'm satisfied
with my new skills, I would pass on to
the next craft, but now I'm taking
the extra step to share all that I've learned
with you in my classes. My subject of interest for the past year has
been hand embroidery. Recently, I have been exploring materials to choose
more sustainable ones, and as a result,
create less waste. The answer to my dilemma
was all around me, nature, specifically fallen
leaves from plants and trees. They allow us to work in
a more sustainable way, and the best part
is that they are free and within
everyone's reach. Some people view fallen
leaves as garbage, that is simply crazy talk. You will discover
that leaves are the perfect canvas
for embroidery. In this class, we will
do an exploration of embroidery and adding
our touch to nature. I will go over the different
materials that allow us to play and embroider beautiful
designs on leaves. I will show you what you need to know from how to choose
your leaves and plan your designs to the
different stitches you can use to
embroider on them. For your final project, we will be using them all to
embroider your final design. You can choose from the design
templates I provide for you or you can create your own following my
tips and tricks. Join me in this class, where together we will take our time to experiment and play as we discover how to embroider and add
our touch to nature. See you in class. [MUSIC]
2. Project: [MUSIC] Hey. It's great to see that you've
decided to take this class. Before I go into
our class project, I just want to express
something that is very important when learning. Don't feel that your leaves and projects need to be perfect. This is a class to learn and explore embroidery on leaves, it is not about the outcome, but about slowing
down to connect your mind and hands
to create something. Escape the anxiety of what
embroidery is supposed to look like and let
your curiosity flow, and with every stitch we make, we are practicing and improving. With that said, let's go over what our class
project will be. As you go through the lessons, you will learn four different
embroidery techniques that you will put into
practice on a leaf. This practice will allow
you to build the skill and confidence for
the final project. You can either choose to create a design or pattern of your own, or you can choose one from the templates I have
provided for you. Either the dandelion, the moth or the
paper plane designs. Whichever option you choose, please be sure to share it in the project section
of our class. I would love to see
your creations. At the end, you will
have pieces of art made by you and by nature that
you can hold in your hands, explain to your wall, gift to a friend and
share it with the world. The class materials you
will find everything you need to successfully
do your project. The list of materials
and tools that are used, the templates for
our practice leaf and the project
design templates. Although I shared the colors, stitches and
templates that I use, feel free to break away from these if you want to play and make this project more unique to you, just have fun with it. Now, we're ready to start
our learning journey. Remember to enjoy every
moment as you take your time to connect with your hands
and create something new. With that said, let's
go to our first lesson.
3. Materials: [MUSIC] In this lesson I will share with you
the materials that I use and recommend
for this craft. I use the six- stranded
DMC mouline floss. It comes in over 500 colors and has a great quality
and shine to it. However, there are many browns out there that you
can buy and test. A pair of scissors, needles. I recommend the DMC
round end needles, emphasis on the round end. These are not as sharp
as regular needles, which is a good thing
because as we embroider, sometimes we will use the
same hole multiple times. If we were to use
a regular needle, we could damage or break
our threads in the process. I like using Number 26
because as you can see, the eye is quite small
and this helps us to not make our holes bigger
as we pass through the leaf. We will also use
painter's tape or masking tape and
leaves of course. I will go deeper into how to select them on our next lesson. One sheet of wax paper, one regular sharp needle with a plastic round top if possible. I also recommend having
a magnet to mind your needles and avoid
misplacing or losing them. You can also use a
magnet from your fruit or a pink cushion
to keep them safe. A pencil, a cardboard sheet. I usually grab one from the
boxes that I get on the mail. Then your class materials, you will find the
practice template with two versions for
you to choose from. One for thicker
leaves and one for thin and delicate leaves that
will have less stitches. I will use the thicker
leaf version so that you can see some situations
that can happen. I suggest that you
start with Version 2 for thin and delicate
leaves to start. As we go through the lessons, you will see how each
of these are used. It is okay if you don't
have all of the materials, as long as you have floss, scissors, needles, painter's
tape or masking tape, and your leaf,
you're good to go. Now let's go to our next
lesson where I will share what I look for
when choosing my leaves. See you there. [MUSIC]
4. Leaf selection and pressing: [MUSIC] When it comes to leaves, I like experimenting with
different shapes, sizes, and thicknesses to learn which ones work
best and which ones I need to be more delicate
when working on them. But usually, what I look
for are thick leaves. With trial and error, I have found that my favorite leaf to work on so far is the
magnolia tree leaf. It is sturdy, thick, and it holds up really well. You do not have to be
as delicate as with other thinner leaves
like maple leaves. Here are a couple of
examples of work I have done on a
magnolia and a maple. Other leaves that
have also worked well for me are the live oak, ginkgo, and eucalyptus leaves. Now, if you do not have
these trees or plants close, don't worry, this
is where you can experiment with what
you do have around. If you found a thin
and delicate leaf, I have a tip to make them sturdier and thicker
in our next lesson. For this class, I will
use a live oak leaf, which is neither
very thick nor thin. My preference is to grab fallen leaves that are
not completely dry yet. You will know because
they are still flexible. This way, I can
press them flat to remove the curls
without breaking them. A flat surface makes the process easier from punching the design to even displaying
it on a frame. Now, you can embroider on dry and curly leaves and
thick or thin leaves. The constant thing to be
aware of is that you must be careful while working on them so that you
don't break them. The more you experiment, the more knowledge
and experience you will gather as you
work with them. These are the steps
that I follow to select and prep my leaf. First, I choose it, the thicker the better, then I gently wipe
the leaf clean with a wet cloth or a
sponge, and let it dry. Once it has completely dried
from our previous step, I place it between
the pages of a book. If it is a fallen leaf, sometimes half a day is enough to have it flat
enough to embroider. But you can give it a few more days and
allow it to dry more. If you grab a leaf attached
to a tree or a plant, it could take around
three or four weeks to completely dry. I like to work on dry
ones because this means it will not shrink
or change with time. Now that we have our
leaves selected, washed, and pressed, let's go to our next lesson
where I will show you how to make thin or thick leaves
thicker and more stable. See you there. [MUSIC]
5. Pro tips for thin leaves, breaks or tears: [MUSIC] Here are some situations
you may encounter. You may have a thin
and delicate leaf, or it may have a broken piece, or you accidentally tear the leaf as you
are embroidering. In this lesson, I
will show you how to solve for the
situations like a pro. First, let's make a thin
leaf thicker and sturdier. I will use a pencil, scissors, masking tape or painter's tape, and wax paper.
Here's how I do it. First, we will place the leaf bottom side up
on top of the wax paper. Let's trace the shape of the
leaf as close as we can. If the leaf is delicate, be very careful as you are doing this to avoid breaking it. Once you have gone all
around, remove the leaf. I want to make sure that I
can see the marks if I turn the wax paper as we will be using them as
our cutting guide. If it is not easy to
see, do another pass. Now, grab your tape and start covering the area
of the leaf completely. I like to lay the next
piece starting around halfway of the previous one
to get a thicker layer. We will continue
to do this until we cover the leaf
template completely. Now it's time to cut
following the marks. Here, I like cutting three millimeters or
an eighth of an inch towards the inside
from the marks to prevent the tape from
sticking out of the leaf, once we stick this to it. I will show you
that in a minute. Now that we have cut
all the way around, we have a nice backing layer. Let's grab our leaf and place
it bottom side up again. Separate the tape from
the wax paper like a sticker and position it to be centered. Then gently press so that it sticks completely to the leaf. Now, let's see if
any tape pokes out. If it does, we just need to
either cut directly or peal that spot a little bit and
cut. There you have it. Now we have a sturdier
leaf to embroider around. Note that you can also
use tape on thick leaves. I like to think of this tape as my trainer wheels
for embroidery. It has helped me get a
better sense of the leaf and how much tension I
create with the floss. Another benefit of
using this tape is that if the leaf break
as you work on it, the piece is going nowhere. It also keeps the floss
in place and reduces the risk of tearing your leaf
while pulling on the floss. This also allows you to do more intricate designs
as you will be able to do closer stitching
without the fear of breaks and tears
in the process. As you can imagine, this tape help us fix any
break the leaf may have, or if we accidentally tear it. We just need to add
a piece of tape to that spot and
we are good to go. Here are a couple of
examples of how I fix this. Here is a broken leaf. One way to fix it as putting a complete backing to
it like we just did. But if you decide to embroider
without the backing, you just need to secure that
piece with tape like this. Now, if I break or tear the leaf by accident as I
am embroidering, I just undo my last stitch, add a piece of tape on the back, press and then I just need to punch a hole
with the needle again. More on this punching
on our next class, and we are golden. In our next lesson, I will
show you how to transfer the design to your leaf
and punch the holes. See you there. [MUSIC]
6. Design transfer and Punch: [MUSIC] Now that we have
our leaf prepped, it's time to transfer
the design onto it. In the class materials,
you will find the practice template
document I created for you. You will notice that it is
divided into four quadrants. Each has its own pattern, the stitch that
we will practice, and dots that mark
where to punch. We'll use this to
transfer the design. However, if you're
more of a free spirit, you can go ahead and gently draw the design onto the
leaf with a pencil. Go ahead and print the template. Quick tip, if you do
not have a printer, you can create one by
placing a piece of paper on your screen
and tracing it. I have done this multiple times when I need to do
a quick transfer. Now, with your template in hand, let's position the leaf on
the center or in a way that we get a piece of all four
quadrants on your leaf. I placed these
dotted lines to help you position it as
centered as possible. The next step is to trace
the leaf with your pencil. Remember to do it gently if you have a thin or
a delicate leaf. Once we are done, I will check that I got a good piece of all
of the quadrants. It's looking good, so I can go ahead and cut
following the mytes. [MUSIC] Now that we have
our template cut, let's position it over the leaf and secured
on the sides, the top, and the bottom. This way as we punch our
holes, it won't move. [MUSIC] I also like to trace the
shape of the leaf about three millimeters or one
eighth of an inch in. This will be my barrier to
make sure that I do not punch too close to the edge and
avoid breaking the leaf. Before we go into punching, make sure to place a cardboard piece below
to receive the needle, allowing it to go through. Now grab your sharp needle
and start punching on the holes and remember to
not go beyond our barrier. Let's start with our
top right quadrant. We have a white dot by the corner and let's
punch through. You will notice that I did
not place other dots here. This is because the
spot where we will punch depends on the
size of your leaf. So we will punch where the
barrier meets the lines. For the rest of the quadrants, you can go ahead and
punch on the holes. A quick tip, when we finish punching the designs and
remove the template, it may look like a bunch
of holes making it hard to know where to
start or where to go. To avoid our future
selves frustration, go ahead and punch a
specific area or line. Then carefully
remove the tape and lift the paper a bit and with a pencil, connect the dots. Believe me, the more
intricate the design, the more you want to do this. Let's continue to punch. [MUSIC] Once you complete this, check to see that you are
not missing any holes. Flip your leaf and check if
there is a hole with no tape. Add a piece of tape
and press to stick it and punch through once more. Now we can remove the
template and we are all set. Now with our leaf prepped, in our next lesson, we will learn the basics
about our six-stranded floss, thread, and knot and learn
to make a knot like a pro. See you there. [MUSIC]
7. Floss, thread and knot: [MUSIC] In this lesson, I will show you what
you need to know about the floss
we will be using. Tips on how to
thread your needles, and make knots like a pro. As you know, we will be using a six-strand of
floss to embroider. I use DMC but feel free
to test other brands. You will notice that
it has two tabs, a small one with the brand DMC and how many meters
or yards it has, and the larger one with the
bar and color-code on it. Now let's pull some floss out. You will notice there
are two ends of floss. Pro tip, always pull the end that is on the
side of the longest tab. By pulling this end, you will be able to pull, and pull your desired amount, and it will never tangle up. This is what happens when
you pull the wrong end. You won't be able to
pull much and you will have to remove the
tabs, and untangle it. Remember, pull the end
with the longest tab. Now that we're pulling, I like to use 45 centimeters or around 18 inches because
it is easy to control, and avoid any
accidental tangling as we we're embroidering. I will cut right around here. Once we have our piece of floss, we can actually
separate the strands. This allows you to choose how thick you want your
stitches to be. To separate, just
untangle the tip a bit, and grab a single-strand. Pull on that strand while your other hand holds
the rest in place. Pull until it's free. The other strands
will bundle up, don't panic, this is normal. Once your strand is free, you can place it somewhere safe, and pull down on the other strands to get
them back into place. That is how you pull them apart. As you can see, one piece of this floss
can really go a long way. I usually use one, two or three strands at a time, but feel free to experiment with more strands as you practice. Now let's get these
on the needle. Here, I got two strands. I get the ends together. As tradition dictates, I
lick them a [LAUGHTER] bit and with two
fingers squeeze, and pull the strands to
create a flatter surface. Now, with a little
bit of patience, get the thread through the hole. If you rather not lick it, you can also have a glass of water to use as a substitute. Once your strands are
through to needle, you will have a couple of tails. I like to have a long one and a short one that I usually
keep around this height. The last step is to make
a nice, and sturdy knot. With one hand grab your needle
between finger and thumb. Let your other fingers wrap
around the short tail, and the long tail. Now grab the long tail, and bring it to run
parallel to your needle. We will grab that too, letting the end show a bit. Now wrap the tail, and wind it around the
needle three times. A quick tip here. You don't want to do
this very tight because it will actually have to go through the eye
of the needle. After you wind it three times, pull it down a bit so that now you are holding
everything together. Once you have them
all secure and held tight between your
thumb and finger, pull the needle, and you will end up with a knot. Now you can cut
these messy ends if you want. One last tip. If you do this with
just one strand, you will need to wind
the thread around 10 times to produce a
good sized knot. This can take a little
bit of practice, but in no time, it will
become second nature to you. Now, we are ready to
start embroidering. In our next lesson, I will introduce you to our first embroidery
techniques to straight, and running stitch. See you there.
8. Straight and Running Stitch: [MUSIC] We're ready to
start embroidering with the straight stitch. We make it by creating a
line that can be any length, and yes, it must be straight. It can be used to
create fillings, starbursts, or geometric
shapes, to name a few. Let's get started.
Grab your leaf and two-stranded needle we
prepared in previous classes. We will focus on the top right quadrant and
start in this lower hole. Pro-tip; pass your needle through the front hole halfway, turn your leaf, and
that way you will find the right hole
to go through easily. Now, we will bring the needle up that hole through the back of the leaf and pull until
the knot makes contact. Be very gentle as you pull, because although we have
the backing too much force could create some cracks. Now, let's take our
needle down the hole to the right and pull until
the thread is tight. Let's do that again. Through the hole that's
closer on the top and bring it down
through our corner hole. Let's take our needle back
to the right to come up the next hole and
back down the corner. Continue to do this until you finish or when you
run out of thread, then it will be time to make
a knot on the backside. What I do is pull gently to make sure that
my threads are tight. I put a bit of pressure
on the last stitch with my fingers and then I go through another stitch on
the back to create a loop and pass the
needle through. Pull tight. We will do that one more time. We pass a needle through
to create the loop. Pass a needle, pull, and cut. Awesome. Thread your needle
and create another knot to continue your straight stitches until you complete
this quadrant. There you have it.
Take a moment to look at your work from the front
and the back of the leaf. Right now, we are just starting, but as you progress, the back will also
show your work. Let's continue on the bottom
left quadrant to learn and practice a variation of the straight stitch,
the running stitch. The way it varies from the straight stitch is that
it has a gap in-between. The gap can be even or uneven. I like to use this stitch
to create dashed lines, plant stems, swirling
patterns, and uneven rays. The process is almost the same as the straight stitch with the difference that we
are leaving the gap in-between. Let me show you. We will start once more from
our quadrant's corner hole. We go up through the
hole from the back and down the hole to our left. Out again, on the hole
next to that and down. Here, you can see that
my holes were very close and caused
the leaf to crack. But our backer saves the
day by keeping the pieces in place and showing us
our holes on the back. You will find a second version
of the template marked as thin and delicate leaves with leaf stitches to avoid this. Once we complete that
running stitch line, move to the hole below and
continue the stitching, now moving towards the corner. Continue stitching until
you complete the quadrant. To finish up, remember to make your knot. There you have it. You now have two stitches
in your toolbox. In our next lesson, I will
show you the backstitch. See you there. [MUSIC]
9. Backstitch: [MUSIC] The backstage is my go-to stitch to
create outlines, lines, curves, and letters. The key to this
one is that we're going in a
back-and-forth motion. Let's go to our top left
quadrant and we will begin on the hole at the bottom that is
closest to the corner. We will start with a
single straight stitch. We will come up from the back, and going down the next hole. Now through the back, we will come up our next hole and go back down through
our previous one. Now you know why it is
called the backstitch. We are going back
and forth to join the stitches and create
one smooth line. We go out our next hole and come back through
the previous one, and on and on it goes. Now, keep in mind when you go to the next curve above or
the one that's next, remember to start with
a straight stitch, then go on with back stitches. Here's a quick tip for this one. When stitching curves,
you can alter the length, making the distance
between holes smaller to round out the edges and
smooth out any sharp corners. Continue practicing and
complete this quadrant. In our next lesson, I will
show you the French knot. See you there. [MUSIC]
10. French Knot: [MUSIC] The French knot is my favorite stitch to add texture and dimension
to my embroidery. You can cluster them together
or they can be stand-alone. I use them to create
flowers like dandelions, stars, and shapes by
clustering them together. For this stitch, we will
go up through the hole, wind our thread on the
needle three times, and go back down the same hole. Let me show you how
that looks like. Let's go to our
final quadrant on the bottom right and
begin in the corner. We come up from
the back and pull. Grab your thread with
your non-needle hand. Hold the needle horizontally and wind the thread
around three times. When you finish winding, keep holding the thread
with your non-needle hand. Now, stick your needle through the same hole we came up from. Just enough to keep it in
place and leave it there. Now tug on the thread gently. Just enough so that we create a little bundle that
comes close to the leaf. Do not pull too tight since the needle will
have to go through. This is what we want to see. A clean bundle around
the needle with no messy threads or
loop sticking out. But loose enough for the
needle to go through. Now, secure the thread with your non-needle hand
thumb. Turn the leaf. Here's where I
recommend that you use your index and
middle finger to support the leaf from behind with the needle passing
through the middle of them. This way as you pull the needle, you avoid accidental breaks. Now, pull on the needle very gently until
it goes through. If after a couple of gentle tries it does not pass through, the threads are too tight
and this is what I do. I put out the needle just
a bit and with my finger, I pull up and down my threads
are a couple of times, and finally pull
them up like this. This provides extra
space between them. When you pull gently,
it goes through. Continue to pull all the way and just until your knot forms. Careful not to pull more as
you might break your leaf, and the knot will go through. Look at that, a great French
knot just materialized. Let's do that one more time. We go up our hole, we wind our threads three times, we stick our needle
through the leaf, we tug gently to
make our bundle, secure the thread and
leaf with our fingers, we go through, and there it is. Now, pro tip, when
making French knots, take into account how many
strands you are working with. For instance, if I
did just one strand, I would wind the needle
at least 10 times to have a big enough knot to not
go through our hole. The fewer the strands, the more winds
around the needle. Also, think about
how big you want it. Practice with your
leaf with two, three or more winds
so that you can see the different
sizes you can make. Have fun with it.
Complete your quadrant, and I will see you
in our next lesson. [MUSIC]
11. How I create my designs : [MUSIC] Something that I really like about this craft is thinking about what
to embroider next. Let me share with
you my process. My first step is identifying
what to embroider. This can be tricky because the possibilities
are quite endless. What I'd like to
say is that it is super helpful to
think about something that you are very passionate about or that matters to you. In my case at the moment
I love whales and moths, or it could be a quote that inspires me or reminds
me of something, or a simple line art
of my favorite thing. Next, I go out and
do a little bit of research and look
for inspiration. I usually start with Google
and do an image search. Sometimes I go into
the articles or to top searches since they
could also inspire an idea. Once I know what I want to do I choose to
leave that will be a good fit considering
the design and the size, and then I trace the shape on
paper to make my template. This way I can start doodling or tracing the design on it. When I'm happy with the design, I start placing and spacing
my dots for punching. Remember that I like doing three millimeters or
1/8 of an inch apart. Remember that if you
use a tape backing, they can be a little bit closer allowing for a more
intricate stitching. Next, I mark up a few
things like the name of the stitches I will use and on which parts of the design, how many strands and what color in case I
use multiple ones. This will be your
guide in the process. I recommend keeping this for your records and using
another piece of paper or a tracing paper to create
the template that you can cut and place over the
leaf to start punching, or you can also
take a picture of the page so that they
can cut if you prefer. As you are punching each
section of your design, remember to remove the paper
and connect the dots with pencil so that you don't get lost when you
are embroidering. There you have it. Now you
know [MUSIC] how I do it, and I hope that it helps you
to create your own designs.
12. Project Details: [MUSIC] Congratulations on making
it to this lesson. Now it's time to choose
your final project. In your class materials, you will find the templates for the three different
designs: the dandelion, the moth, or the paper plane. I included two different sizes for the dandelion
and the paper plane, and one size for the moth that will hopefully
fit your leaves. If they don't, you can resize them or you can use your
computer screen to zoom in or out to a size that will allow you to do it
on your leaf template. You can then trace the design from your screen
and mark the holes. Remember to keep the distance of three millimeters
or 1/8 of an inch, and the views of background, they can be a little bit closer. You can go ahead and
create your own design. Whichever route you take, I would love to see
pictures of your art. It can be just of the
finished piece or you can also post pictures
of your progress. I cannot wait to see them. [MUSIC]
13. Final Thoughts: [MUSIC] You did it. By now you should have completed your practice leaf and
you either created your own design or chose one of the templates that
I provided for you. Now that you have seen
the way that I design, embroider my leaves and
also my thought process. I am hoping that you are able to adapt any of this to your own so that you can
continue to create beautiful pieces
of art on leaves. I also hope that you
enjoyed the moment of pause that this
craft gave you. One last thing, please upload your art to
the project section. I am so excited to see them all. Thank you for joining this
class and learning with me. I hope to see you
soon in another one. Bye. [MUSIC]
Diana Escamilla, Crafter, Maker & Teacher
