Otherwise known as the hardest embroidery project I’ve ever done.

(The second hardest was this lavender).

Some of you were excited about using coloring pages as embroidery designs, so I thought I would share another way to use a coloring page as an embroidery design.

I used some scraps of fabric last Christmas, some black embroidery thread, a water-soluble marking pen, and a coloring page to make this for my son for Christmas.

 
 

Supplies:

fabric for center
fabric for edges (you could do one solid color for the entire pillow, so long as you can see through it)
paper for printing
stuffing for pillow
embroidery thread (about 2 skeins of black)
pillow stuffing (I stuffed mine with the stuffing from an old worn bed pillow (just wash and dry your pillow first before using the stuffing)

Tools:

light box (or a window and some scotch tape)
scissors
sewing machine (optional)
ruler
water soluble marking pen (I use Mark B Gone; you can get it at Wawak, Walmart, or Joann’s)
printer
needle
sewing scissors
embroidery hoop

I made a pillow form and then an envelope pillow cover to go on top of that, so I can remove the pillow cover when it needs to be washed.

Before I stitched up anything, though, I had to choose a design.

I used a free coloring page from here. Make sure to have your internet settings to block pop-ups, as there are a lot of pop-ups from that site. It’s a wonderful site, though! I use it to print coloring pictures all the time. You could print pictures of your child’s favorite characters and make your own coloring book for Christmas.

There are several Harry Potter pictures there; I thought this one was the best for what I wanted.

Print your picture.

Cut a piece of fabric the size you need to go over the image. Leave extra space for seam allowances.

You can tape the picture to a window during the day, and tape the fabric over it for tracing. If you have a lightbox, you can use that instead.

I recommend using a thinner fabric than I did, as it was hard to see in a few critical places.

Trace your design using the water-soluble marker.

When your drawing is complete, embroider your design. I used 2 strands of embroidery thread everywhere, except for the finer details on his face, where I just used 1 strand. I embroidered it with the stem stitch.

When you’re done embroidering the entire thing, rinse it with water to remove the blue marker. You can mist it with water as well, but sometimes a little blue reappears when you do that. Do not use soap! Soap will set the marker brown, permanently into your fabric. If any blue reappears after your fabric is dry, just rinse and repeat 🙂

I usually hang my embroidery to dry over a towel on the towel rack in my bathroom (this also prevents the children from seeing the present!)

When it’s done drying, iron the fabric and sew your pillow.

If you’ve got some Harry Potter fans at home, make sure to print up my free Black and White bookmarks and my London bookmarks. You can even make some tassels with Griffyndor colors if you want! Then you can curl up with your new pillow and reread your favorite books on Christmas break.

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6 Comments

  1. My children would go crazy over that pillow! You did a wonderful job! Last year we had a Harry Potter themed birthday for my youngest and made the chocolate frogs with their boxes (I found a tutorial online and printed and assembled them), spell books (found spells and printed them on cardstock and stapled together), and paper wands. The wands were super easy and only used paper, glue, and paint. I’ll see if I can find the tutorial if anyone is interested…

  2. It’s an amazing likeness! It’s good for us all to stretch our skills into unknown territory and learn new things.Last night I started knitting a pair of fingerless gloves for a daughter. I should finish today. (We homeschool, too, so I have to sneak away or work on it when they are playing outside.) I’m using leftover yarn from an old project, and I don’t remember how much is cost then. I would guess the total cost is about 75 cents. My out-of-pocket cost, however is zero.

  3. Very nicely done! My oldest boy was a huge Harry Potter fans when he was younger. Would have loved to have thought to do that instead of paying out the money we did on themed bedding that they then outgrow. LOLTanya

  4. Thank you for sharing what you do with coloring pages and your resource with warning included:D I just wanted to share that my mother used coloring pages and carbon paper to trace onto wood projects for painting. She made a darling kids table and chairs with Winnie the Pooh characters traced from a coloring book. Lots of possibilities.For today, I am almost done with my fingerless gloves! Just two more rows, I made the pattern myself because I couldn’t find one that was simple enough for me and free. I typed it up and will be sharing it for my Make Something Monday’s post:D

  5. The Lion Brand website has thousands of free knitting pattern (lion brand.com). I have made several items with their patterns, and I just finished a fingerless glove pattern yesterday entitled “Phoenix Gauntlets”. It is very simple, although I would cast on more stitches if I were making it for a man or anyone with larger hands. It’s basically a stockinette rectangle with the sides seamed together, leaving an opening for the thumb.

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