I had an idea to make some hand embroidered social media icons for my blog absolutely ages ago, and this week I finished them!  If you’ve stopped by my blog in the last day or two, then you might have noticed that they have appeared in the right-hand sidebar on my blog posts (I only have the sidebar on blog posts now, rather than on the main blog page too). I’m pleased with the overall handmade effect of them, so thought I’d share a few details.

 

Hand embroidered social media icons: basic materials

 

I started stitching 4″ versions of these hoops last year, but they were a complete mess. Especially the Pinterest hoop…so I decided to make it a little easier this time by going smaller. Each hoop is 3″ (7.5cm) and I’ve used satin stitch for each one using 3 strands of embroidery thread. It’s actually quite tricky to get hold of 3″ wooden hoops in the UK, and when I looked in my usual sources they had all run out. Thankfully, they came back in stock at Cloud Craft so I ordered a few to keep me going!

 

I also wanted to paint each hoop, and originally wanted to colour match to the icon colours but this proved to be quite difficult. So instead, I chose a lovely bright turquoise – something different to all the icon colours that would tie them all together.

 

 

 

Facebook hoop

 

The Facebook hoop looks like it could be the easiest of the four, but it was actually quite tricky. The curve of the F was a bit challenging, and I spent ages trying to get the top of the circle right. It seems that I’m better at sewing the bottom of a circle rather than the top, strangely! Eventually, I decided that slight lumps and bumps don’t matter. They are hand embroidered social media icons after all 🙂

 

Only one colour was needed for this hoop, and I used DMC 312 (Anchor match is 979).

 

 

Pinterest hoop

 

As I said at the start of the post, when I made my first version of this Pinterest logo it was SO bad! When I stitched it the first time, I didn’t go straight across around the circle but stitched outside in, if that makes sense?! Like the Instagram hoop later in this post. But that made it look so messy, as it was hard to get a neat edge. So this time I just stitched straight across from left to right, and I think it’s much neater. That’s the key to consistent satin stitch I think! 🙂

 

Only one colour was needed for this hoop, and I used DMC 304 (Anchor match is 1006).

 

 

Twitter hoop

 

This was probably the simplest of all 4 of my hand embroidered social media icons, which I wasn’t expecting! This is one of my favourite shades of DMC thread – the blue is just so vibrant. I was wondering if the detail of the beak would come out clearly in such a small hoop, but it is fine. Again, I kept my stitches consistent going left to right across the hoop.

 

Only one colour was needed for this hoop, and I used DMC 996 (Anchor match is 433).

 

 

Instagram hoop

 

Finally, it’s my favourite – Instagram! This was the most challenging by far, just because of the number of colours and getting the shading right between each one. But I LOVE how it has turned out! I have been a bit cheeky with this one, because I’ve used the colours from the new (ish) logo, but the shape of the old one. I just prefer the design of the original logo – what can I say?! So sorry, Instagram! I love the combination of colours in this one – yellow, oranges through to pink and purple. Can you spot the tiny hint of blue at the top? Just a small amount but it sets it off nicely 🙂

 

I’m actually going to use this colour palette for the next in the series of #craftycolourpalettes so you’ll have to wait to find out what they are…

 

 

Which one is your favourite?

 

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