This week in The Happy Stitch Project, we’re learning long and short stitch. It’s a beautiful stitch for shading, so you can achieve an ombre effect with different shades of the same colour, or blend different colours together. Our project this week is long and short stitch lettering, and I’ll show you how to stitch long and short stitch in blocks and around the curves. Yay!

Long and short stitch lettering: materials

A piece of patterned fabric, roughly 22 x 22cm 

A 12cm (5″) embroidery hoop

An aqua trick pen

Templates – click here for the free download!!

DMC thread in shades 3845, 3843 and 3842

A needle

Some small sharp scissors (I use these Fiskars ones and they’re fab!)

Some perle thread to finish the back (although I haven’t finished the back yet )

Watch the long and short stitch letting tutorial

You’ll find the stitch tutorial video here, and I quickly talk you through the basics of the stitch:

The full tutorial is here:

https://youtu.be/ZajU3HOJBYA

It’s a slow stitching video this week, which I haven’t done in a while! So make yourself a cuppa and I’ll talk you through the lettering. Feel free to pause and go back, or stitch along with me! I stitched the first letter before filming so that you can use it as a guide. If you have any questions along the way, do ask in the comments below or get in touch via Instagram or by email.

If you use Anchor thread instead of DMC, no problem! I’ve got a conversion chart right here.

You may also like…

This Crafty Colour Palette for some colour inspiration!

Crafty Colour Palette #4

These fabric covered letters:

Fabric covered letters

Read all about the magic of the to-done list:

The magic of the to-done list

Stitch some alternative lettering with this design from earlier in The Happy Stitch Project:

Do your thing embroidered hoop

The post Long and short stitch lettering appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

I have been absolutely delighted to see lots of people joining in with The Happy Stitch Project this week. It has been so amazing to see you all enjoying some creative time, and so many of you learning a new skill. It feels like the perfect craft for 2021 to bring us a little peace, calm and creativity. These little moments and pockets of time are truly going to be invaluable for us all. Here in the UK as we are now in our third Covid lockdown, and I’ve had lots of lovely messages from people saying that they are looking forward to making time for themselves, and that’s really so important. It’s hard to believe we’re only seven days in to 2021 and everything has gone completely crazy!

Earlier this week, the lovely Helen from The Unicorn Factory shared a hoop design in her Instagram stories, which she had put together to be able to make a sampler for The Happy Stitch Project. It has 52 sections, and Helen said that she was going to use it to practice each of the stitches that we’re learning throughout the year. I just think this is the most brilliant idea! So I got in touch to ask if I could share them with you, and I’m very pleased to say that she said yes (thanks, Helen!).

Helen is a surface pattern designer, and you can buy fabrics from her beautiful first collection (called Rainforest Joy) on Fashion Formula and Spoonflower. I love the colours she has used in this collection, and they complement each other so well. Go and give her a follow on Instagram too!

Happy Stitch hoop templates

Helen has very kindly put the documents together for the Happy Stitch hoop templates, so they’re ready for you to download and print!  You can either stitch in an 20cm (8″) or a 25cm (10″) hoop, depending on what you feel most comfortable with. You can print both at 100% on A4 – the larger size will get chopped off slightly when printed, but the lines are clear enough for you to be able to draw this on anyway.

Click here to download the 20cm (8″) templates

Click here to download the 25cm (10″) templates

Week 1 project – in case you missed it!

Did you see the design for week 1 of The Happy Stitch Project? It’s this lovely little sprinkles hoop – I have loved seeing your creations over on Instagram this week. Keep sharing, as I’ll be sharing my favourites each week! And don’t forget that if you need some sewing supplies, you can find lots of lovely things in my haberdashery. Hoops are now available, and more things coming soon!

Have you stitched anything this week? Let me know in the comments! The week 2 stitch tutorial and project will be available tomorrow – yay!

You may also like…

Enjoy stitching the Do Your Thing hoop from week 7 of The Happy Stitch Project:

Do your thing embroidered hoop

Try out the first kit from The Happy Stitch Project here:

https://hellohooray.com/product/brighter-days-are-coming-kit/

Try out your own 100 Happy Days – perfect for practising gratitude:

100 Happy Days

The post Happy Stitch hoop templates appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.