When I was looking for gifts to make for my family this Christmas, I came across this idea to make a monogram on canvas using embroidery thread. I thought the 3D look would be pretty cool, but I never realized how long it would take me to make three of them!
This one is the first I made. Therefore, many mistakes were made because it was kind of an experiment. However, now I have a pretty good idea of how to complete this craft without too many mistakes!
I started with canvas, embroidery thread, tape, white thread, and rope. I first played with the rope to decide what shape my letters should take. Then I taped the rope down to the canvas in the desired shape. After the rope is taped down, I took the white thread and tied down the rope about every couple inches or as needed to keep the shape. Then I started embroidering, keeping my stitches as close together as I could in order to fully cover the rope. After covering a little bit of the rope, I went back to the end or start point to try and cover the frayed edge. Then I kept going around the rope until it was all finished!
Word to the wise – don’t poke unnecessary holes in the canvas because you will still be able to see them when you are all done. That is the biggest lesson that I learned when making the first monogram. Originally, I was using pins instead of tape to hold the rope while I used the white thread to secure the rope, but then I changed the shape of my letter, which uncovered the holes I made with the pins.
I made a “J” and a “P” monogram as well, but my favorite was the “J” for my older sister and her husband because it had a really cute curl at the bottom of the letter. It was also made with this variegated brown thread which is going to look so nice in their home where they have been decorating with a lot of those neutral colors and a western twist to a lot of their decor.
Overall, each monogram probably took me 5 or more hours to complete because the embroidery was slow going. I was using the entire length of embroidery thread each time, so that was a lot of thread to pull through each stitch I made. And with a long length of thread comes the problem of it becoming tangled, which happened quite often. However, I enjoyed making them for my family and can’t wait to see how they display them in their homes.
What has been your latest craft project? Share below! We’d love to hear what you’ve been working on!
~Courtney Rose~
