I thought I'd have a go at interpreting a sketchbook doodle into a small embroidery. I like drawing with dip pen and ink in the sketchbook, with lots of tiny details, squeezing as much as I can onto a page. Contraptions are fun to draw, especially with random objects added in. This contraption makes fish tea, apparently.
I drew a simplified version of the contraption onto calico, using the same pen and ink as in the sketchbook.
Then I painted it in very watered down acrylic paint. There was a bit of bleed in a couple of places, but overall, the colour came out well and the fabric stayed soft.
I used felt as a backing and tacked the calico firmly on. I used a running stitch around the outlines, in embroidery silk and very fiddly metallic thread. I've used tiny seed stitch on some of the areas, such as the teapot, and satin stitch on the knobs.
Finally, I quilted round the design and trimmed a raw edge. This was a bit of an experiment, but I was pleased that it captured the feeling of the original sketch. I'll definitely be trying out different ways to use painted fabric in the future.
