*NEWS* Etsy Shop Re-Launch on the way & discount for you!

Finally! Patterns for the new collection are ready and will go on sale on Monday! Now, here's a little rant on this occasion, haha.

First of all, I'm so giddy and excited for the re-launch. I've been working on these designs for quite a while now, and they turned out exactly how I imagined them to be, and that's the best thing!

The inspiration for these designs came after seeing illustrations for tattoos on Pinterest and Instagram. The combination of clear-cut geometric shapes together with delicate florals always made me weak and I wondered how it could be implemented in hand embroidery. It took some time to tweak the details here and there, to find the right balance, the right stitches and the right color scheme. I wanted the designs to look airy and gentle. I also didn't want them to be too complicated thinking of those who will stitch them. The results of this fine-tuning were impressive even for me, and I like to be critical of my own work.

But then came another challenge – making the PDF files with instructions. And ugh, I'm so not used to this stuff. I had an idea of what I want it to look like – rather simple and minimalistic, but with clear step-by-step instructions and close-ups of the process of stitching. I'm happy to say that it turned out well, but I because I'm a dummy in these things I had to take a step back from the blog to be able to fully concentrate on this task.

I sincerely missed the blog so much! I didn't think I would feel so deprived of writing and talking to you, hence the need to rant it all out here 😅 I will do my best to make up for the missed week. But now, let me introduce the collection to you :)

It is called Serenity. One of the rare times when coming up with a name was so natural. 

The four designs don't have individual names, but numbers.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Here they are. 

The designs suit all skill levels above a complete beginner, as they require the basic understanding of hand embroidery: how to start a thread, how to finish, how to make a stitch. Although these questions are tackled in the file as well, it is still not possible to pay too much attention to them in this type of file. (If necessary, you can find the answers in following posts by the way: 3 ways to start your thread, How to end embroidery thread and other useful posts under the Guide to embroidery tag)

Other than that, the file provides tutorials for all the stitches used in the design, so even if you aren't familiar with some of them yet, instructions will explain everything. The stitches used in Serenity designs are following: stem stitch, split stitch, french knots, long and short stitch, satin stitch, buttonhole stitch. All of them have already been covered on the blog, so there's nothing new, yay! 

So, if you have basic experience in hand embroidery, you will manage to work the designs. The only challenge you might face is working with 1 or 2 strands of floss there because nowadays not everyone is used to this. But let me encourage you to try it as it might take your embroidery to another level (no matter what level you are currently at).

I will post a discount coupon here for you when the shop will be re-launched, so stay tuned for the details!

By the way, I decided to also put Cecelia Rose pattern PDF on sale. Even though I made it a rule that only those who applied could participate in the Stitch Along, there are still enough people willing to try stitching it, so to make it fair it's gonna go on sale. It will be cheaper than other designs though because there will be only 2 pages of the pattern with thread index, while all the instructions can be found on the blog.

Lastly, there is still my Poppies design available in the shop. I really love it, but I think I out-grew it both in style of embroidery itself and the file layout, so it is time to say bye-bye. The instructions are still clear though, with stitch tutorials, so if you don't mind a bit of lower quality pictures, this design will stay in the shop for probably a week under a 60% discount. It makes the original price 4$, but depending on your location taxes might be added automatically.

That's all for now. Thank you for sticking with me, and I will get back to regular posting very soon! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!