Embroidering on faux suede

I'm currently working on a cover for my embroidery sketchbook/journal (I still have no idea what to call it) and I decided to experiment a little and use faux suede for that purpose :)

Naturally, since this is an embroidery-themed book, it goes without saying that there has to be some embroidery featured on the cover itself.

I decided to use a quote that I stumbled upon recently, and that had inspired me in a lot of ways: Grow where you are planted. It was also used in one of my previous Newsletters where we discussed its meaning in a more detailed way.

It definitely spoke to me a lot at that period of time. But it also came to connect various topics of my embroidery sketches. When I was pondering over what I want to embroider, what I want to try for this journal, the idea of growth, patience, and perserverance was very important to me ( I wonder if you can see it in the pages that I showed earlier?). So now all the dots are connected :)

I used this method in stitching the quote and the frame is worked in back stitch with french knots inside the squares.

By the way, I might still tweak some things in the cover since I'm not 100% satisfied with it, but also am a little lazy to undo everything and start it over :D We will see. Frankly speaking, it is my first book of that sort, so the desire to see the finished result sooner is stronger than the desire to have everything perfect, haha.

The tree here is stitched with stem stitch and lazy daisies using two strands of cotton floss in a color matching the fabric.

I thought it would look fun, but now I'm not so sure, haha.

It is actually already finished by the time I'm writing it and it already looks better, but I'm still not sure about the color. Once again, undoing everything is not on my to-do list but maybe there will be a way to make it stand out a little bit more, hm...

And in this corner, you can see me making experimental stitches with an unusual fiber. I wonder if you can guess what it is??

That's actually the fiber that this faux suede consists of. As per my limited knowledge, it is polyester. And it is SO durable, I was trying to tear it and had no success whatsoever. And it is really nice to work with in embroidery. I actually was going to use this fiber for the tree at first but then my hand automatically reached for the cotton floss and without a second thought my brain went along.

Anyway, the fabric is amazing for hand embroidery!

It is durable, it doesn't stretch, it is easy to stitch on, it is complete and smooth with no holes so I suspect it would suit dense stitching like long and short stitch quite well.

The only thing I'm not sure about it is creases from hoops and frames. In my case, I'm using the Q-snap frame, and the creases are not strong. And even they were, the frame is bigger than the intended size of the cover so I would be able to cut them off anyway.

But as for the hoop... not sure, not sure. Even if it is bound, this fabric is likely to “remember” the crease and make it harder to iron out.

That being said, if you ever were mulling over embroidering on faux suede, go ahead! It is a lot of fun :)