When I first started my embroidery shop I began by embroidering over my old clothes for practice. The main reason I ever started my shop was because I shared an image on my blog of one of my upcycling creations, and received a load of comments asking if it was available to buy – but that’s a story for another time!
Over the years I have practiced and learnt A LOT, and I have improved just as much. Since my shop exploded during the pandemic though, my sales have dropped significantly, and over time the space I had to store everything narrowed.
In December I went through my storage space to look for some of my Winter stock and I stumbled across a cardigan I had embroidered a couple of years ago (and lets ignore the fact that the cardigan is sideways to the background print). It’s safe to say I was shocked at how much I had improved since then… the cardigan was embroidered with a gingerbread man and snowflakes, a cute idea but a now outdated execution.
For the first time ever in my embroidery journey I decided to unstitch the entire design in order to attempt something new. It took a fair hour to unstitch whilst making sure I didn’t create any holes or tears, but the effort payed off and the cardigan looked as good as new… and as plain as ever.
So I looked for some inspiration on Pinterest and Instagram before designing something completely new. I chose a variety of flowers in shades of the sunset; pale yellow blanket flowers, fiery orange cosmos, and delicate gypsophila. After many hours of stitching the Sunset Blooms cardigan was born.
I am still surprised that I managed to completely upcycle this cardigan – from a wintery gingerbread man, to a delicate floral ensemble. I have always thought that upcycling with embroidery is one of the best ways to give old pieces new life! I am happy to say this floral cardigan is now available on my shop (at the time of writing this), and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.
This has definitely inspired me to try upcycling more of my past designs! I would love to hear about your upcycling crafts in the comments below 🙂
