How to Slow Stitch in Miniature

Working small is something I have always done - and making a slow stitched piece in miniature is easier than it might seem. It also means a stitched piece can be (but doesn't have to be) completed in a few hours or a few sessions of stitching.

Mini Red Winged Blackbird on a Wood Spool 2" x 2"

The Red-Winged Blackbird in this stitched piece is only about 1 inch long (the start to finish process for stitching this piece can be seen on YouTube). The piece was created using mere snippets of fabric and the bird was cut out from my Blackbird on Pink fabric from Spoonflower.

Blackbird Stripes Fabric from Spoonflower

The tiny blackbirds on this fabric create a fun striped pattern. And just one bird from a swatch of the fabric was all that was needed to create my stitched piece.

Here's another look at the fabric in yardage. The tiny scale of the birds make them disappear into the design. It's one way that working in miniature can have a big impact.

House Finch Bird Flock Hand Stitched Artwork 4.5" x 5.5"

The five birds on this stitched artwork are each about 1 1/4 inch by 3/4 of an inch. They were created using a bird from my miniature animal template set (the start to finish process of creating this bird flock can be seen on YouTube ).

Mini Animal Tracing Template Set

The templates are great for tracing a shape onto fabric.

After tracing with a heat erasable pen I cut out the birds using embroidery scissors.

Some fabric frays more than others. This fabric was hand painted with liquid fabric dye. The dye changed the hand of the fabric just enough to thicken it and keep it from fraying too much. The process for dying fabric this way can be seen in this video.

Floral Bird Slow Stitched Brooch

This brooch has a bird created using one of my mini bird templates an it's available in my shop. The stitching makes use of negative space to highlight the floral fabric. You can see the process of making this an other brooches in this video.

Blue Bird on Blue Kilt Pin Brooch 1.5" x 2.5"

Here's a brooch featuring a tiny bluebird. I love how big the button looks in comparison to the bird. Playing with scale is fun - and so easy to do when working mini!

A section of my Slow Stitched Scroll

This scroll project made use of the miniature animal templates to create an ongoing nature scene. This is a fun way to work small but on a bigger project.

Slow Stitched Crow 3" x 3"

Stitching in small scale or miniature means that wonderful feeling of completion and accomplishment is within reach, keeping the inspiration and ideas flowing right into the next project, big or small.

For inspiration and plenty of how-to on creating in miniature, check out my Scroll Project videos (or the blog post about it here), my Bird Flock process video and my Red-winged Blackbird video.

Until next time, Happy Stitching! ~ Jo