Hand Embroidered Wall Clock

As f find it a boredom to see the walls of my house entrance with the same decor item for years, i wanted to make something new at the sametime related to nature(more greenish) so that is cool to the eyes!

So here i come up with a Home decor - Hand Embroidered Wall Clock!

Concept is simple. We are gonna do hand embroidery in a piece of cloth and attach a clock machine and hands to it!

Lets gather the required supplies.

Embroidery hoop

Embroidery threads

Scissor

Acrylic cloth or any thick cloth for embroidery

Clock machine and clock hands

Enamel paint(optional)

Embroidery Needle

As i said earlier, i wanted to make the decor more greener. So at first, i painted the embroidery hoop with green paint.

I hope most of you know how to align the hoop and the base cloth(cloth where we do the embroidery).

Let me also detail it here. It is so simple.

Place the front embroidery hoop on top(of the fabric) and gently push it down. If needed, tug the fabric on either side until it’s nice and tight. Tighten the screw at the top of the embroidery hoop and flip it over.

Place a smaller embroidery hoop or any circular object on top of the arranged hoop.

And mark the boundaries of the circular object such that the clock hands are enclosed inside it.

At the same time, place the clock hands and mark the center point of the clock hands onto the fabric, using the center hole of the clock's hands.

Now, lets draw the embroidery pattern with pencil on to the cloth.

While doing embroidery we will do the pattern following the outline.

Note: I referred to a random picture from internet and used draw the pattern from few designs of it.

For the first ever leaf, i tried a trick with marker pen.

1. Draw a single line like the main nerve of the leaf, onto the fabric with pencil.

2. Take a single line thread with embroidery needle.

3. Start from the bottom side.

4. After checking whether the knot at the other end is placed properly beneath the cloth, now pull the rest of the thread to the top of the cloth.

5. Place a marker pen(as in the picture) and do a rolling of the thread onto the pen.

6. Now insert the needle towards the bottom side of the cloth such that both the inward and outward of the thread are placed next to each other(of the line we draw with pencil).

7. Likewise, do for rest of the thread of whichever length you wanted to make the leaf.

1. Now release the marker pen from the thread loops.

2. You would find a line of threads arrange in a pattern.

3. Get the needle from the bottomside of the cloth.

4. Insert the needle through the hollow of the thread loops, to reach the other side of the loop.

5. After reaching the other end(tip of the loop), now pull down the center thread towards the other end of the thread loops(as in the picture).

6. Now you will see the structure more like pupa of butterflies.

1. Now insert the needle at the other end, towards the bottomside of the fabric.

We are done with the leaf pattern and if incase you wanted another color you could bolden the center nerve with another color thread or may do with the same thread.

French knot stitch is very useful for little bits of texture that can be added to any embroidery design. They can cluster together or stand-alone. Their bobble effect makes them ideal for designs of small furry animals. French knot stitch lends itsself to small flowers in clusters such as lavender or flowers seen from a distance.

Start the French Knot with your needle and thread coming up from the back of the fabric.

Leave a ‘tail’ of thread hanging behind under the fabric that you will work in later, or work a backstitch to hold the thread to keep the stitch secure.

The start of the knot requires two hands to get the tension and spacing right, so be prepared to use one hand to hold the needle and the other to hold the thread.

Put your needle in front of the thread you are holding on the right side of the fabric. You will be winding the thread to make the knot but if you wind from the front the knot will not retain its shape.

Wind the embroidery floss around the needle two or three times. Wind it on with your non-needle hand. Keep the thread taut as you wind it and keep the needle still. The more times you wind, the larger the knot.

Keep the coil wrapped around the needle taut as you insert the needle into the fabric. Insert the needle close to the original entry point.

Do not go back into the same space because your knot will unravel.

Your non-needle hand is holding a length of floss. Pull that length of floss down towards the tip of the needle This will pull the coiled thread down the needle and as it tightens it makes a little bundle of thread bunched at the bottom.

The coil of thread should be firmly at the bottom of the needle next to the fabric. Pull the thread right the way through the fabric to the back.

If you’ve ever wondered how to stitch beautiful embroidered roses, they’re not as tricky as you might think! One really simple stitch that can add a lot of beauty and dimension to your embroidery is called the woven wheel stitch. The woven wheel stitch is also called the woven rose stitch, or woven spider web stitch, or even a woven spider wheel.

1. Place the fabric in the hoop.

2. Cut a 12 to 14-inch length of six-strand embroidery floss and thread it through the embroidery needle.

3. Knot the other end.

1. To begin, bring the needle up and down through the fabric to make five straight stitches as shown, forming a star.

2. Try to make each stitch evenly spaced and the same length.

1. Bring the needle up through the back near the center. Begin weaving the needle over and under each straight stitch spoke. Be careful not to catch any of the threads with your needle.

2. Continue weaving around the spokes until the circle is filled in and you can no longer see any of the spokes showing.

3. Take the needle down under the edge of the weaving at one of the spokes.

Tip : If you run out of thread as you are weaving, bring the needle to the back, secure it, and bring up a new thread where you left off, continuing to weave as before.

After completing one full wheel of rose, you could open up the center part a bit so that the french knots are visible better. French knots which we made earlier, will act as pistil of the rose flower.

When working the straight stitch spokes, you will want to use a sharp needle to pierce the fabric. When you are weaving, however, it's best to switch to a tapestry needle with a blunt tip. This will help prevent the needle from catching and pulling the weaving. Switch back when you are done weaving and ready to finish off your thread.

The name says it all. Lazy Daisy is arguably the simplest stitch for creating embroidered flowers. It can also be called the Detached Chain Stitch.

Lazy Daisy stitch is nothing more than a simple loop arranged in groups to create flowers, combined in a line to make Chain Stitch, or worked individually to create leaves. There are also a number of variations for taking this simple stitch to the next level.

You can draw the whole thing, or just a small center circle and work from there. Bring the needle and thread to the front at the edge of the center circle.

In this stitch the anchor stitch is done in a different colour. There are two ways to do it – make the small anchor stitch first and then thread your petals through these. This is one way and the easiest.

In the alternative method, the separate colour anchor stitch can be made after the whole lazy daisy stitch is done, over the anchor stitch.

Put the needle back in right next to where you came out. Without pulling it all the way through, weave it up and out of the fabric a small distance away. This will be your stitch, or petal, length.

Now, take the another color thread and wrap it around the needle through the first color thread. If you’ve already learned Chain Stitch, this method will be familiar.

Pull the thread all the way through to create a loop. The tighter you pull, the narrower the loop will be.

Stem Stitch is also known as Crewel stitch, Stalk stitch.

Let us now get to the procedure. To make the logic clearer for stem stitch, I have drawn a temporary stitch line with a pencil. A stitch line is through which all stitches will be running. Now, note that all the stitch points in stem stitch will fall ON the stitch line. I will be working this stitch from left to right. This instruction is for right-handed learners.

Bring out the thread from the backside, after making a knot.

Take the needle backwards and bring the thread out through the thread made earlier.

So, all the subsequent stitch points will lie on top of their previous stitch.

Fishbone stitch is one of those simple, but very effective stitches that capture the shape and delicate form of leaves, feathers and other parts of a picture you may need to use a filling stitch with some texture and character.

The beauty of the fishbone stitch is that it automatically creates a ridge down the center of the design that resembles the vein of a leaf or the center of a delicate feather without having to add that detail separately.

Prepare your design with an outline and a centerline to mark the middle of your stitching. I drew a leaf shape and marked the center vein.

The fishbone stitch is created between these points and once you get going you will be amazed at how beautiful it looks.

This stitch like most other embroidery stitches is best done in a hoop or frame to hold the fabric tight. The frame can be small and can be moved around on a larger piece of fabric.

I have used a 6 strand embroidery floss for my samples. If you want a finer look, you can use fewer strands. Obviously, it will take you longer to sew with a thinner thread but embroidery is a relaxing hobby so this may suit your patience level.

Bring your needle and thread out at point near the top tip of the design. Now the point lies directly on your center line.

Bring the needle out at point, close to the first incision and along the outline.

Take the needle to the left of the center line and exit on the outer line. The stitch points on the outer line must be close together to stop visible spaces forming along the design.

From now you will be stitching to the left and right of the center line and never directly on it. This forms the ridged edge in the center.

Cross the needle on the right side of the center line. Insert and exit on the outer line.

These are flowers made with simple thread bunches cut to the shape of flowers – the same way we make tassels.

1. Make equal length strands of thread rolled in.

2. For easy way to roll in, i used a circular object.

3. Once it reached a definite length, i released the circular object.

4. Tied the last end of the thread to the center of the thread strands.

Now placed the rolled in thread bunch at the center of the stem onto the fabric.

For the lavender color thread bunch, i used dark green embroidery thread for the receptable that connects to light brown stem(made earlier).

With single dark green thread, i secured the other end with a knot and pulled out needle from the bottom side.

Using a hand needle and green thread i secured the thread at the base of the flower.

I made both horizontal stitches as well as vertical stitches to thoroughly secure them.

I trimmed the edges of the bunch and then used the back of the needle to comb them. Now the flowers look more fluffy and blooming, more like pop up from the fabric.

Now to complete the other design i have drawn i made simple embroidery by making thread in and out of the cloth, for that specific color threads.

Made a simple flower/fruit bud with red coloured thread and used dark green thread to resemble the sepals.

After completing the garland part, i found something missing in my decor. So wanted to add some creatures like butterflies which will more liveliness to my creation.

So started making the outline of a flying butterfly with pencil.

I used sewing thread of brown and orange colors(folded to get the thickness like embroidery thread) to make the body part of the flying butterfly.

With black embroidery thread, i made an outline border for the butterfly body part and used the same thread for the antennas as well.

After completing the embroidery part, i started with the clock part to mark the position for the numbers.

I used an embroidery hoop which i used to make the border line earlier(for the clock) and copied the positions from an existing clock, to the fabric with pencil.

I added few small flowers to the garland design to cover the empty space.

And used Turquiose acrylic color to make the numbers onto the fabric.

To give a grip, inorder to attach the clock machine i sized a thick cardboard to the shape of the inner side of the hoop with some space cut out for the clock machine. And used thick cotton thread to finish the hoop at the backside.