Feathers McGraw Embroidery

Confession: before this project, the extent of my embroidery experience was a kit from Tales From the Hoop (which was amazing, by the way: I’d definitely recommend checking out the shop if you’re looking for a fun foray into the world of embroidery!) and some half-hearted attempts at cross stitch as a child. I went into this project pretty blind, with a ridiculous amount of confidence for someone who didn’t even know what ‘split stitch’ was, but… it actually worked?!

My sister-in-law is a big fan of Wallace and Gromit and, last Christmas, a new instalment of the franchise was released: Vengeance Most Fowl, in which the iconic villain, Feathers McGraw, resurfaced and caused general havoc (it was great fun). I began daydreaming about embroidering a version of the iconic Feathers McGraw ‘Wanted’ poster as a Christmas present for her, despite the fact that a) I had about 5000 other festive projects on the go and b) I did not, as previously highlighted, have the requisite embroidery skills to actually pull it off. While I didn’t get around to this in time for Christmas, I was determined to (at least!) attempt it ahead of her birthday, which was earlier this month. So, attempt it I did and… it turned out PERFECTLY. What a fun turn of events!

I’m not usually one for going into a project blind: I typically like to research and prepare and consider and practice lots before I begin anything. This time around, though, I just went for it: I researched each technique as and when I needed it, but otherwise I just got stuck in and hoped for the best. And somehow, miraculously, it worked out! I am truly SO proud of this little project, so I thought I’d share the whole process with you today, including the thread colours I chose, the stitches I used for each section and the general techniques I used throughout.

So, if you want to make your own Feathers McGraw Embroidery (and who wouldn’t?), you’re in the right place! If you don’t, but you’re ready to witness me stitching way out of my depth, I hope you enjoy this post anyway!

Materials

To make this Feathers McGraw Embroidery, I used the following materials/equipment:

Embroidery hoop.

Any size hoop would work for this, but I opted for a 15cm one here, which was a nice, medium-ish size.

Calico fabric.

I had some leftover calico lying around from another project, so I just used that. I wanted something with a slight beige/natural colour, to mimic a slightly aged ‘wanted’ poster, so this was perfect.

My calico was quite thin, so I found that a single layer of it was a little too see-through for what I wanted. I ended up just cutting two pieces and layering them together in the hoop, treating them as one piece and stitching through both as I worked. This meant that you couldn’t see the back of my stitching through the fabric from the front, so I was happy!

iPad.

I used my iPad to easily trace my design onto the fabric (more details on this later!). If you don’t have an iPad though, there are lots of other ways to do this & plenty of online tutorials for it, so don’t worry!

Clover water-soluble fabric marking pen, fine.

Using a water-soluble fabric pen to trace out your design is a great idea, because you can just wash it away once you’ve finished stitching and be left with a super neat-looking piece. I chose a fine tipped pen for this because some of the design details were quite small/intricate.

Pliers.

I find a pair of pliers incredibly helpful for tightening embroidery hoops up: they need to be super securely tightened to keep the fabric in place and the pliers make this much easier.

Embroidery needle.

I’ll be honest: I have no idea about the different types/variations of needles: I just used the one I got in my Tales From the Hoop kit! It’s a very fine needle with a sharp point (which I figure are the two main necessities for embroidery).

Magnetic needle minder.

This isn’t strictly necessary, but it is SO helpful for keeping track of your needle. You just attach it the needle minder to your work using the magnet and then you can snap your needle to it super easily any time you want to put the project down/cut new thread.

Scissors.

This is just for cutting threads + fabrics, but it’s a necessary piece of equipment nonetheless!

DMC cotton stranded thread (shades: Grey 0413, Grey 0317, BLANC, Orange 3827, Beige 3856, Brown 3722 and Pink 0761).

I chose my thread colours online, so they aren’t necessarily perfect matches to the original poster, but they’re pretty close! The two grey shades are a bit more similar to each other than I intended though: I would have liked a little more contrast between them to really highlight the shadows on the body.

Felt.

I decided to back my embroidery hoop with a circle of felt, just because I think it looks super neat (and hides a multitude of sins). I had some leftover red wool felt from the Starry Garland I made a couple of years ago, so I just used that.

Preparing the Fabric

As I mentioned, I used two squares of plain, calico fabric (each square was about 20x20cm: just a bit larger than my hoop), one stacked on top of the other, to make the base more opaque.

I ironed both pieces of fabric individually, taking my time and making sure they were completely smooth. This is an unfortunate (for those of us who do not enjoy ironing, anyway), but necessary, step for the smoothest, most even-looking results later on!

Tracing the Design

When tracing the design, I worked with just one of the fabric layers: the layer that will be on top when the fabric goes into the hoop. Here, the relative translucency of my fabric actually worked out for me, as it made it much easier to trace from the iPad! If you’re using a thicker fabric, you might need to use a different tracing method.

To trace a design from an iPad, turn your brightness up all the way (this helps to make the screen visible through the fabric)), then follow the steps below to activate ‘Guided Access‘ on your tablet:

Go to Settings.
Go to Accessibility.
Go to Guided Access (under General).
Toggle Guided Access on.

Using Guided Access prevents the image on your screen from moving around as you trace it, which is super important! Once you’ve set it up, you just need to press the lock button on your tablet 3 times in quick succession to trigger it (it will ask you to set a passcode, but once you’ve done that, you’ll be ready to go!).

Bring up the image you want to trace (in this case, the Feathers McGraw ‘Wanted’ poster: I used this image from Amazon).

Set your empty hoop on top of your iPad screen to give yourself a clearer idea of the required size. Zoom in/out until you are happy with the size of the design, then turn on Guided Access by triple-clicking the lock button.

Lay your fabric on top of your iPad screen, then use the water-soluble fabric marker to trace it. I found it helpful to roughly map out the different patches of colour on Feathers McGraw’s body, beak and hat, as well as indicating the precise location of the white ‘glint’ in his eyes.

I found that the lettering was the trickiest bit to trace— I went a bit wonky with it and had to correct it later on! With more complex lettering with serifs etc. (like the one in this poster) I found it easier to just trace the letters in block capitals and add the serifs later while embroidering, using the original image as a reference guide.

Preparing the Hoop

Once you’re happy with your design, you can place the fabric into the hoop. If you’re using two pieces of fabric sandwiched together like me, make sure to put both into the hoop at this stage.

Unscrew the mechanism at the top of the hoop so that you can separate the inner hoop from the outer hoop.

Lay your prepared fabric (with the marked piece on top) over the inner hoop, making sure the design is centred.

Press the outer hoop on top of this, pushing it down, so that the fabric is sandwiched between the two hoops.

Tighten the mechanism at the top back up (I like to use pliers to make sure it is super tight and secure at this point), gently pulling the fabric taut all the way around the circumference of the hoop as you do so. You want the fabric to be completely smooth and taut all across the surface of the hoop, so just take it slow and do it little by little, tightening and pulling as needed.

With that done, you’re ready to start stitching!

Stitching Process

I started stitching the mugshot of Feathers, beginning with what felt like the least the challenging element (the beak) and working my way up to what felt like the most challenging element (the eyes). After that, I worked the rectangular outline around the mugshot, then the largest ‘WANTED’ letters at the top, then the smaller text above that, then, finally, the text at the bottom.

Throughout the embroidery itself, I used 1 strand of thread everywhere except for the white glint in his eyes and the outline around the mugshot, where I used 2 strands. This might feel a bit tedious, but I found it actually gave me more control and gave a more seamless, neat look, so it was worth it!

Feathers McGraw

For the image of Feathers McGraw, I used a combination of split stitch, long & short stitch and French knots.

For the main blocks of colour, I focused on one section of the image at a time. I worked a split stitch outline in either the lightest/most prominent (around the edges) colour, then filled in the shape with long & short stitch, working over the split stitch outline for a smooth finish.

Beak

For the beak, I used the shades Orange 3827 and Beige 3856. I worked the split stitch outline in Orange 3827, then filled in the outer portion of the beak all the way around with that same thread. I then used the lighter Beige 3856 to fill in the centre of the beak.

Glove-Hat

For the glove-hat, I used the shades Brown 3722, Pink 0761 and BLANC. I worked the split stitch outline in Pink 0761, then added the darker shadows to the left-hand side using Brown 3722. I filled in the majority of the hat with Pink 0761, then added the white highlight to the right-hand side using BLANC.

Tummy

For the tummy, I used the shade BLANC for both the outline and the long & short stitches.

Body

For the body, I used the shades BLANC, Grey 0413 and Grey 0317. I used BLANC for the outline, then worked from the outside in, so the white sections first, then the paler grey section, then the darkest grey section, making sure to leave space for the eyes.

Eyes

For the eyes, I used the shades BLANC and Grey 0413. I started by working a single French knot using two strands of BLANC in each eye, placing it slightly up and to the right of the centre of each one. I then worked a series of smaller French knots, using one strand of Grey 0413, to fill in the remaining eye space in a circle formation.

Outline

After I had filled in all of the colour blocks, I used a single thread of Grey 0413 and split stitch to work an outline all the way around each section of the image, following where the lines are in the original poster.

Mugshot Outline

For the outline of the mugshot, I used two strands of Grey 0413 and a whipped back stitch to create a thicker, smoother line.

Lettering

Truthfully, the lettering was the part of this project that I was most worried about, just because it’s not something I’ve ever stitched before AND the font was relatively complex (it features a lot of serifs/varied thicknesses). It did end up being the trickiest, most time-consuming part, but I think it turned out really well!

For all of the lettering throughout this project, I used one strand of Grey 0413. I used a combination of split stitch, back stitch, whipped back stitch, long & short stitch and a lone French knot to achieve the variations in the fonts.

‘WANTED’

The ‘WANTED’ lettering above the mugshot is the largest in the design. I went letter-by-letter, stitching the outlines with split stitch, then filling in the thicker sections with long & short stitch. I’d gone a bit wonky when tracing the text here, so I adjusted each letter when stitching so that they were more evenly lined up.

‘POLICE NOTICE’

From the largest to the smallest, the ‘POLICE NOTICE’ text at the top of the design is SO TINY and CUTE, but it required a lot of concentration to stitch! I used a simple back stitch for this section because it was so tiny, so I didn’t think the slight gaps between the stitches would matter too much.

‘HAVE YOU SEEN THIS CHICKEN? £1000 REWARD’

This was the largest block of text in the design (and definitely took the longest!). I used a regular back stitch to stitch all of the letters/serifs, then turned that stitching into a whipped back stitch in the areas of the letters that appear a little thicker on the poster.

For the dot at the base of the question mark, I used a single French knot.

I did go a little askew with the bottom line of text (I made my ‘W’ too wide and it threw off the centralisation!), but what can you do? Live and learn, I guess!

Removing the Pen Markings

With all of the stitching done, it was time to remove the remnants of the pen markings. To do this, I removed the fabric from the hoop and filled a basin with room temperature water, along with some dish soap (and a colour catcher, because I wasn’t taking any chances!).

I submerged the embroidered fabric in the basin, then left it to soak for 30 minutes or so.

After 30 minutes, the pen markings had completely disappeared! I removed the fabric from the water and pressed it between two E-cloths to remove as much of the water as possible (without scrunching/creasing the fabric), then left it to air dry on a drying rack in a warm place.

Gathering the Fabric

Once the fabric was completely dry, I put it back into the hoop in the exact same way as before, making sure the design was centred and tightening the mechanism as much as possible.

Once I was happy with the position/tautness of the fabric, I trimmed the excess fabric into a rough circle, about 5cm larger than the hoop itself.

I then used a rough running stitch to gather up the excess fabric at the back of the hoop. I started by using a full piece of embroidery floss, working the stitches about halfway in from the edge of the fabric. However, I found that this didn’t quite pull the fabric in enough, so I ended up adding another, smaller line of running stitches, closer to the edge and using only 2 strands of thread to gather it in a little more, which helped!

To keep the gathering in place, you need to tie off the threads super tightly and securely, otherwise it might come loose.

Adding the Felt Backing

You can leave the hoop as it is, with the gathered back, but I’m not crazy about how it looks (especially with my chaotic stitching), so I decided to add a felt backing.

Because this was a last minute addition, I had already secured my project into its hoop and couldn’t trace the inner hoop onto the felt, so I just measured it and used a good ol’ fashioned compass to mark the right-sized circle onto my felt instead, which I then cut out carefully.

I laid the felt circle on top of the back of the hoop, making sure it was centred, then used 2 threads of Brown 3722 to work a simple blanket stitch all the way around the circle to secure it.

Final Thoughts

I am SO PROUD of how this project turned out! It’s exactly how I imagined it would be in my head, which is super rare (and surprising, given how little experience I had in the embroidery department!). I feel very powerful now, like I could embroider anything I put my mind to! Thought maybe that is a dangerous state of mind…

One of the things I like most about this project is that it really is just an amalgamation of relatively simple stitches, but they come together to make something that actually looks quite professional! For reference, I used the following stitches in this project: split stitch, back stitch, whipped back stitch, French knots, long & short stitch and blanket stitch (so really, nothing too crazy!)

I am a little disappointed by the off-centre bottom line of text, but all homemade things have a few quirks and quibbles, so I guess that’s just the way the cookie crumbles! I’m very happy with the image of Feathers himself and, actually, by how nice the blanket stitches look on the felt back! I’m very glad I made the decision to add that backing— I think it really finishes it off nicely.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my foray into the world of embroidery: I definitely enjoyed the process! If you do make your own Feathers McGraw embroidery, I’d love to see/hear about it!

Gemma

xxx

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