I'm quite sure you have enough to do between now & Christmas. But if you're looking for a neat finishing touch to your gift wrap, this is super simple and can be done while watching Nightmare Before Christmas, or whatever other festive film tickles your fancy.
Things you'll need are: gift tag, plain paper, needle (or two), embroidery floss, pen and (not pictured) paper clips.
Draw round your gift tag on to the plain paper so you know your design will fit on the tag.
Draw your design, remember you'll be stitching it so don't make it too complicated or intricate.
Cut out the design and secure it to the tag.
Using a needle (I used a bigger one for this step than the one I used for the stitching) poke holes all the way through the paper and tag, place the holes where you want your stitches to go through, remember that on curved lines you will need more stitches to keep the shape than you will on straight lines.
Keep poking.
Remove the paper, this would make a cute gift tag without stitching, wouldn't it?
Pick your embroidery floss, split it down to how many strands you want. The nature of the gift tag means it has less give than fabric so you'll definitely want to split the floss. Knot it and one end, thread your needle with the other and start stitching.
If you've never embroidered before, back stitch is easy peasy. From behind bring your needle through the first hole, then back down the second. Bring it up through the third hole and then back down through the second. Every stitch you make now will come back to join up with the previous stitch.
This creates a continuous line of stitches with no gaps, perfect for lettering!
Keep stitching! I did the berries using big french knots (see Sublime Stitching for french knot instructions).
Voila!
When it comes to covering your stitching on the back, I advise card with pretty tape round the edges, paper would likely let the knots and things bulge through. Or you can glue another gift tag to the back.
I hope you're having a lovely festive season, xo K
