Passport to England

The wonderful thing about hand embroidery – or any craft, I guess, but I will speak of what I know – is the potential to give someone something one-of-a-kind, personal and meaningful. Not to pat myself on the back, but I’m pretty proud of myself on this one:

This is on a bib, and was given to a friend for her baby shower last Sunday. I embroidered his name on the front. She’s an anglophile, having lived in England and feeling a deep connection to it. The shower was a British Tea Party theme. So I couldn’t help myself – I had to stitch a double-decker bus with Big Ben on the background.

I found a coloring page on the ‘net (don’t remember where, sorry), and used an iron transfer pencil to put the pattern on some tissue paper. Then, placing a sheet between the paper and the iron, I ironed the pattern on. Backstitched around it (which was pretty cute just on its own); filled in the bus, statue and Big Ben with satin stitch; chain stitch on the background and “street” under the bus; split stitch for baby Britain’s name.

If she enjoys it half as much as I did making it, then I did well.