Many of you have expressed interest in learning how to embroider little lambs like this little cutie
Chatongris’ Emma Tunic
Embroidering this little lambie is actually pretty simple.
You will need:
- to know how to make a french knot, chain stitch, and how to duplicate stitch.
- a tapestry needle
- a fluffy yarn for the wool (preferably one that is fuzzy and blooms, I like single ply merino personally)
- a plied yarn for the face, ears, and legs (I prefer plied superwash merino)
- a plied yarn for the eyes (plied superwash is your friend)
- the item you are embroidering
For this particular embroidery, use yarn that is the same weight or slightly heavier so the the duplicate stitch adequately covers the yarn underneath. Ok, do you have everything? Good.
First figure out where you would like your embroidery to go. I tend to always gravitate towards the bottom right or left corners, but that’s just me. This embroidery is actually pretty small since the body is only 5-6 sts wide, and the whole lamb is just 13-14 sts tall. You can lay out your fabric and place it, OR you can just eyeball it. I tend to eye ball. Now that you’ve decided where to place your lamb, thread the plied yarn (for the face, ears, and legs) through the tapestry needle. You will want around a yard or so total.
1. We are going to start with lambie’s head. Using duplicate stitch, stitch 3 “V’s” across from left to right.
Now directly under these from left to right, duplicate stitch an “M” (the right side of a “V”, 1 “V” and then the left side of a “V”.)
Underneath the “M,” do 1 last “V” in the center. Keep this one a little loose and rounded, it makes for a cuter head shape.
2. Now its time to give this little head some ears. I like to start on the left, but you can really start on whatever side you would like. Using chain stitch, do a single chain on either side of the lambie’s head. Placement it up to you. Ears placement is fun since just slight changes in angles and placement set the tone for the lamb’s personality.
3. Go ahead and thread your fluffy and fuzzy yarn onto the needle now. It’s time to add warm up this lamb’s head. Starting from left to right and in between lambie’s ears, add three french knot. Keep these kind of loose. You want the fleece to look springy and fluffy, but not easily unknotted. If you want to do more than 3, go ahead. You can make the fleece as thick and plentiful as you’d like. I just happen to like the look of three french knots on top.
4. Lets move onto the body now. I like to work from left to right and from top to bottom. It makes for a somewhat cleaner backside. On either side of the muzzle (is it called a muzzle on a sheep?) place a single french knot.
From here we will go down 1 row and out 1 stitch on either side and create lines of french knots. Continue this until the body width equals that of the ears. While you do this, make sure that none of the knit fabric below is showing, and as before, you can make this fleece as thick or as thin as you’d like by simply adding more or less french knots.
Now instead of adding 1 stitch to either side, we will subtract 1 from either side. We’ve basically made a fluffy circle.
5. Lambie now needs some legs. Now, IF you want to embroider 4 legs, go for it. I like embroider 3. There’s not quite enough space for that last leg and if you look at it from a technical point of view, based on how I place the legs, the 4th leg is hidden by the front two legs anyways. So with that said, grab your plied yarn and using duplicate stitch create 3 “V’s” under the bottom of the fleece as pictured.
The back leg is to the left, and the front legs will be center and right. Starting with the back leg, using short little lines moving from left to right and bottom to top, create a little leg shape. You can really freeform this and make it as wide or thin as you would like. I love to experiment based on my mood. Today lambie’s legs are going to be a little chunky.
Move on over the the front legs now. If you want chunkier legs, duplicate stitch another “V” under the two existing “V’s.”
Otherwise just free form the legs using short series of lines. Make sure the front legs are slightly longer and more vertical than the back leg.
To finish off the legs, add a french knot at the bottom of each leg to give the illusion of a hoof. When I do thin legs, I often add a french knot on the front legs for knees. It gives a cute wobbly newborn look to the lamb.
6. Time to give Lambie a face. Usually I use a white plied yarn, but you can feel free to use whatever you’d like – beads would probably look fantastic. Eye placement really is totally up to you, as is eye angle and size. I tend to stitch the eyes using a single line stitch on either side of the muzzle between the top and middle set of head stitches. Play around and see where you like your eyes.
7. To finish, weave in all your ends on the back side. For an extra special touch add a button or little embellishment and sit back and enjoy your little lamb!
A copy of Alana Dakos and Hannah Fettig’s new book 
like Jack Sparrow, minus an eye, leg, and hotness factor
