Monarch Butterfly on Tulle
This was the second embroidery project I stitched on tulle, the subject being a monarch butterfly. The design was heavily inspired by the Monarch Butterfly within the game Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and is meant to be a simplified, unrealistic representation of the butterfly instead of appearing as one you would see in real life. This project was created in February 2021 and used more materials than my other projects due to the tulle requiring different techniques; the tulle, printable stabilizer paper was used to create a base for me to stitch upon, and tissue paper. A sandwiching effect was utilized by placing a cutout outline of the butterfly outline (stabilizer) on top of the tulle and tissue paper on the back to prevent stickiness as the holes in the tulle allow the sticky side of the stabilizer to show underneath.
To start off the project, I used my iPad to design the butterfly outline and choose the matching thread colors to be as close to the in-game icon as possible. Below is the final design I used as a guide, including the thread colors, stitching direction, and where the wing colors should blend together. Stitching on tulle is much different from stitching on regular fabric so the stabilizer cutout is what is holding this project together.
The stitches used were the same as my other projects except for one stitch that can be seen in the photo on the right along the edge. Instead of the thread coming up from underneath the fabric, creating the stitch, and then going back through the fabric, the thread comes up underneath the stabilizer and wraps around the edge of the wing, going through a hole in the tulle to wrap around the entire outer edge.
The first part of completing this project was the base outlines in brown and black which were completed in the images above. I start filling in the orange and yellow wings. I separated this project into 2 parts because the techniques used are different.
