Growing up I was a HUGE fan of Richard Scarry. His bunny and mice illustrations are hard wired into the deep recesses of my brain and I have a tremendous emotional response when I see some of the images that I spent HOURS pouring over as a child. These images capture such a raw innocence for me. Not only are the images themselves so lovely and through a child-like lens but they are also attached to a more primal innocent part of my own brain. It took me right back in time to a little pig tailed girl lying on my belly with my face buried in the pictures.
One of my favorites was I Am a Bunny which features a little bunny named Nicholas. He is dressed in bright red overalls and he describes his activities through all of the seasons. In the summer Nicholas lays in the grass closely observing a cricket. In the spring he stands in a big garden full of bright yellow daffodils and chases butterflies. In the winter he stands in the snow with his hand outstretched catching snowflakes or nestled inside of a hollowed out tree sleeping. It so beautifully distills the simple joys of life through the eyes of a child ) or even an adult for that matter!
I wanted to recreate this sweet little bunny in embroidery!
I decided to choose two images. One was of Nicholas chasing butterflies and other was Nicholas blowing dandelion seeds. Aren’t they just the sweetest? I have memories of doing both those things myself and found them so relatable. I sized them both to about 3 inches at the widest. I think I will make them larger in the future. I find the smaller embroidery much harder on the eyes!
I traced a simple outline onto an unbleached muslin using a mechanical pencil then added a lightweight interfacing the to back of the fabric and placed in a wooden hoop for stitching.
This is a great opportunity to practice your beginner stitches. I used the SATIN STITCH on the overalls and outlined them with BACKSTITCH. I used tiny straight stitches in yellow for the stitches.
I added some light fur around the edge of the tail and paw.
A close up.
I filled in the eye adding a small FRENCH KNOT for the reflection of light then I started adding the dark and light fur on the face.
I am wishing, in retrospect, that I had used more subtle color shifts for the fur in the face but I still think he looks cute. I find it more difficult to find the exact palette I am looking for in thread.
After seeing these imaged side by side, it dawned on me that the background could added in watercolor onto the fabric! If you would like to see a more detailed post on how to paint with watercolor on fabric, you can see my post HERE.
It also made me want to add some more thread to better blend the dark and light fur.
I could really do a hundred of these. They are so incredibly sweet!
If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed the jaunt down memory lane! Not sure what I to do with this guy yet. Would love any ideas you might have!
Maybe you will feel inspired to look up some of your old favorites and reinvent them in thread!
Thanks for stopping by,
Pam