Kiriki Press Embroidered Doll

I was thrilled to pay a visit to the Renegade Craft Fair a few weeks ago in San Francisco. I so craved fairs like these during my four year stay in Hong Kong and this event could not have been more perfectly timed for my return back to the States.

I literally felt like I was in heaven, combing through booths filled with beautiful jewelry, totes, and artwork I wanted to stuff my purse with but had to painfully refrain as I am on bit of a spending freeze these days. My friend was debating on these darling DIY embroidered doll kits by Michelle Galletta of Kiriki Press and somehow managed to tempt me to get one as well. I have been wanting to learn how to embroider for awhile now and thought this would be the perfect starter's kit. After going back and forth between the bear and fox, I settled on the latter. I guess I am not the only who thought the fox was cutest of the bunch as it is Kiriki Press' No. 1 bestseller.

The kit includes everything you need: 

• screen printed pattern on unbleached cotton

• stitch booklet and instruction sheet

• 6" embroidery hoop

• scissors

• No. 10 and No. 9 needles

• DMC embroidery floss

• stuffing

Although I love the process of hunting for and gathering materials for a project (this makes me sound like a prehistoric cave person), sometimes it is just nice to have everything you need provided for so you can really focus on the creating.

I think I would have bought the kit solely for this charming pair of bird scissors. Ahhh!

I carefully secured the pattern into the hoop then gently pulling the fabric taut until the fabric had a nice firm bounce when I flicked it with my fingers.

Time to sew!

I got to try my hand at several different types of stitches, all beautifully explained in the instructional booklet. For the more difficult ones, including the chain stitch, satin stitch, and the French knot stitch, I turned to my good-old Youtube to make sure I was doing them correctly.

Once the embroidery was completed, I carefully matched the printed side of the backing piece to the finished embroidery and sewed around the outline of the fox. I made sure to leave a 1.25" gap at the bottom so I could reverse it inside-out.

Snip, snip, snip!

Now turning the pattern inside out was the most nerve-racking part as I was afraid I would distort the embroidery in the process. Slowly but surely, I managed to pull the front-facing fabric out and reveal my new furry friend, embroidery unscathed.

He seems to be a bit malnourished right? Time to plump him right up with some eco-friendly stuffing. How healthy!

Last step! I finished him up with the last bit of sewing with a ladder stitch.

All done

What a sweet sweet little project that gave me my first taste of hand-embroidery. Practice definitely makes perfect. I am tempted to create a friend for my fox. We shall see. *wink*

This fox kit and kits for all the other critters are available on Kiriki Press' Etsy page.