I made this iron-on patch for @Rlynn in the small box of color swap. It’s my 2nd embroidery piece ever, so of course I said go big or go home and went with stumpwork. I had a book I got from a vintage shop that showed how to make separate pieces like wings and attach them. I chose a clip art picture to loosely base mine off, and just filled in with greens and shades of teal. I took liberties with the coloring of luna moths, yes. The theme was teal. I think it works just fine 
It even met a friend!
Some progress pictures:
After tracing my pattern and ironing it onto the fabric, my first step was couching the wire. The left wing shows how I shaped it into place with tiny stitches, and the right one shows it all covered.
Then I did the dividing lines in back stitch, and did the spots. There’s metallic thread in the spots. I don’t like working with metallic thread! I filled in between the lines with the technique called “long and short stitches,” but mine are more like “short and shorter stitches.” I tried to fade the colors into each other.
Then my son asked me to go fishing, and if your teenage son asks to hang out with you, consider it a privilege! He found me a flat spot for my chair and we spent a couple hours at the pond.
One wing done
Apparently I didn’t take any photos between the first and second wings being done.
Starting the body
A rare pic of me taken by my youngest.
Body progress
Body finished up to the connecting point
I trimmed all the threads and glued the heck out of the back of the wings with trusty old Aileen’s
Then I cut them out. I kind of love how a single wing looks. This could be awesome earrings, except for how ugly the back is.
I stabbed the wires into the body
I cut a tiny circle of felt to add depth to the main body.
Embroidered over that with satin stitch and then connected the maroon edges over top.
Aileen’s again. I tried to cover the wires with some of the thread ends to really lock them in.
I didn’t photograph this step but this is where I ironed on the backing.
Then I cut the base part out.
Here’s what the backing looks like.
So only that base part has the iron-on film. When it’s attached somewhere, the wings will be able to lift a bit off the surface.
After finishing this, I invested in a better pair of tiny scissors. I was snipping more of the white fabric off edges every time I looked at the thing. It’s tricky because you want to cut as close to the threads as possible without cutting any of them. One solution I found by a Youtuber was to save the outer edging for last. I think that would make a nice “patch” look, but not what I was going for here. Plus the thought of shoving a needle through that plastic backing that many times made me want to cry.
Thanks for looking! Hope you like it!
