choosing colours for embroidery

This week I have just listed printed panels for my folk kitten pattern. It’s a very simple pattern and perfect for beginners, especially children who want to learn to stitch as the lines are all backstitch with a little bit of more complicated detail on the tummy. The pattern (and panel) come with instructions for the folky red blue, gold and green colour palette that you can see above but this pattern could be stitched in any colours you like.

embroidery on a printed cat

When choosing fabrics I tend to stick to quite small floral prints but you could get away with a well placed medium print too. The print doesn’t have to have lots of colours on it. You could use the colour of the print as a bouncing off point or use tones of that colour as I did in the pink kitten at the end of this post.

I think it would be a lovely thing to let a child rummage through your offcuts of fabric to find the perfect backing piece and then choose threads to match the fabric. It’s a great way to choose colours while being confident that they will work together. It also means that you can match the kitten to the stitcher.

The original kitten was stitched using six colours but you could get away with four or five colours. I would recommend a darker colour for the outline but after that just pick your favourite colours in the fabric you’ve chosen. For the dark blue fabric above I would use the dark blue to outline the kitten then use the purple, red and green for the decoration.

The yellow fabric above has lots of lovely bright colours to choose from. I would probably outline in one of the blues and then use some of the other colours for the decoration.

kitten embroidery panel with print fabric and threads

For the pink kitten above I chose three shades of pink and then added a darker green from the stalks on the fabric print. This uses just four colours but you could stitch the whole kitten in a single colour.

The kittens make lovely tiny gifts for anyone who is a kitten lover. You could pop some lavender inside for a little bit of sleepiness. They would be a fun craft activity for slightly older children in a group or at a party.

Not just for children of course!! This pattern is a lovely beginner pattern for anyone learning to stitch.

This design is quite an easy one to trace so if you would like to make lots of kittens or just want to choose a different fabric to stitch on then I also have the pdf pattern available in my pattern shop

The printed panels are available in my Etsy shop

embroidered girls in a row

This method of choosing colours is also perfect for the lavender girl pattern. Begin by choosing your dress fabric and then choose the colours to match the dress just as though you were choosing your own outfit. As with the kitten I would recommend a darker colour for outlines and keep the lighter colours for stripes and other decorations. Of course you can also choose your hair colour too. You can match it to your own hair or the hair of the person you are gifting it to.

The lavender girl pdf can be found in my pattern shop

I hope you found this short post helpful and you have fun choosing your fabrics and colours

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