Guest Post by Cassie Stephens

Today I'm thrilled to say we have a guest post from the lovely Cassie Stephens, my first ever guest blogger! If you don't already own one of her beautiful belts you really should - I own three of them and adore them all! She has a wonderful blog full of gorgeous pictures and beautiful creative ideas, so I'm very happy to have her here today. Take it away Cassie!

Okay, if you couldn’t tell already, I’m a bit of an extremist. I mean, if you’re gonna go floral, you might as well paint ‘em on your walls, stick ‘em in your hair and embroider them onto your dress, right?

Greetings from Nashville, Tennesse! I’m so excited to be a guest on The Little Red Squirrel and chatting with all of Katie’s lovely readers today.

My name is Cassie and I am an elementary art teacher, crafter and lover of all things vintage-y. I have been so inspired by the idea behind Katie’s blog of either creating one’s own clothing or buying vintage. It’s such a thrill to see her latest knitted garment or handmade dress. She doesn’t know this, but her adorable circle skirt with the embroidered vintage gals was the reason I picked up my embroidery hoop, needle and thread again. So I thought it appropriate to share with you my latest embroidered venture!

Just a little close-up. I’ve had this very comfortable yet pretty boring dress in my closet for years. It seemed like the perfect blank canvas for some embellishment.

Embroidery has a special place in my crafty heart. During my summers, I often stayed with my very artistic grandmother. We would spend time on her porch with hoops on our laps and glasses of iced tea at our feet. I loved the idea of creating a picture with a needle and thread. Her favorite motifs were Native Americans while I favored teddy bears and balloons. I’ve since moved on to rainbows and unicorns. I’ve grown up a lot since then.

Please pardon the cat hair. I have an oversized kitty that sees my arm as her permanent resting place which makes embroidery, brushing one’s teeth, eating and typing extremely difficult.

Interested in adding a little embroidery pizzazz to your look? It’s so easy and fun. All you need are the following:

    Cotton dress (this dress is both cotton and jersey knit. I embroidered on the cotton only)
Embroidery floss
Adjustable hoop
Embroidery needles
White pencil

Now, before I explain this, let me just say that yes, I am a teacher, so I can kinda-sorta explain things in an semi-coherent manner. However, I’m a little scattered and my embroidery methods are not traditional. So, if you’re cool with that, here you go:

1.   If you are working with dark fabric, you can trace your design. I had an idea in mind, so I drew directly onto the fabric with a white pencil.

2.  Always keep your fabric stretched taunt to insure a flat finish. No one likes weird bulges.

3.   Cut your embroidery thread to a 9” length and separate into two threads from the six.

4.  Tie a knot to the end of the thread and begin to trace over your pencil lines with the thread.

It really is that easy! I tried my hand at some floral stitches for this particular project. There are countless places on the internet that can easily walk you through these types of stitches. My favorite part is coming up with my own design and creating something that is truly unique.

I do hope you’ve enjoyed this little DIY as much as I have sharing it with you. Thank you, Katie, for the chance to have a chat with your sweet readers. If ya’ll would like, feel free to drop by my little blog at cassiestephens.blogspot.com. Thanks for reading!