13 Embroidery Portraits Made From Old Family Photos, Like Grandma’s Whole Farm in One Hoop

“I embroidered this handsome fella’s portrait”

He took 50-60 hours and more than 40 colors of floss

I’ve written code that can do a lot of it for me (programming is my day job) but I found I like the step of doing it manually—it gets me familiar with the image and cements a plan in my head before i start

“Wedding Photo”

It was really cool getting to embroider this as a post-wedding wedding gift for one of my good friends! (Lol just don’t look too closely at the hands)

I usually use two strands for the skin and use a mix of short and long stitch and split stitch. Then I used one strand to blend areas where different shades met. I used mostly 1 strand at a time on her face. It was around 5 shades for each person. I found it helpful to first find a shade that most matched their overall skin tone and then found two slightly lighter shades and two slightly darker shades for highlights and shadows!

“Stitched my great-grandparents”

I tend to start with the lightest tone and then work through the shades to the darkest ones so you aren’t accidentally pulling dark thread up into lighter ones if that makes sense

“I embroidered a picture of my grandma’s farm to gift her”

Second pic is the hoop next to the photo I used for reference.

I’m very new to this, so there are a lot of little mistakes I wish I could fix! I would do a lot of things differently if I attempted this again, but definitely learned a lot from this project (like how to do colonial knots and how to cope with picking something way too ambitious for my first real project).

I was trying to come up with new ways to do texture. I did it like a split stitch with two strands, but instead of continuing in a straight line, I moved in random angles. Some of the stitches overlap bottom layers, so it looks more 3D and complex than it actually was.

“i made this as a wedding present for the couple pictured based on one of their engagement photos. the plaid shirts were fun but took forever!”

it was complete chaos while i was trying to figure out how to do them. at one point i was all up in my husband’s business studying the pattern on the plaid shirt he was actively wearing and he asked “are you okay?” and i was like “NOPE”

not any particular stitch, just a bunch of densely packed basic stitches but instead of pulling the floss flat i left small loops on top of the fabric to simulate the curls.

i didn’t time it, but i worked on it a little bit each day for about seven weeks.

“When you keep forgetting to take family photos so you just embroider one!”

Silly little project as my first ever completed!

When baby goes to bed then the embroidery comes out to party!!

“Every year some friends of mine travel internationally and then I stitch their favorite family photo from the trip — this year was Italy”

I’ve only been making them for three years so far! So Italy, Ireland, and then this was the first year: Iceland. They actually have blank faces! I know lots of people find faceless portraits weird/creepy, but I guarantee if I attempted facial features on this small of a scale they would be 100% creepier 😂

I’m pretty terrible about keeping track of my stitching time, but I would estimate somewhere around 40 hours total? I did it over a period of several months, though, with lots of other smaller projects in between.

It’s those little details that make portraits enjoyable for me — the slightly higher side of the pants, his little hand holding onto Mom’s knee, my friend’s heel popped up slightly in her sandal. I always try my best to translate those small mannerisms into each piece!

“My grandmother’s senior portrait!”

It actually has 11 colors total. :)

I’ve been working on it for a couple of years but it’s because I’ve had to take very long breaks! I plan to finish it within the next couple of months. :)

“First ever attempt at a portrait”

First try at a portrait, and thread painting in general. I learned a lot along the way and I’m so relieved she didn’t turn out derpy af. I have two more cats to do and I’m excited to continue practicing

I used clear jewelry cord for the whiskers. They’re super glued in place on the back and are surprisingly sturdy

My super precise way of getting a pattern is to put the picture on my computer monitor and tape a piece of paper over it lol. I pencil sketched the outline and major markers like the eyes, nose, and mouth. I also made markings where the fur pattern changed.

Then I put the sketch on my light box and trace the pattern.

“12” hand embroidery of my parents’ house"

All by hand. I sketched the pattern on graph paper by estimating from a picture. Then traced onto the fabric.

100 hours or more

“Embroidered the house my grandpa built for my grandma.”

It is a back stitch! My stitch length was suuuuper tiny in spots.

I actually had to take a couple breaks from this one.. between trying to get the parallel lines and the tiny back-stitching it was a lot compared to other things I’ve done. Had to step back from it to make sure I wasn’t rushing it. 😂

“I embroidered my family portrait”

“My first embroidery of my husband’s grandparent’s farm. His favorite place in the world”

I started by drawing the buildings with a pencil, then a rough sketch of how I wanted to do the perimeter plants and trails :)

He really enjoyed this gift 😊He hung it up by the front door and I’ve caught him stopping to look at it all day ☺️