Welcome to the ‘Escape to Africa’ Stitch A Long
This Stitch A Long is taking place for 12 weeks on the Stitchdoodles blog – Starting Wednesday 31st May 2023 and finishing on Wednesday 16th August 2023.
Each Wednesday during the SAL – a new tutorial will be published on the blog with all the information you need to complete a part of the Escape to Africa Pattern.
If you are not familiar with a Stitchdoodles SAL and this is all new to you and you would like to join in, please go to this page to get all the information.
Do you need help with any of the stitches?
A Stitch A Long doesn’t provide you with the step by step instructions for the stitches themselves – it is a tutorial on how to stitch the pattern design – colours, techniques and stitches used etc. I will link to a ‘How to’ for certain stitches where I can, if you need further guidance, please take a look here …
How to Teach Yourself Hand Embroidery Stitches
Stitching Week 5.
This week we are stitching the Zebra and then 2 smaller blocks both of which are at the top left corner of the design.
Stitching the Zebra
The Zebra is stitched in #310 with just 1 strand throughout. Even though it takes a lot longer to stitch areas with the 1 strand it helps the stripes remain individual and makes the overall effect more delicate looking.
Start with the stripes on the neck. Split stitch with tiny stitches and keep the stitches close together to keep a strong black effect. If there are any sparse areas showing through then just go over them with an extra small stitch to fill.Keep to the template line edges with your stitches so you can follow the lines as they are thick and then taper off.
Next, stitch the outer edge (top line) of the mane. Go along the length with 1 row of split stitch and then come back and do a second row very close to the first just to make the edge line thicker.
Stitch the Mane Stripes. There are 5 stripes – make sure you identify which lines you are stitching in between for the 5 stripes to appear! Although they look straight, the stripes are natural with a bit of curve to them so rather than do the obvious satin stitch – fill the stripes with split stitched lines small and close together so they don’t look too uniform.
Split stitch the line going down from the tip of the ear, along the bottom edge of the mane and top of the neck. Stitch the opposite line of the neck from under the head and down.
Continue, 1 strand: split stitch the face stripes, the eye – leaving the centre white section and around the outer edge of the muzzle…
Finish the remaining details with split stitch – fill the nose area allowing a tiny dot free for the nostril and the mouth just apparent – too little and it won’t be visible – too much of a gap and it will look like he is smiling! Use the photo above to see how I stitched the mouth lines.
Your Zebra is complete!
Stitching the 2 smaller blocks…
African Pattern…
You will need the following colours… #725, #976, #632, #309. Use 2 strands throughout unless stated otherwise. Using the following photo as a guide, stitch as follows…
- #725: Satin stitch the triangles
- #976: Long stitch around the triangle edges
- #632: Back Stitch the thicker zig zags in between the triangles
- #632: Stem stitch the line above and the line below the triangles
#309: Stem stitch the remaining line just up from the bottom edge and then chain stitch between the red and brown line to fill.
#907: Fishbone stitch the leaves.
Week 5 is complete…
Make sure you show off your colourful stitching in the Happy Stitching FB Group or on Instagram with #stitchdoodlesembroidery.
If you need help along the way just ask in the FB group as there are lots of lovely people stitching along with you who can offer lots of advice and support if needed.
Week 6 is on the blog Wednesday 5th July… See you then!
Happy Stitching!
Stitching the Block outlines…
You can stitch these as you go or leave them all to the end… #422 (3 strands): Back Stitch.