With the release of our first embroidery kit, I thought we could talk a bit about the process behind our new naturally dyed walnut embroidery thread kit for autumn.
We had been playing a bit with cross-stitching years ago but then knitting took up most of our free time. It wasn’t until 2020 (you know, when time got really weird) that I started looking up embroidery again.
I ordered this really cool flowers tattooed lady from VintageMadbyM then Lydia found out about Parafle Embroidery stunning kits . From there, we just got the embroidery ball rolling.
Dyeing the vegan embroidery thread naturally with walnut
Why we selected this naturally dyed vegan embroidery yarn?
We have been working on becoming more sustainable for a while, not just for The Fox and The Knight but also in our personal lives.
When we started thinking about more embroidery, we wanted to offer a range of sustainable products and yarn is of course at the heart of what we do. So we were pretty excited when we learned that our supplier, the awesome people from Chester Wool, had been working on a vegan yarn for embroidery, made 100% from recycled cotton.
It also helped us to realise that we wanted change with our naturally dyed yarn. And we have now decided that we will offer natural dyeing only on vegan yarn so you can get skeins as close to nature as possible.
How we naturally dyed the walnut embroidery thread
For our seasonal embroidery kits, we thought we could add a challenge. Only dye the thread with seasonal plants growing around us. This way, we don’t take more than we need from nature and it made us pay attention to what was growing around us and get excited about the offerings from the different seasons.
I had already dyed linen with plants but never cotton so I was a bit apprehensive at first at how the natural dye will take. If you want saturated colours, the dye always reacts better with wool and it’s something that took me time to accept in my natural dyer’s journey but I’ve come to appreciate paler and more nuanced shades.
The wool I had dyed previously with walnut leaves had this beautiful golden colour. I was expecting this hue colour again but this year, the naturally dyed embroidery thread came closer to a pale brown. I’ve been wondering if this was because of all the ice we got in spring (it caused so much damage). Nonetheless, it’s still very pretty and prove how dyes results can vary from one season to another.
How we created the illustrated content to showcase the walnut tree
The illustrated card for our autumn theme
Lydia has been drawing a lot this past year and it was very exciting to see her grow into her own style.
I love the partners in crime she created with this cat and bird and if you pay attention, you can spot them elsewhere.
The illustration is actually tarot-card size to keep with our autumn witches aesthetic (but then autumn witch aesthetic is all year round with us).
The mini walnut tree zine
We wanted a medium that would allow us to share fun facts and little illustrations without being something huge or expensive.
Then Lydia fell down the zine rabbit hole and that’s when we realized zines were having a revival.
Old School stuff with a modern twist always sounds good to us so we were excited to play with this zine and we are already thinking about the next one!
It’s made to stand on its own with folklore and history facts and these colourful illustrations but if you want to learn more, then I went really in depth in the complimentary blog article about walnut tree dyeing.
All the steps to realize the naturally dyed walnut embroidery
Making the naturally dyed walnut embroidery pattern
Once we had brainstormed and chose to make a naturally dyed walnut embroidery thread kit to celebrate autumn, we studied the different parts of the walnut tree.
Then it was time for Lydia to transform that in a pretty illustration that could be an easy but not boring pattern.
She embroidered several versions until we were satisfied with the stitches chosen for this autumnal embroidery.
Of course, you also get a guide to help you from the first step to the last.
Embroidering with a naturally dyed recycled yarn thread
Our walnut dyed embroidery thread is different from what we were used to when we started embroidering.
Very often, you’ll use embroidery floss like DMC and it’s great to play with thickness in your designs and get a huge range of colours.
But since we are, at heart, yarn dyers, dyeing our own embroidery thread was something very important to us. Coming up with a vegan recycled embroidery thread was also essential.
You’ll find that doing embroidery with this thread is a bit different since it’s thicker but it’s always good to experiment and play with new textures, so we don’t get bored, right?
We are super excited with how our first walnut dyed embroidery thread kit turned out. We can’t wait to show us what we have planned for the winter embroidery kit.
It’s going to be plant-dyed, full of illustrations and cool facts and of course, with a pretty embroidery for your home.
Guess what the next plant will be below or just tell us which plant you would like to see featured!
