♥ African Violets - Picot stitch tutorial, step by step

African violets are adorable plants with their captivating and colorful blossoms. 

In this delightful tutorial, I will teach you how to easily create these beautiful flowers using my own invented 3D embroidery technique.

 With this fun tutorial, you'll be able to add joy to your embroidery projects and create these lovely flowers with ease. 

3D embroidery is not always challenging, and the simple trick I've developed will feel like child's play, especially for those familiar with the picot stitch technique.

For this enjoyable journey, you will need the following materials:

• Green and purple embroidery threads suitable for your stitching
• Thick and blunt-tipped tapestry needle
• A small piece of eva foam paper (foam paper)

-Eva foam paper is a soft and pliable material, making it easy to shape. In this project, we'll use the eva foam paper as our weaving loom.

Now, get your materials ready and let's begin the step-by-step guide to bring these cute flowers to life. Let's get started! If you're ready, let's move on to the next step and begin adding a new dimension to your embroidery projects with this fun tutorial!

"First, I think I should outline what I'm going to do.

 Picot stitches create a triangular woven form with a wide base attached to the fabric, while the tip remains free. These stitches are often used to mimic flowers with pointed petals in 3D embroidery projects. 

However, my method allows for creating woven petals entirely independent of the fabric. We will make woven petals that can be sewn onto fabric using a needle and thread."

EVA sponge foam paper is a material that can be easily trimmed into any desired shape with scissors, thanks to its soft and spongy texture. 

I cut a piece of EVA foam paper into a neat rectangle measuring 5 cm x 10 cm. 

 Now, I will create a small weaving loom from the EVA paper. For this, I'll make notches along the bottom edge of the EVA foam paper using scissors.

 These notches will serve as anchors to hold the picot stitch warp threads. I repeat the process of cutting straight lines with approximately 3 mm intervals along the bottom edge.  Our loom is ready! Leaving a tail of about 7 cm at one end of the thread, I secure it at the back of the loom.

 Then, I pass the thread through the first notch, bringing it to the front of the EVA paper. I place a pin where the pointed end of the picot will be and firmly insert it into the EVA paper. 

This pin will act as an anchor for the woven picot.

 I pass the thread around the back of the pin's head, directing it downwards. 

I insert the thread through the 3rd notch of the EVA foam paper and bring it to the back.

After that, I pass the thread from the back through the 2nd notch to the front, and then I wrap it around the back of the pin's head once again.

 Now, my warp threads are in place, just as they appear when working on fabric. My picot is ready for weaving. 

I thread my needle with the end of the thread and start weaving by passing it under the center warp thread first. 

I continue weaving from right to left, then left to right, until I reach the base of the picot.

Make sure not to miss this part : When I reach the base of my weaving, I secure the thread firmly by making a stitch that is similar to a single blanket stitch onto the 3rd warp thread of the picot (this stitch will hold the thread in place). Now, I move on to my second picot.

 I place a pin on the top part of the EVA foam paper, where the pointed end of the 2nd picot will align. 

This pin will be on the same line as the 4th notch, and it will be positioned at the same height as the pointed end of the first picot.

Next, I wrap the working thread around the back of the pin, directing it downwards.

 I pass the thread from the 5th notch of the EVA foam paper to the back and immediately bring it to the front from the 4th notch. Moving upward, I wrap the thread around the back of the pin once again. 

There you have it, the warp for my second picot is ready. 

Now, you have seen the weaving technique for attaching the petals together, and I hope you have understood it well. 

There you have it, the warp for my second picot is ready. Now, I can start weaving towards the base of the picot.

Now, you have seen the weaving technique for attaching the petals together, and I hope you have understood it well.

 You can now weave as many picots side by side as your thread length allows."

As my African violet flowers consist of 5 petals, I need to create 5 picots.

 I have completed weaving 5 picots side by side, attached to each other from their bases. You can see the pictures. 

Now, I carefully remove the picot chain from the notches on the EVA foam paper.  You can notice half loops at the base of each petal, where they were attached to the notches.

 These loops are actually the unwoven parts of the picot's warp threads.

 

Now, I take one of the leftover threads from both sides of the picot chain and thread it onto my needle.

 Starting from the loop on the opposite end, I pass the needle through each loop one by one, in sequence.

 Then, I pull my needle through all the loops, securing them together. I gently tighten the thread.

  My picot stitch petals are now coming together in a circular form, creating a 5-petaled flower. 

How beautiful and easy it turned out, right?

I'm thrilled with my beautiful flowers, and now I move on to embroidering the stems using the stem stitch.

 Since the stems won't be prominently visible under the flowers and leaves, I decide that 5-6 stems will be just right.  With precision, I attach the lovely purple flowers at the ends of each stem, and I accentuate their centers with sunny yellow thread, forming charming French knots. 

 For the leaves, I use the same EVA foam paper technique as the petals, creating them with a single picot stitch.

 I sew the leaves onto the fabric, taking care to keep the back of the embroidery neat. 

 Now, with a few finishing touches, my embroidery project is complete, and I'm delighted with the final result.

 In the finished design you saw at the beginning of the tutorial, my violets are placed inside a pot on a lush green grassy surface, resembling a charming garden. 

The pot is a special handmade object made from cold porcelain clay, designed specifically for embroidery projects. It acts like a button, but the holes are discreetly positioned at the four corners.  

I enjoy incorporating the object into the embroidery by sewing through these holes, integrating it seamlessly into the design. For instance, I stitched some of the vertical short stitches that create the grass through these holes. Now, I focus on the ground where the pot will rest and work on the grassy surface. .

 Using a coffee-colored thread, I create short horizontal stem stitches in close intervals. As I move downwards, the rows become sparser, giving the impression of a garden corner that gradually fades out along the rounded edges of the hoop.  

These stitches bring life to the earthy ground. To add some depth, I use shades of green thread for long vertical stitches, simulating various shades of grass.

 Since my design is simple, I keep the composition subtle.I aim to capture the essence of the grassy area without delving into too many details.

 I fill the garden with tiny French knots to represent small leafy plants, placing them on some of the vertical stitches

That's it! We've completed a simple and cheerful design. I find the dimensionality of the embroidery, with flowers and leaves rising from the fabric, truly exciting. I often brainstorm and develop simple techniques for 3D embroidery projects. Sometimes, while trying to create a completely different flower, I may not succeed, but in the process, I discover that I can create a beautiful flower using a simple technique, just like the one demonstrated in this tutorial.

Have you seen my other tutorials? I also highly recommend checking out my YouTube channel, where I share numerous fun 3D embroidery tutorials with lively background music. I hope you'll visit and take a look at my videos sometime.

I'll end the journal entry here for today. Stay happy, and I hope you haven't seen this tutorial as a waste of time; rather, I hope it has inspired you for your embroidery projects.

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