Embroidered Hare Collar

So often, I see beautiful children’s clothes with cute peter pan collars and embroideries of adorable little animals, but never once have I seen a collared item of clothing like this for adults. Thankfully, as a nature lover and a needle painter, I’m able to put my head and my hands to work and create the detachable embroidered collar I’ve always dreamed of.

My main inspirations are the embroiderers Emillie Ferris and Chloe Giordano, illustrators Jessica Roux and Katie Scott, and the all-round artistic genius, William Morris. You will probably see quite easily how all of these artists have had an influence on my design.

Everything I used can be found in the picture below!

Begin by printing the design and tracing it onto your fabric using a lightbox. Use a heat-erasable pen for the embroidery lines and a biro or pencil for the collar lines (as we don't want to collar line to be erased at the end).

The widest point of the collar should measure 27.5cm from end to end, so you may need to adjust your printer settings and print the image across two pages to get the right size. Be sure to align the arrow at the centre of the collar on the straight grain of the fabric (you don’t need to trace the arrow, it’s just a guide).

Ensuring there is a good amount of excess fabric around all edges of the collar, cut your fabric to size before mounting it nice and firmly in the hoop.

A quick demonstartion of three key stitches used in this project.

Long and short stitch is the painterly stitch that can be used to make beautiful colour gradients. It's built up in rows of straight stitches of different lengths. The three step-by-step diagrams below show a simplified, tidy version of long and short stitch, but in practice it’s much more free-flowing as demonstrated in the examples of the grassy shape.

The stitches should overlap one another to cover the canvas fully, and should always follow the shape of the object you’re stitching. Although it looks complicated, it’s a very simple stitch once you’ve had a bit of practice. Just look for the gaps, and fill them!

The colour and stitch direction guides are very useful to refer to whilst stitching the design.

You will need one skein of DMC Mouliné Spécial in each of the following shades:

Browns: 938, 801, 839, 9862, 9863, 9864
Pinks: 3777, 3722, 223, 316
Oranges and yellows: 400, 3862, 783, 833
Greens: 935, 3362, 3364, 469
Black 310
White 3865

Beginning with two strands of 839 and split back stitch, fill in the branches shown in fig. 1. Leave the smaller offshoots of each branch until last, and stitch these using one strand of 839 and split back stitch (fig. 2). This gives the branches a more natural look, as the smaller offshoots will be thinner than the main part of each plant. Finally, the tiny orange bud branch at the bottom can be stitched with one strand of 839 in split back stitch.

You should now have the branches of six plants completed!

Switching to two strands of 935, fill in the bottom section of the big pink foxglove stem at the top of the design. Stop just after the split in the stem and switch to one strand of 3362 to finish the top of each stem (tip: use another needle so you don’t need to keep rethreading for each colour). This gives the stem a gradient and a tapered, natural look (fig. 3).

Continue using one strand of 839 and split back stitch to fill in the stems of all the flowers shown in fig. 4.

You should now have completed all of the plant stems!

Now we’ve had plenty of warm-up with split back stitch, we’re going to move onto the clusters of mustard and green flowers directly above and below the Hare. For these French knot sections, I use two strands of thread and wrap it around my needle twice to get a nice medium-size knot.

Begin to fill the area directly above the hare with clusters of French knots in 833, before moving on to 469 to fill the area below the hare (fig. 5). Don’t worry about making these neat or consistent; they look much better when they’re a little bit messy! (fig. 6)

Finally, using three strands of 3826 and wrapping your needle three times, add a single large French knot to the tip of each orange bud branch (fig. 7). A slightly smaller two-wrap knot on the uppermost parts of each plant will give a more balanced and realistic look (fig. 8).

Using the colour guide and a single strand each of 783, 3862 and 400, fill in the orange-yellow flowers on the large branch at the top (fig. 9). The easiest way to complete these is to make each stitch radiate from the branch, filling out the flower bud, and then go back to fill in the gaps (fig. 10). Experiment with blending the different shades of orange to give the flowers dimension (fig. 11).

Repeat with two strands of 316 to stitch the flowers to the big pink foxglove and the two smaller foxgloves, before using a single strand of 3722 to add dimension (fig. 12).

Moving on to the five-petal flowers, begin with two strands of 3722 and start to fill in the pink petals. Be sure to leave a tiny gap in the centre of the flower (fig. 13); you don’t want to be pushing your needle through the same hole over and over or it’ll get very tight. Switch to 3826 for the orange flowers, stitching straight over the stem (fig. 14).

With two strands of 783, add a single two-wrap French knot to the centre of each flower (fig. 15).

Now we’re going to finish off the pink flowers with some leaves. With two strands of 3364, add tiny straight stitches up the stem, two per leaf, stitching directly into the stem (fig. 16).

This next step will be our first little bit of long and short stitch! Using one strand of 935, stitch the base of each foxglove leaf, following the curve of the leaf with your stitches. Complete the tip of the leaves with 3362, blending the colours in the middle by interlocking and overlapping the stitches (fig. 17).

Repeat with 3362 (base) and 3364 (tip) for the big leafy branch in the centre of the design (fig. 18).

The little leafy tick-shapes dotted around the design are completed in long and short stitch just like the foxglove leaves. Try to gradually angle your stitches around the shape and avoid making any sudden changes in direction as you fill these in. Use the colour guide and one strand of each colour (833, 3364, 3362 and 935) to complete all the little leafy shapes (fig. 19).

The two individual leaves next to the orange bud branch are stitched in one strand each of 3364 and 832 using long and short stitch, before adding a vein of 3362 in split back stitch up the centre (fig. 20).

Mushrooms! My favourite part. These can be tricky to get neat since they’re so small, but using two strands of each colour will help. Begin with two strands of 3864 for the stem, before using one strand of 3863 to add a couple of darker stitches at the top of each stem (fig. 21). Now with two strands of 3777, fill in the caps. It’s okay if they overlap your stem stitches a little.

Finally, using one strand of 3865, make a couple of tiny one-wrap French knots directly over the cap. Sprinkle these all over the cap rather than creating rows. I usually fit between 5 and 7 on each cap (fig. 22).

That’s all of our flora complete! Take a step back and admire how beautiful your embroidery is!

Now for the cetrepiece of the design. The hare does take a long time and some very careful stitching, but don't be intimidated; with a step-by-step process it's much simpler than it looks.

For all of the following steps, there are three key things to keep in mind:

- We'll be using long and short stitch, so do remember to follow the stitch direction guide. This is especially important for the hare with all it's curves.

- When you fill a section with colour, it will need to be blended with another colour at a later point, so we're not looking for neat edges where the colours blend; we're looking for interlocking, overlapping stitches. Fig. 27 is a good example of this.

- Once you've finished stitching a section of colour, bring the needle up very close to your stitching, inside the outline of the hare, and keep the needle threaded. We will keep switching between colours so it's much quicker to use multiple needles rather than rethreading them. You can see in fig. 30 that I'm using all four shades of brown at once.

We'll begin with the eye. Using one strand of 310 and very tiny stitches, fill in the eye shape. Switching to one strand of 3365, add a highlight to bring the eye to life (fig. 23). You can secure and cut these threads; we won't be using them again.

Using one strand of 3864 and very small stitches, stitch a fine border around the eye, drawing this out a little towards the nose. Now fill the upper tip of the nose and the upper half of the front ear (fig. 24).

Thread another needle with one strand of 801 and use this to fill the larger section of the back ear. The tip of the back ear is filled with one strand of 3862 (fig. 25).

Now, with one strand of 3863, fill the bottom half of the front ear and the main part of the hare's head. Blend this into the other colours as you go, switching between colours if necessary to add extra stitches for a nice smooth blend. With one strand of 223, fill the inside of the hare's ear (fig. 26).

Switching back to your 801 needle, fill in the bottom of the hare's chin and the back of the neck, carefully angling your stitches around the curve (fig. 27). Notice how the edges aren't neat; I've left them unfinished so they can be blended into the next colour easily. Finally, fill in the rest of the chin and middle of the neck using 3862 (fig. 28).

By now, your hare should already be showing a little character!

Continuing with 3862 on the neck, complete this whole section of colour, moving down into the hare's back and the front shoulder. This is a cruicial point for stitch direction as you differentiate between back and shoulder, so follow the diagram carefully and pay special attention to the form of the hare's body as you go (fig. 29). Continue to fill the shoulder and upper front leg, using the colour key and blending from 3862 to 3863 to 3864. (fig. 30).

Fill the hare's right leg using 801, blending into 3862 on top of his leg joint. With 3864, fill in his chest. The line between his light chest and darker body fur can be more defined and doesn't need to be blended (fig. 31).

Keeping your stitches small, curve around the outer elbow with 3862 and continue to fill the leg with 3863, switching back to 3862 for the paw (fig. 32).

Fill out the hare's pale tummy with 3864, before blending through the entire torso area with 801, 3862, 3863 and 3863 (using the colour guide for reference). I like to mottle the colours in this section so that the blocks of colour aren't too solid. I do this by incorporating small stitches of the adjacent colour, for example by adding 3862 into the larger 801 area (fig. 33) and 3863 into the light 3864 centre and tummy (fig. 34).

This whole area is quite simple and much less fiddly than the head and upper torso, so relax into it and enjoy!

When you start to reach the dark crease between the torso and the back leg, take extra care with your stitch direction. This part curves up and then down again quite dramatically, so I always make sure to put a few guide stitches in place (fig. 35) before going back to fill the whole area (fig 36).

Beginning with the right hind leg, fill in the top of the leg with 801 before blending into 3362 and back to 801 for the paw (fig. 37).

Now for the tail, begin by filling the top third with 3862 and the bottom third with 3864. The tail should have a 'fluffy' edge rather than a neat edge (fig. 38). Finally, fill in the middle section of the tail with 3863.

For the thigh and left leg, it may help to add a few more directional guide stitches before you fill in the rest of the hare (fig. 39). Finish filling out the hare, blending through 3862, 3863 and 3864, and breaking up the blocks of colour with small mottling stitches as you go (fig. 40).

Your hare is nearly complete!

All we have left to do is refine some details and add a little definition.

First of all, our hare needs a cute little nose; just three tiny stitches in 938 (figs. 41 & 42).

Now we're going to define some of the areas where the colours may be a bit muddied. You may or may not need to add these stitches; it just depends how your hare has turned out, so feel free to make this decision for yourself.

Referring to figures 43 and 44, stitch a very fine line of 938 between the ears, around the inner and outer elbow, in the back leg crease and between the back legs. Using 3862, define the top of the inner ear.

And the embroidery is finished! Of course, you may need to repeat for the other side, but with all that practice it should be much quicker the next time around.

Once the embroidery is complete, remove it from the hoop and iron it face-down to smooth out any wrinkles and erase the pen lines. Cut carefully along the collar out, and then cut a second, plain piece of fabric to match the first.

With the right sides together (wrong sides facing out) and roughly 5mm seam alloance, stitch the two pieces together either by machine or by hand. Be sure to leave a 5cm gap in the stitching at the back of the neck.

Using the gap in the stitching, turn the collar right sides out and press again from the back. Hand-stitch the gap closed. In the picture below, I'm using ladder stitch, but you can use any stitch you prefer.

It's finally done! The collar can be secured with a small safety pin and worn over jumpers, blouses and dresses. I'm so pleased with how this turned out and I can't wait to wear it. I hope this project will inspire you to make your own adorable hare collar, or maybe even have a go at designing something completely new.