A New Do: 3 hairstyles for your Stitch People

You know the feeling, you’ve been sporting the same hairstyle since you graduated from high school (ahem…15 years ago…).  Now it’s time to conquer the world, and what’s the first step in conquering the world? A new do.  

Stitch People are no different.  Sometimes we need to change it up for them to highlight their distinct personalities.  So, today we’re going to show you 3 different hairstyles you can give your Stitch People portraits so they can go on and ‘strike a pose’.

Stitching these hairstyles range in complexity and we won’t be going into too much detail, so it will help if you have practiced a few portraits beforehand or have done a little embroidery in the past. 

Here are our 3 little Stitch People.  Let’s call them Riya, Bernard and Farrah.  

Riya, Bernard and Farrah have been rocking the bald look for a while, but now they’re in the mood to change things up a bit.  

Riya wants to keep it simple with a short bob.  This is the most simple of the hairstyles, all it takes is a simple straight stitch.  You can vary it up by changing the angle or length of your stitch.  Here we’ve used 2 strands of DMC floss to give Riya a very flat, straight look.

Starting from the middle, make straight stitches along the head until you get to the end of the forehead.  When the head starts to curve downward, you will want to begin to ‘fan’ your stitches so that you get a nice round head with a straight head of hair.

Fanning simple means bringing your thread up through the same hole but bringing the stitch down slightly outside of your previous stitch.

You can vary your haircut style by changing the angle or length of your stitch.

Now that Riya is looking super stylish, we’ll move on to Bernard.  Bernard wanted a full head of auburn curls which we achieved by using French Knots.  Since these are lovely thick curls, we are using 4 strands of DMC floss.

If you ever need help with French Knots, Lizzy has created a video explaining just how to add them to your Stitch People portraits.

For Bernards curls, simply stitch French Knots tightly against each other all along the head. Add layers underneath your row of French Knots until you get the desired length of curls.

Very flash Bernard!  Now we’ll move on to Farrah who wanted long locks of hair.  For Farrah we have used 3 strands of DMC floss.  We have used variegated floss to give Farrah a highlighted look to her hair.  For this style, we will be ‘couching’ the stitches.  This means that you secure your thread by stitching over it.  This is arguably the more difficult of the hairstyles as it can be kind of fiddly, but since we’re trying to give Farrah a textured look, a few mistakes here and there will just add to the detail.

Starting in the middle of the head moving outward, make big long loose diagonal stitches.  It doesn’t matter how long you make them or whether you cross over your last stitch, just make sure that you stay within the 2 outside rows of the head.  Otherwise Farrah will get a very rectangular looking haircut.  

Once you have covered the head with long loose stitches, now you will reveal the face by ‘couching’ down your threads.  You have 2 options here.  You can go for a loose flowy style (left of Farrah’s head below) or a subtler tighter wave (right of Farrahs head below).

For the flowy style, starting at the second row down of your head stitches, bring your needle and thread up just to the left of the middle of the head and underneath the loose stitches you just made. Catching with the thread the loose stitches you made, plunge your stitch through the fabric on the outside of the head of hair.  This should reveal the face and give you a long strand that looks kind of like loose bangs (fringe if you’re in the UK).  Continue down the head in this fashion until you have the desired look making sure to avoid eyes and mouth as you go.

The tighter style is a little more complicated.  You will bring your thread up in the middle of the loose stitches you made.  Take your needle and catch from underneath one of the loose threads in the middle of the head and tug it over to where your brought your needle and thread up through the hair.

Plunge your needle and thread through the same hole making a very small stitch.  Continue in this fashion until you have captured and tugged over at least 3 of the middle loose strands. You will reveal the face and make a tighter long bangs.

And there you have it!  This is a nice way to add dimension to your portraits as well as another means to reflect the personality of the person you are stitching.

If you have any questions about this or any other Stitch People stitchy stuffs, drop us an email anytime at info@stitchpeople.com

Happy Stitching!

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