Leva Embroidered Floral Fabric Earrings

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You’ll be hearing nothing but compliments with these gorgeous, embroidered earrings! Designed by Sophie Tarrant, these sewn accessories are made with mini embroidery hoops and feature cheerful embroidered flowers in summer colors like orange and bubblegum pink. We love the creative combination of sewing and jewelry-making, and this fun scrapbuster would pair so well with a basic tee and jeans.

Skill Level: Beginner

Designer Notes:

We used sweatshirt fabric for our base as it’s nice and thick, with a soft fleece backing. This pads out the finished earring and prevents any jump stitches at the back of the work from showing through. If you’d rather use a regular woven fabric instead, you can fuse a layer of interfacing to the back before you begin to achieve similar results.
When screwing everything together in Step 7, work slowly and gently and don’t force the screw once it feels like it’s secure. The tiny hoops used in this project are delicate and can easily snap if pushed too far.

Materials:

Fabric: Pale blue cotton sweatshirt jersey, one fat quarter
Embroidery floss: Leaf green, sage green, pink, orange
Mini embroidery hoops: Two, each 2” wide
Necklace chain
Jump rings: Two
Hook earring fixings: Two
Quick drying glue

Tools:

Water-erasable fabric pen
Embroidery needle
Embroidery hoop: 6”
Scissors
Ruler
Jewelry snips
Pliers

Sewing Instructions:

Lay the sweatshirt fabric out with the right side facing up. Cut it in half to give two equal sized pieces. Place the inner (solid) part of one of the mini hoop kits on to the center of one of the pieces, trace around the edge with a water-erasable fabric pen. This gives the working area for the first earring. Repeat, and draw a circle on to the second fabric piece in the same way. Set one aside for now.
Use the fabric pen to draw three circles in the middle of the design, making each one a slightly different size; these will become the flowers. Draw leaves around the edge of the flowers, to complete the basic motif. Mount the fabric in a 6” embroidery hoop with the right side facing up, making sure it’s held taut like the surface of a drum.
Thread a needle with two strands of leaf green floss, then fill in the first leaf using a fishbone stitch. To work a fishbone stitch: begin by bringing the needle from the back side of the fabric, up through the fabric at the tip of the leaf. Make a stitch down towards the middle of the shape, to create the central vein. Bring the needle back up just to one side of the initial stitch, then take it back down through the middle once more. Bring it back up on the opposite side and back down again, creating a ‘V’ shape. Continue working from the outer edges of the leaf towards the center vein, alternating sides and forming overlapping ‘V’ shapes as you go. Make sure the stitches are worked closely together to create a solid, textured fill. Repeat to fill the rest of the leaves in the same way, swapping to sage green for a few of them to create a varied effect.
With the leaves complete, it’s time to fill in the blooms using a pinwheel stitch. To work a pinwheel stitch: thread the needle with two strands of pink floss. Stitch a star within the outline of each bloom, making sure to use an odd number of spokes that all meet in the center. This is the base of the pinwheel. Re-thread the needle with four strands of floss and from the back side of the fabric, bring it up near the center of the star, then begin weaving the needle over and under the spokes in a circular pattern, pulling evenly. Continue weaving until the spokes are fully covered, creating a layered, rose-like effect. Once complete, secure the thread on the wrong side of the fabric. Repeat, alternating between pink and orange floss, until all three flowers have been filled.
To finish, add a collection of leaf green and sage green French knots around the design to fill in any empty space between the blooms and their leaves. To work a French knot: thread the needle with two strands of floss, and from the back of the fabric, bring it up through the fabric where you want the knot to be. Hold the thread taut with your non-dominant hand, wrap the thread around the needle three times, then gently insert the needle back into the fabric very close to where it came out (but not in the exact same hole – this will prevent the knot from pulling through). While doing this, keep the thread taut but not too tight to avoid tangling. Pull the needle and thread through to the back of the fabric, and a small, neat knot will form on the surface. Repeat until you’ve added the desired number of knots. The first embroidery is now complete! Repeat with the second fabric circle to complete the pair.
Remove the fabric from the hoop and cut around the design, leaving a border of about 1/2” all around. Turn the embroidery over so the right side faces down and place the solid center piece of your hoop kit on top. Work a long straight stitch all around the edge of the fabric, then gently pull it up to gather the material around the wooden circle, adjusting it into place as you go. Tie a knot to secure, then work a few straight stitches back and forth across the back of the work to keep everything in position, as pictured.
Measure out and cut a 1 1/2” length of necklace chain using snips, then use pliers to add a jump ring to each end. Mount the embroidery inside the outer part of the hoop and insert the screw across the top. As the embroidery passes between the two sides of the fitting, slip the bottom jump ring of the necklace chain onto the screw, then tighten it to hold everything in place. Finally, add an earring fixing to the top of the chain, slipping it on to the jump ring before tightening the screw up.
Repeat Steps 2-7 to create the second earring in the same way as the first. The embroidered motif on each doesn’t need to match exactly; in fact, we deliberately made ours very slightly different to give them more of a natural botanical look. Use a clean, damp cloth to wipe away any remaining pen marks.
To finish, turn each earring over so the wrong side of the hoop faces up. Take the back circle of each hoop kit and glue it into position to cover the back of the work, making sure to use quick drying glue and to hold it neatly as it dries, with the edges perfectly aligned. Your earrings are now complete!