Dragonfly Belt Favor

 Alastar and I have decided to fight for each other in the first Crown Tournament run using Rapier.


For this, I decided to make a belt favor for him to wear. This is my first time making a favor!


I decided to embroider a white dragonfly on purple linen, to be reminiscent of my personal heraldry (Purpure, a pall inverted raguly between three dragonflies argent). 


This time, design choices are up to me! While looking for inspiration, I found a YouTube video that has a really cool technique for dragonfly wings. It's the Honeycomb stitch by Vivebooks. 


(https://youtu.be/cO0jo2e2FKo?si=gkN3xANqBRU8Gy0v) 


Using this, I first draw on a design of a dragonfly using a heat erasing pen. 



For this design, I could choose whatever stitches I want. This is no kit anymore!


For the outline, I decided on a whipped backstitch. Then, I followed the instructions on the video for the wings. I thought the technique was really cool in that it precisely pulled the threads sitting on top of the fabric. 




After completing the wings and the outlines, I decided to fill in the body of the dragonfly with satin stitch. I tried to pay close attention to getting to the edges of the outline, but it was a bit harder in some areas than others. 


(And the back at this stage, if you were curious)


For the eyes, I first thought I could do an interesting grid or weave stitch to make it look the most like an insert. 



However, I decided that I didn't really like that look. Instead, I did a smaller version of the Honeycomb stitch that I used for the wings. I really liked how this came out since it gave the dragonfly a bit more personality and tied in the design from the wings to the eyes. 




Then, I finished up with the rest of the filling stitches. Though I decided to switch to vertical stitches on the tail to help note the different sections. Overall, I'm really happy how it came out. 



To finish, I decided to hand-sew the favor closed. This was my first time hand-sewing anything!!


I did a reddish thread and backstitched around the majority of the border. 



I flipped it right-side out then finished the line. Then, I folded down the top and did a whip stitch that only went through 3 of the layers and didn't show on the front. 



And finally it's finished! It's my first piece that I created from start to finish! I'm very happy with how it turned out and I look forward to seeing Alastar wear it. I really enjoyed the process, and I'm thinking of making another one soon. 💜





Start date : 1 / 19 / 2025

Finish date : 2 / 13 / 2025

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