The Art Of Watercolor Embroidery – Helpful Tips And Tricks

A couple of years ago, I made a YouTube video of a mixed media watercolor embroidery project that I had made, and I received so many questions. People wanted to know what fabric I was using, how you move the paint around on the fabric, can you wash it, and so much more.

I love to dabble in mixed media, and I have quite a bit of experience using watercolor on fabric. It’s quite different from using it on paper, so today I wanted to sit down and make a post sharing all of the tips and tricks I’ve learned for successfully combining watercolor and embroidery together.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you choose to purchase an item.

Recommended Supplies

• Watercolor
• Paintbrushes – any kind will do
• A tightly woven natural fabric
• Embroidery hoop
• a way to mark the fabric (pencil or a micron with Super Solvy stabilizer)

Choosing Types of Paints

Any watercolor you can use on paper can also be used on fabric!

I have used several different types of watercolors, and they have all worked well. My favorite to use is this Winsor and Newton pocket palette but I have also enjoyed using Dr. Ph. Martins.

Recently, I also experimented with Winsor and Newton’s goache and that worked too, but it is a type of paint that is thicker in texture. Because of this, it has a tendency to flake off a little bit when you stitch through it.

Can You Use Acrylic Paint?

This post is of course about watercolor, but I wanted to include a quick snippet about acrylic paint because I get lots of questions about it.

The answer is yes, you can definitely use acrylic paint! However, it will be a bit thicker and harder to blend compared to watercolor. It will also be harder to stitch through because it dries more plastic-like.

Acrylic paint is usually permanent, so if you plan to do a project on clothing it may be a better option than watercolor.

Fabrics That Are Easiest To Work With

The easiest fabrics to work with are natural, light to medium weight fabrics that are tightly woven. I usually use Kona Cotton or medium weight cotton canvas.

What About Stretched Canvas?

The pre-stretched canvas that you can find at art stores is usually sealed with a glue-like substance, which makes it super hard to stitch through. It’s possible to embroider on it…Brooke Comier is an artist that shared her process doing this, but it didn’t seem to be very easy!

Instead, save your fingers! If you want to stretch your own untreated canvas, this is a fine option. Just keep in mind that the stretcher bars along the edges will prevent you from embroidering all the way to the edge of the fabric.

Setting Up A Project

Unlike paper, it will be really hard to remove any marks from the fabric when you’re done, so you’ll want to keep that in mind before you get started.

I always recommend to place the fabric in the hoop before you transfer the design. Fabric is less structured than paper so it will move around a bunch, making it really hard to draw or paint on. The embroidery hoop will help to stabilize the fabric.

Methods For Transferring Designs

There are two ways I’ve found that work the best for marking out your design:

• tracing through the fabric and lightly marking the fabric with pencil
• marking on top of lightweight Super Solvy and layering it over the fabric, then tearing it away when you’re done

Do You Have To Transfer A Design?

While I prefer to embroider and paint with a design in place, it’s not necessarily a requirement. You can always free-hand the design as you go.

Some Additional Methods I’ve Tried

Water Soluble Marker

Beyond using pencil or stabilizer, I’ve also used water soluble marker. This only works for certain designs and it will, of course, disappear as you paint over it, so sometimes you can prematurely lose parts of the marked design. (I used it in this free tutorial if you’re interested in seeing how.) If you’re not super concerned with parts of the design disappearing, it’s a viable option to play around with.

Heat Erasable Pens

Some people have asked about using heat erasable pens, and I haven’t really tested this method with watercolor. Frixion pens can sometimes leave ghost marks on darker fabric, so I’d worry they might also show up in areas you’ve painted.

When To Transfer The Design

You may choose to transfer the design before or after you have painted on the fabric. This really depends on where and how you want to incorporate it into the embroidery.

For example, if you’re making a background watercolor wash for an embroidery, you may choose to draw the embroidery design on top of the watercolor after it has dried. And if you’re using Super Solvy, you’ll need to place it on top of the fabric after you complete the watercolor since it’s water soluble.

On the other hand, if you plan to paint smaller details or fill in certain elements of a design, it would make sense to mark the design on the fabric first before you start painting.

Should You Paint Or Embroider First?

I always recommend that people paint first before stitching on the fabric. This lessens the chance of the embroidery thread accidentally getting stained with watercolor in areas you didn’t want to be painted.

Watercolor is pretty thin and translucent so painting over areas you plan to stitch later shouldn’t be a problem; it should still be very easy to stitch through.

Painting On The Fabric

The biggest thing I have learned in regards to using watercolor on fabric is that it’s way more absorbent than paper is, so you have to be really careful with how much water you are using.

If you’re using a palette, you’ll have to activate it with a little bit of water. If you’re using bottled watercolor, I would avoid diluting it too much. Using too much water is a surefire way to have the watercolor bleed and spread really quickly on the fabric.

If you’ve done watercolor on paper before, you’ll notice that you need to use a little bit less water on fabric than usual for defining shapes. It will probably feel a bit strange at first, but trust me, it will help you have more control over it!

In contrast, for areas you want the color to spread for things like a background wash, you’ll probably need to add quite a bit of water to the fabric.

Wet To Dry Application

Applying the paint to dry fabric will allow you to achieve more defined and darker marks on the fabric. This is great for areas you want to fill in with solid colors and for places you don’t want the color to spread too much.

Dab the moistened brush on a paper towel to determine how wet the brush is before you get started painting. I like to err on the side of caution and start a bit dryer first. You can always dampen the brush more if needed.

Wet To Wet Application

If you want to blend colors together or make a background watercolor wash on the fabric, dampening the fabric with your brush in the area you intend to paint will make the fabric even more absorbent and allow you to move the paint around more easily.

Additional Considerations

If you paint over an area that is still wet, the colors will more easily mix and bleed into one another, so be very careful where you are painting. If you need to get up close to another color but you don’t want them to blend together, allow the adjacent area to fully dry first.

I have also noticed that most paint dries a little bit lighter than you may expect on fabric, so you may want to saturate the area a bit more or go back over it again once the paint has dried.

Embroidering On Painted Fabric

Once you’ve finished painting the fabric, allow it to completely dry before completing any embroidery.

If you haven’t marked the fabric yet, you can go ahead and do this now.

Then you can stitch on the fabric just as you would any other embroidery! The fabric may feel a little more stiff in the painted areas, but it shouldn’t be hard to pull the needle and thread through.

Ideas and Inspiration

Combining these two mediums together can really add a lot of texture and dimension to any piece of art!

There are no rules when it comes to where and what you should embroider, but here are some ideas:

• outline the edges of shapes using stitches like the back stitch or split stitch to really make an element stand out
• accentuate highlights and shadows by adding embroidery stitches like the long and short stitch on top of painted areas
• to draw more attention to a focal point of the piece, completely embroider / fill them in
• experiment with different combinations of completely painted and embroidered areas
• add 3-dimensional elements to an embroidery using wire work techniques

Caring For Mixed Media Embroidery

Once you’re finished, here are some things to keep in mind to keep your art looking amazing.

• If you used stabilizer to transfer the design, avoid using water. Remove it by tearing it away.
• Keep your art out of direct sunlight, which can make the colors fade.

Can You Wash The Fabric?

I have only ever made wall decor out of my watercolor embroidery art, so I haven’t tried washing painted fabric. But I found this tutorial that will walk you through how to set watercolor on fabric so that it’s able to be washed.

Amanda

Amanda is a hand embroidery teacher and artist. With over 15 years of experience in the craft industry and embroidery, she owns and runs Crewel Ghoul, sharing accessible tutorials and patterns to help inspire fellow crafters to get creative. In addition to running this website, she teaches on Skillshare and Youtube.