Turn a Hospital Blanket into an Heirloom

What makes something an heirloom? It’s natural to want to have a physical item to commemorate what is important in your life. These can be big things like wedding dresses or furniture, but they can also be small things.

A woman in my neighbourhood had recently given birth to her second daughter and wanted both her daughters’ births commemorated in a special way. She had saved the hospital blankets for each girl and asked me to embroider onto them. We met at a local coffee shop to discuss her vision: she wanted her daughters names with the addition of a small detail like a flower. I created a proposal deck that included a selection of fonts and flowers that would show up well in embroidery and had her choose the floss colour she wanted for the names.

Using water soluble paper to transfer the embroidery design

I arranged all the elements into images that I could print onto special adhesive paper that dissolves in water. This allowed me to embroider directly onto the design and then make the design disappear when I was done leaving just the embroidery behind. I don’t often use this transfer method, but the blankets would have been difficult to draw on directly with heat erase pen (my usual method) so this option was the best and most efficient.

I think she made a perfect choice in font. It’s simple, fun, and has a perfect flow for embroidery. I did the letters in chain stitch which stands out wonderfully on the blanket. The daisy is stem stitch for the stem, lazy daisy stitch for the petals, French knots for the flower centres and herringbone stitch for the leaves.

Hospital blankets turned family heirlooms

Have you embroidered an heirloom item? Tell me about it in the comments.