Applique dolphin using felt #needleworkmonday

Here's my entry for #needleworkmonday by @crosheille... Below I will show you the creation process.

I will skip the sketching stage… I traced my drawing onto greaseproof paper and pinned it onto a piece of greyish felt. I then cut around it : paper and felt at the same time. I have found this to be easier than cutting the pattern first or perhaps my scissors are not sharp enough.

I pinned the cut felt piece onto the blue felt background and started doing whipstitch around, but then I felt it looked too flat...

So I cut the piece below and stuffed it as the dolphin’s belly…. It doesn’t really show that much but it does have a slightly more 3-D shape.

I then just did a number of plain stitching rows around the dolphin. It is not neat because it’s supposed to be moving water and I used two colours. I also embroidered a small French knot for the eye.

I stuffed the ‘envelope’ with recycled wadding (from an old pillow) and sewed the edge.
I was asked to embroider the name on it, but it was already stuffed and sewn so it doesn’t look that neat. Also I couldn’t really mark the felt so it was completely improvised.

So @pennsif is now very pleased with his new wrist support because the desk is too hard.

It may not be perfect and the colours certainly lack subtlety, but I used what I had at hand and enjoyed photographing the process...