 A rather ambitious project and one of the first embroideries I have attempted that are not cross stitch or long stitch. This piece is being constructed from a printed photo only and I have learnt a lot.
Difficulty: Medium
Total Time: approx 50 hours
This embroidery was found as a finished piece by Mary Lou Legler which only has a photo. I absolutely love the style of the costume and it inspired me enough to give it a go. (In December 2006 I discovered that the original embroidery is actually a printed canvas that has been embelished... Whoops! I think I took that to the next level)
 My first challenge was printing out a nice copy and working out which types of stitches could be used. I doubled the size in my image editor and printed it in colour, which has given me a fairly good reference for stitching and was also traced on the back to give me a basic outline as a guide.
I chose white 100% linen as my ground and mounted it on my frame then transferred the outline onto my canvas using a light behind our large glass sliding doors and a lead pencil. I think next time I will try some carbon paper. It was going to be a stocking, but I changed my mind closer to the end as you will see. And then the stitching began with the white... white thread on white canvas can be rather tedious, however as I progressed I realised that I was getting through the design a lot quicker than it felt.
Progress Reports
6 Hours
I have mounted the fabric and prepared the design. I have finished most of the flat white areas.
Looking at the actual amount I have done I would say that it feels like a lot less than is actually complete and I am also realising how ambitious I was, however I have now mastered brick stitch I think!
I bought myself a cheap book on needlework which has dozens of stitches and most importantly a great description of turkeywork which I will need for the white puffy areas. I'm looking forward to adding some colour!
8 Hours
Eight hours in and another update, mainly because I am exited to realise I am probably a quarter of the way through with all that white done!
I realised last night that there are two different coloured reds in the design so I have to go back to the craft store today and find a deeper red. I got my heart charms in the mail as well and as yet I am unsure if they will be too big or not. I might keep looking and see if I can find a smaller one as I have plenty of time yet.
I am starting to add in some colour, with the red to be next, so it is a lot more interesting and rewarding to be stitching at the moment and my motivation is a lot higher. Still working on the flat colours...
13 Hours
The white is dragging me down again, but it is nearly finished and as soon as I have finished the flat colours I can see that it won't be too much longer and the design will really take shape. 
I had a sewing binge this weekend after having a break for quite a while and about 5 hours later I had finished the rest of the arm and all that white!
I am looking forward to doing the decorative stitching on the white areas (which you can see from the photo) and then make the tassles and the raised areas.
22 Hours
Completion
I had a couple of long sessions where I stitched well into the night which really made a difference to my progress. The turkey work around the hat, sleeve and bottom of the coat was very tedious, but after about 42 hours I was through it.
I had completely changed the original idea of a stocking by now and bought some blue and white felt to apply the embroidery to. That also meant that I had to cut out the embroidery, which my partner was quite worried about and I had a few moments of worry as well. I cut around it leaving about 1cm all around and then folded and stitched all the edges down to leave a nice edge that wouldn't fray.
The felt was backed onto some linen so that it wouldn't stretch too much and then the snow was stitched on using white embroidery wool with buttonhole stitch. I used white cotton thread to apply the santa onto the felt.
Once that was complete the staff was embroidered straight onto the felt and the other decorations could be attached. Eight small tassles and two large tassles were created and applied. Then the ribbon was stitched through the backing, arranged and then tacked in place with red cotton thread.
There are so many details in this embroidery, from the gold heart tied to the staff to the raised pocket and little bells hanging from the red tassle. Would you believe this was my first embroidery? I am really proud of this work, but I have set a high standard for myself!
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