A few months ago I tried using acrylic paint on an embroidered piece – and I think it looks horrible!

The piece was created on a red linen fabric, using wool tapestry yarn and embroidery thread for the french knots.

The design is adorable, and I like how the tapestry yarn gives the design some texture and weight vs. the embroidery thread which is smoother and shinier:

However, on my piece, the acrylic paint just didn’t work.  I don’t know if I didn’t use enough paint, or if it doesn’t work well on  a dark colored fabric or what – but it just didn’t work.  Here is a close-up of the area where I applied paint:

I also don’t like the way the piece feels with the acrylic paint.  The bird’s head feels “plasticky.”  I plan to stitch over the paint with more wool tapestry yarn and see if it fixes the problem.  If not – then I will chalk this up to learning and start again!