This article is brought to you by Brown Paper Stitch, my business that makes your wardrobe pawesome by embroidering your pets on clothing.

I did a lot of stitch­ing over the last six weeks of 2020. The hol­i­days are always a big time for cus­tom por­traits of pets, and dur­ing that time, I embroi­dered many shirts and some patch­es, too. Here’s what I was up to!

To see what I’m work­ing on in real-time, fol­low my Insta­gram.

2020 was the Year of Stitching Doggos

I love dogs, but I am more of a cat per­son. I start­ed my busi­ness embroi­der­ing cats, but late­ly, I’ve been able to stitch pup after pup. I love the chal­lenge of draw­ing and stitch­ing dogs; there are so many dis­tinct breeds (and fur pat­terns!) and it’s giv­en me the oppor­tu­ni­ty to embroi­der tounges.

Stitch­ing pet por­traits means that I work in a lot of browns, yel­lows, and gray floss­es. I keep my blue and green threads sequestered in their own con­tain­ers because I just… don’t use them at all. I jump at the chance to use pur­ple or pink in my designs. And with stitch­ing tongues, I get to do exact­ly that. Work­ing with purples—especially brownish-purple—has made me rethink some of my col­or choic­es for embroi­deries, too. When paired with the right hue, a pur­ple often achieves the col­or of the ani­mal I’m stitching.

Your Ideas Take Me to New Places

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: ya’ll have awe­some ideas and I love mak­ing them hap­pen. This was the case when I had a client reach out about stitch­ing a deer and a dog over the pock­et of a t‑shirt. The project end­ed up being a lot of firsts for me. It was the first time stitch­ing on a t‑shirt and the first time I ever embroi­dered a deer. Let this be a lesson—if you have an idea for a cus­tom pet por­trait (that I don’t already do), just ask! I love to stitch new things.