The Animal Challenge
A new year deserves a new creative adventure. Kicking off on 2nd January, our next 15-week challenge is your chance to make the grey January days a time for excitement - diving headfirst into imagination, stitching and making alongside other makers from across the world. With just 100 places available, find out how to join the creative kick-start journey below.
If you already know you want to take part...
Start your year with a creative adventure
Break out of a creative rut, with a new challenge for 2026
Start the year with a supportive creative challenge! If you’ve been feeling stuck in a creative rut, or you’re craving something to get you making again, this challenge might be exactly what you need.
Over 15 weeks, you’ll move from the spark of an idea to a finished embroidered piece — learning new techniques, experimenting with design, and rediscovering that satisfying rhythm of making along the way. You’ll work alongside a group of others doing the same, supporting each other through the wobbles, breakthroughs and small triumphs that come with any creative process.
This isn’t about perfection or polished results. It’s about shaking things up, pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, and remembering what it feels like to create purely for the joy of it.
Don't forget, studio members have early access to sign-up at a reduced price.
How the challenge works
The Animal Challenge is split into two parts — one technical, one creative — designed to work together to build both your confidence and your craft.
Part One: Learn new techniques and build confidence
Half of the course focuses on technical skill. You’ll learn a wide range of stitches and techniques, exploring texture, layering, and composition. Even if you’ve been embroidering for years, you’ll find new methods and fresh ways to approach your work.
You’ll create your own sampler piece, learning how different stitches can be used independantly and together. It’s a deep dive into technique, but not in a stuffy way - we want you to have fun. This is a way to experiment without the pressure of needing to get a design out of it at the end. Through this you will build confidence in your stitching skills so that sewing your final design will feel like a breeze.
Part Two: Design something that’s entirely your own
With your stitching skills finely tuned, we’ll turn our attention to design. You’ll be challenged to create your own animal-inspired embroidery, working within a few clever constraints that will stretch your imagination.
Through weekly prompts and exercises, you’ll develop a concept, play with shapes, test compositions, and gradually bring your creature to life - from first sketch to finished, framed piece.
The design constraints are part of the fun: they force you to think more deeply, to make bolder decisions, and to discover your own artistic voice. Despite a narrow set of constraints, you'll be surprised how different each others designs look!
To sign up, just choose one of the landscape bundles below
Pick your favourite bundle
You'll learn how to take an idea to a finished piece
By the end of the 15 weeks, you’ll not only have a finished embroidery you’re genuinely proud of — you’ll also have gained a huge amount of creative confidence. You’ll learn:
- How to develop original design ideas - even when you think you have none
- How to use shape, pattern and colour to create a balanced composition
- How to translate a drawing into stitch, choosing techniques that bring it to life
- How to mount and frame your work beautifully
Most importantly, you'll learn a creative framework to apply to any project enabling you to trust your creative instincts
Here are some customer experiences from our last challenge
Still not sure what its all about...
In this video, I walk you through the upcoming challenge, give you a quick tour of the Maker’s Space platform, and introduce a few of the prompts you’ll be working on. I don’t want to give too much away just yet, but if you’d like a sense of how it all works - and what you’ll have access to - this should give you a good taste of what’s to come.
Everything you need to make, create and learn
What will you receive
A complete bundle of materials: Two projects - your sampler kit and animal embroidery kit - plus a hand-painted frame ready for your finished piece.
Access to our online community: Join the Maker’s Space, with direct design support from The Fabled Thread and a community of other makers ready to share ideas, encouragement and the odd creative wobble.
The Start Stitching virtual course: Over two hours of pre-recorded tutorials teaching a dozen stitches and sewing techniques to build confidence and refine your skills.
A library of creative resources: From our motif archive to the cut-out bank and curated museum references — a collection of online resources to inspire your designs.
A structured 15-week programme: Weekly prompts and activities guiding you from first idea to finished piece — with space to explore and make it your own.
Each week is designed to push gently push you out of your comfort zone
Week 1
Dive into inspiration and meet the group: the start of new ideas and creative conversations.
Week 2
Loosen up with drawing: getting ideas down without overthinking or aiming for perfect.
Week 3
Play with paper cut-outs: exploring shape, contrast and composition in a new way.
Week 4
Experiment with pattern and background: layering elements and texture to see what works.
Week 5
Starting a sampler: it's stitching playtime exploring new techniques to build confidence.
Week 6 to 7
Get stitching: each week we focus on different types of stitches to experiment and find your favourites.
Week 8
Start designing your animal embroidery: pulling together everything you’ve explored so far into one strong idea.
Week 9 onwards
A mystery: you'll only find out if you choose to take part!
Take a look at the creations from past challenges
This isn’t our first rodeo! We have now run two challenges and had over a hundred people go through our programme, ranging from total beginners to seasoned makers. Each person has had their own take on the creative brief and found confidence in their own style. The results were nothing short of incredible.
It wasn’t just about the finished pieces. It was the process - the shared struggles, the breakthroughs, the unexpected moments of confidence-building. Participants supported each other, shared insights, and most importantly, felt less alone in what can sometimes be an intimidating creative journey.
See an example of the full process you will go through
In this video, I walk you through the process of creating a design from our very first challenge: the Colour Palette Challenge. Every challenge we run is different, with plenty of structured activities that go far beyond the design itself. So if you think what happens in this video looks like fun, then you will definitely enjoy everything The Animal Challenge has to offer
If that all sounds up your street...