I machine embroidered them and airbrushed the gradients in there. I used 12 different colors to achieve this effect.
(I was going to stitch out all the different colors first, but I'm really glad I went this route!)
She's a unicorn OC with an extra long horn — and a pretty colorful hairstyle too! Both her mane and tail are different on both sides, which took a lot of patterning!