As I mentioned in my photo tutorial on using a waste knot, the most common question I receive via e-mail is “how do I begin (or end) my thread withough using a knot?” To answer that question, I’ve worked up several photo tutorials.
I’ll be listing all these photo tutorials here so that they’re easy to locate. I’ll have a permanent link to them on the side bar under “Editor’s Floss,” in a new category that will be called “Tips and Tricks for Hand Embroidery,” where you find all such posts on embroidery tips and tricks indexed.
I hope you find this list of photo tutorials on beginning and ending threads helpful!
Beginning
Ending
If you have any suggestions for other methods you think would be useful to readers, please leave a comment below. Thanks!
Hi Mary, thank you for the photo tutorial on waste knots and the beginning and ending threads. Sure makes the work look neater onthe back.
Hi Mary,
Thank you so much! That’s so useful, and something I’ve been curious how to do. (Just wondering, is my computer playing up or is the part on endings still to come? I get links to the first three, Waste Knot, Waste Away Knot and Anchor Stiches on a Line ,but not the others listed.) Anyway, thank you again for your amazing work here!
Best wishes!
I have a question for you, is there a way to start and end the stitch when you are doing French knots? The knot is inside a small circle and I wondered if using that ring around the french knot would be the place to anchor the stitches?
Hi,
Could you please video the Satin Stitch and the Double Stem Stitch for me. I couldn’t find the second one and the first one I just needed the Satin Stitch not the padding.
I have a questinon. Do you outline first and then do the Satin Stitching? Thanks
Hi, Debbie –
The satin stitch without padding is the same as satin stitch with padding – it just isn’t worked over padding. An outlined edge underneath the satin stitch, though, helps keep the edge nice and straight, so I normally at least outline before satin stitching, unless it’s a really tiny element that I’m satin stitching. The “outline” in satin stitch is simply a split stitch worked along the outline of the element you want to satin stitch, and then the satin stitch is worked over the split stitch outline. Sometimes, stitchers will outline their satin stitched area after doing their satin stitching, for decorative effect, but if you’re just trying to work a nice smooth satin stitch with a clean edge, then you wouldn’t outline around the satin stitched area after doing the satin stitch.
Double stem stitch is an interesting question. I have looked this up repeatedly for people, because they get kits or designs that call for “double stem stitch” along a line. I can find no reference to a stitch actually named “double stem stitch,” and nor can any stitchers I know, who I contacted for feedback on the question. So I asked one reader to send me a picture of the design she was stitching, and it looked to me like the “double stem stitch” was simply an outline in stem stitch, stitched twice – so, basically, two rows of stem stitch worked close together outlining the area. I could be wrong about this, but I haven’t found any reference for a specific stitch called “double stem stitch,” so I have a feeling that’s what it is. If you have a picture of the stitch worked, I’d love to see it, just in case it isn’t what I’m assuming it is.
Thanks heaps for your questions!
~MC
Mary, I have to confess. I have not done anything on any of my craft areas of interest for about a year, due to health problems. Now I have to start all over and it looks like I should start with the Tips ESPECIALLY for Beginners. I think that was my problem before, I was trying to figure out how to catch up with everyone but now it looks like you have given me a path to follow with the Tips Especially for Beginners.
I started today copying the Index of that whole 3 page list of topics. (Please don’t remove any of it for a long time, I beg you). Looks like I have a lot of copying to do before I even start work (with Christmas & everything).
Anyway, that is my plan to copy it all and then work my way through the videos and the accompaning list. If that is not the right course to take – please give me a holler. I am determined I am going to learn this. I fell in love with Helen Stevens embroidery and I hope I can learn to do a tiny bit of it the way she does it. It looks so beautiful. Thank you for showing us such a precise road to follow (but, just in case I’m going about it the wrong way – please let me know). Full of doubts as usual – sorry. But I’m still determined!
I found another way to start and I think it’s pretty cool!The loop method. Drawbacks…It only works of you are using an even # of strands. Advantage…nothing to clip at all.
say that you are using 2 strands of DMC floss on your beautiful project… cut a length of floss that double the length that you intend to use. Then separate 1 strand from the rest. Fold this strand in half. Thread BOTH ends through your needle. Push the needle through the fabric back to front without pulling the loop through, in fact if you wanted you could insert a toothpick or something to keep it from pulling through accidentally. Make a tiny straight stitch or your first “called for” stitch (if the thread will go completely through the fabric before starting the next stitch). Now you have a loop on the back a stitch on the front and the needle “freely hanging” from the back. thread the needle through the loop. Continue to make your next stitch as you normally would. Does that make sense?
I just found the link to the “start and finish.” Thank you again!
Marian, Thank you for having this tutorial for the beginning/ending of embroidery. The waste knot is very helpful. Is this method also adaptable when using Perle cotton for blanket stitches around objects? Thank you.