To hand embroider relatively small letters, I like to use whipped backstitch. The letters I'm embroidering in this tutorial are approximately half an inch high. Whipped backstitch works really well with them because it provides a fairly smooth, very precise line without much extra bulk.

If you don't know how to backstitch, feel free to check out my video tutorial for backstitch. Then you can check out the whipped backstitch video tutorial.

I'm working the word "Brown" on my lettering sampler in one strand of DMC floss. "Brown" is smaller than the other words so far on the lettering sampler - with the exception of the "B," the letters are just less than half an inch tall.

I should be using a #10 embroidery (or crewel) needle, and I think, in most of these photos, I am. But towards the end of stitching the word, after one of those unavoidable interruptions, I couldn't find my #10 needle, so I switched to a #9. I suggest a #10 - or, if you have one, a #11.



I began by backstitching up the spine of the B. When I finished covering the pencil line with the backstitch, I brought my needle up in the fabric right at the top of the line of stitches.



Working back down the line towards me, I whipped the backstitches by sliding my needle from right to left under each backstitch, all the way down the line.

Now, since I started whipping my stitches from right to left and down the line towards me, I made sure that, as I stitched each letter, I kept the same direction. Yesterday's article demonstrates the importance of consistent stitch direction. If you haven't read it yet, you might want to check it out so that you can see the distinct differences between stitching in different directions.



After whipping down the line, I jumped over to the base of the B and backstitched the lower bump. For some reason unbeknownst to me at this moment, I did not finish backstitching up the top bump. You can, of course - it will save you time and having to travel your thread on the back of the fabric to get to your next starting point.



I turned my work so that I was whipping the backstitches (again, from right to left) down the stitches towards me. To keep everything going correctly in the same direction and avoid confusion, just turn your hoop as you stitch.



So there's the first bump of the B, done.



To get to the next bump without carrying a loose thread across the back of my stitching, I turned my work over so I could run my thread under the backs of the stitches and move up to the next bump.



The backstitching on the second bump of the B is whipped in the same was as it was on the first bump of the B.



And there you have the B...



The R is stitched in the same manner. I began with the spine first and backstitched up it, then whipped the backstitches, moving from right to left, coming down the spine.



Then, turning my work over and running my working thread under the back of the stitches, I moved back up to the top of the R and backstitched the bump and the tail. See where the arrow points? I left a tiny space at the top of the tail, just below the bump, because this is where I will sink my thread after whipping the tail of the R.



Then I brought my needle up where the bump comes in contact with the spine in the middle of the letter.

My backstitching brought me to the base of the tail. In order to keep the stitching direction correct, I turned my hoop so that the letters were upside-down, and I whipped the backstitches on the tail, sinking the thread in the tiny space next to the bump.



Then I moved over next to the spine, brought my needle up, and whip stitched the bump of the R, turning the hoop as necessary to keep the stitching in the right direction.



And there you have the B and the R complete.



Now, it's time to work on the O. Remember that, because these letters are not connected, each time a new letter is started, you have to start the thread again. In the first two stitching tutorials of this series, I discussed how to start your threads with each letter.

Once the O was backstitched, I brought my needle up inside the O, ready to whip the stitches.



Again, to keep the stitch direction correct, I turned my hoop so that the letters were upside-down.



While stitching around the O, just keep turning the hoop to keep the direction.



The black arrow in the photo above indicates where I started whipping the backstitches. As I finished the circle, I sunk my needle on the outside of the O (indicated by the red arrow), opposite to where I started.



I'm sure you're getting the hang of this by now! So let's move quickly through the rest of the letters. Backstitch the complete W, then whip the backstitches down the last leg, towards you, working your needle from right to left.



For the next leg, turn your hoop around so the letters are upside-down again, and whip the next leg, then turn the hoop again, whip the next leg, then turn the hoop one more time to whip the last backstitched line of the W. As you finish whipping the backstitches in each line, you sink your thread to make a sharp finish, then bring your needle up at the top of the next line.



The finished W...



Work the N just as you did the W, backstitching the whole thing first, then whipping the backstitches and turning your hoop as you need to. As you finish whipping each line of the backstitching, remember to sink your thread and start the next line new, to keep the angles sharp.



And here is the finished word, and the lettering sampler so far!

We've now covered plain backstitch lettering, which also focused on how to travel your threads on the back of the fabric to make sure you don't leave loose threads; we've covered stem stitch on lettering, making sure that the stitch direction is kept consistent; we've seen how to dot an I in hand embroidery; and now we've seen whipped backstitch, which is a nice stitch for small lettering.

The next tutorial will cover combining two stitches - buttonhole and stem stitch - on letters that are thick in some parts and thin in others.

All these tutorials are easily accessible under Tips and Tricks for Hand Embroidery in the Editor's Floss located at the top of the right column of the website, and also directly at the Index of Tutorials for Hand Embroidered Lettering.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, don't hesitate to leave them in the comment section below!

Enjoy!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, November 05, 2009
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Before venturing a bit further on the hand embroidered lettering tutorials, I wanted to show you how the direction in which you stitch can make a difference in the look of your stitches. Here, I'm focusing on whipped backstitch, but the concept applies to any whipped stitch.

I'm starting with a small backstitched line, which I've stitched from the top of my fabric down towards the base.



The arrow in the above photo indicates the direction I stitched the line. This part really doesn't make that much of a difference, but you can see that, from the base of the line, I'm beginning to whip the back stitches from right to left, going back UP the line.



I'm going to whip each stitch, going in the same direction - up the line - and working my needle in the same direction, from right to left, as the curved arrows indicatel



After whipping the first line of backstitch, I stitched another line right next to it, and as you can see in the photo above, I began whipping the backstitch at the top of the line, working DOWN towards me, and still whipping the stitches from right to left. The difference here is the direction in which I am traveling, which is down the line instead of up it, as I did with the first line.



Though the whipping of the stitch is done in the same direction (from right to left under the backstitches), the direction in which I stitched (from the base to the top on the left line, and from the top to the base on the right line) makes a difference in the way the two lines look when they are whipped. The left line is smoother looking, and the right line is a little chunkier looking. This is because, when I worked the left line, the working thread was untwisting while I whipped the stitches, and when I worked the right line, the working thread was twisting itself as I whipped the stitches.

My point here is not to say that one way of whipping the stitches is better than the other. Rather, the idea is that, when you are working a whipped stitch, if you want all your stitching to look the same, you have to be consistent in two ways: 1. in the direction your stitching is traveling (here, up the line or down the line); and 2. in the direction in which you whip the stitch (from right to left or left to right).

It helps to work two parallel practice lines before you start whipping your stitches, to see what look you like better, so that you can be consistent in whipping your stitches in the same direction.

SO - when we move on to the next hand embroidered lettering tutorial (tomorrow's post), you'll see that I made an effort to be consistent with the direction of my stitching and the direction in which I moved my needle to whip the stitches.

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, November 04, 2009
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Stem stitch is a beautiful rope-like hand embroidery stitch that works great for writing with a needle and thread. There are two real difficulties with stem stitch: stitch direction and curves. I'll try to eliminate both of those difficulties in this tutorial.

Before venturing into the tutorial, you might want to take a look at my stem stitch video to get the hang of the motion of the stitch, and you might find it useful to read this article on stem stitch vs. outline stitch.

The best way to keep your stem stitch always looking right as you embroider words is to first establish your stitch direction. Now, with stem stitch, whether you are right handed or left handed is an important consideration, so let's first clarify some stitching directions for both types of stitchers.

Right Handed Stitchers

Stitching Direction: For righties, stem stitch always travels left-to-right. It is true that you can move your hoop around and work the stitches vertically, but for right handers, whenever you consider the line you are stitching as horizontal to the floor, you will notice that, if you're working stem stitch, the direction of your line is going to be from left to right.

Needle / Thread placement: For right handers, when looking at your horizontal line that is moving from left to right, the working thread always hangs below the line, below the needle.

Left Handed Stitchers

Stitching Direction: For lefties, when you stitch a line horizontal to the floor, it will always travel from the right to the left. Even if you are stitching vertically, if you "turn the hoop" in your mind's eye, the line should always be moving from right to left.

Needle / Thread placement: For left handed stitchers, the working thread should always be above the needle, above the stitching line.

Now, these principles of stitching direction and thread placement hold true, even when traveling around curves. To change the placement of the thread as you round a curve in order for the stitches to hold themselves in the curve will mar the look of your stem stitch.

[I have to throw this note in, because it does put a wrench in the works, but please consider these directions to be written for s-twisted threads only. If stitching with z-twisted threads, the directions must be reversed. But let's forget that consideration for now, and assume that we will mostly be working with s-twisted threads - your typical DMC stranded cotton, pearl cotton, floche, most stranded silks, etc. If you want to see a close-up picture of what I mean about Z-twist and S-twist on threads, check out this post on The Silk Mill threads. There is a close-up picture of threads half-way through the post that show the difference in twist direction. Additionally, if you really want some in-depth reading on thread twists, this PDF on knowledge of sewing threads is somewhat interesting.]



To begin, I'm going to anchor my thread just as I did in the first backstitch lettering lesson. I will be traveling from the base of the circle on the "q" around to the top of the circle, down the long tail, and then up and around the curl on the tail.



To keep the stitch direction from left to right (I am right handed), I turned the work over. As I progress around the curve, I'll simply turn my hoop, so that I can keep the same direction with ease.



As I round the curve and come to the top of the head on the "q," I am back to working right-side-up again.

Now, I could make a sharp "corner" here where the loop runs into the back of the "q", but instead of doing that, I'm going to make a smooth, tight curve here. To do this, I am taking my stitches very small in the corner, but I'm still keeping the correct placement of the working thread.



Now, I've turned my work again, keeping the left-to-right direction of stitching, and heading down the back and the tail of the "q". Coming right out of the curve, I resumed a stitch length that is slightly longer than the stitches I used in the curve, but not so long as to look thinner or out of proportion with the other stitches on the "q" so far.



Approaching the point where the tail curls back over on itself at the base of the letter, I'm going to keep right on going with my stem stitch, crossing the intersection of the lines, and moving into the tight curve of that little curl.



As I start into the curve, I'm going to start decreasing the length of my stitches.



After I worked around the curve in shorter stitches, keeping the working thread below the needle and turning the hoop to keep the left-to-right direction, I started to lengthen the stitches again slightly coming out of the curve.

Now, keep in mind that this shortening and lengthening of stitches does not have to be mathematically accurate or anything! You just want your stitches to "take the curve" while keeping the closed-rope-look of the stem stitch, so just adjust your stitches slightly if you need to, in order to get them comfortably and neatly around the curve.



Now it's time to cross the curl over the back of the "q" and this is quite easy. As you approach the already-stitched line, simply jump your next stitch over the line. Work the stem stitch as you normally would - only cross over the stitches already there.



Return back to the end of the previous stitch, just like you would with any stem stitch, and cross over one more time, to complete the stem stitch.



And there's the finished letter.

The techniques for rounding curves and crossing over already stitched lines will remain the same throughout the rest of the tutorial here, so I won't go in as much detail with each letter.



The next step is to travel your thread on the back of your work up to where the next letter starts.



Whip your thread around the stitches on the back of the letter, taking the most direct path to the spot where the next letter begins.



Here, I'm stitching the connection between the q and the u, stopping at the point where the connection meets the downstroke of the u. If I were handwriting this, I would not lift my pen off the paper at this point, but when embroidering letters, I don't double these lines.



Now, I've turned my work so that I can continue working left-to-right. I've ended the last stitch where the connection meets the downstroke of the u, and then I've brought my needle up at the top of the downstroke. I did not need to "travel" my thread at all here, because this spot is pretty much directly above where my last stitch ended, and only a very short distance away. I'll be stitching through that carried thread on the back - it will line up with my next stitches and not show through to the front of the work.



I continued down the downstroke, then around the curve, then up the other side of the u.



Then I moved back down and stitched the connection between the u and the i.

Again, as a reminder, as you stitch your letters, always look ahead and work out a sensible path to follow for stitching. On this u, two paths presented itself, and both would have been fine: the first path is the one I took - down the downstroke and up the other side of the u. Alternately, I could have gone down the downstroke, around the curve, and stopped where the curve met the second downstroke on the u, then worked the downstroke and the connection. Either way would've been fine, and perhaps the second way would have been more consistent, as it would have matched the first half of the letter better. But it really doesn't matter in this case - the letter is clear, and the stitching is tidy. And that's really what you want to achieve.



Here, I've stitched the downstroke of the i, and the connection with the c.



Now you can see I'm in a situation where I can't carry my thread across to the next beginning point, nor can I "travel" the thread on the back through any stitches already there. Yet I have a long enough thread to keep stitching... so, what to do?

I could end my thread and start again, but why bother, when I can "start" without ending??



Just as I start a thread by taking tiny anchoring stitches, here, I'm taking tiny stitches along to the next starting point. I will cover these stitches up with the stem stitch, and I've avoided having to end my thread and start a new one and having a thread carrying visibly across the back of the fabric.



To keep the left-to-right direction of stitching, and to keep my working thread in the correct place in relation to the needle (below the needle), I started the c upside-down and turned the hoop as I progressed through the curve.



Continuing from the c, I worked my way up the top loop of the k.



I turned the work to accommodate the direction of the line, taking smaller stitches around the top of the loop of the k.



Then, coming down the back of the k, I stopped here for one main reason: I was out of thread. This was a good place to stop. If I had had more thread, I probably would have continued down the whole back of the k, but I will pick that part up with the new thread, and move up the k here, instead of down.



When you get to a point where two lines converge to make a sharp corner, as happens here in the middle of the k, it is necessary to end one line of stitching and start a new one. End the line of stitching around the loop right in the corner, as you see in the photo above. To start the next line of stitching (the downstroke of the k here), bring your needle up in the fabric a stitch length away.



Then take the needle down into the fabric right in the corner, to make the first stitch. Basically, I'm beginning this stem stitch line with a backstitch, if you want to think of it this way.



Now, bring your working thread up halfway the length of that backstitch, on the line, but above the stitch, to continue on with the stem stitch.



And the last stroke of the k is finished!

So, there you have the stem stitch worked on cursive lettering, using two strands of DMC stranded cotton.

If you're interested, feel free to check out my other tutorials on hand embroidering text. The next tutorial will focus on smaller text using a finer line.

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, October 23, 2009
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Remember when you learned penmanship and your teacher had to remind you to dot your i's and cross your t's? The same thing holds true when writing with your needle and thread - dotting the i's and crossing the t's are important, but dotting the i's is the part that's tricky. The dot floats above the lettering, presenting the problem of traveling up to it to stitch the dot. You don't want your thread to show through the front, so how do you get up there to the dot, without traveling a thread on the back of your work? Here's one way.

When hand embroidering your lettering or text, by the way, it doesn't really matter when you dot your i, not like it does in penmanship. With embroidery, you already have your lettering mapped out for you. You know exactly where that dot on that i is going to be. So while it may seem to be out of sequence to talk about dotting an i before we've even written the word, the fact is, it doesn't really matter! Besides, since you might be writing a completely different text on your sampler, I thought it a good idea to address this question, in case you already have some i's to dot!



Start by bringing an unknotted thread to the front of the fabric, right where you want your dot. The thread does not connect to any other lettering - you're just starting out with a new thread, and bringing it to the front of your fabric. In this particular tutorial, I'm using two strands of DMC cotton, but the technique applies equally as well to stitching with any kind of embroidery thread, really.



On the back of your fabric, leave about an inch-long tail, so that you can easily get ahold of it to snip it, later.



Now we're going to work a couple anchoring stitches. Going back to the front of your fabric, take one tiny straight stitch over only one or two threads of fabric. If you're working with a larger text on muslin or a high thread count cotton, you can certainly take the stitch over two or three fabric threads. It depends a bit, too, on what size you want your dot. If you want your dot to be relatively small, then take this anchoring stitch over as few threads as possible in your fabric, making the anchoring stitches as small as possible. After you take your first tiny stitch, bring the needle back up right next to that stitch.



Now, take your second anchoring stitch straight into that first tiny stitch.



Now your thread is anchored sufficiently to stitch the dot. Turn the fabric over, pull your working thread out of the way, and snip off the one-inch tail that you left on the back. Snip as close as possible to the fabric, but don't pull up on the tail with any force. Just try to snip right next to the fabric.



On the front of your fabric, this is what you'll have - two tiny stitches, worked perpendicular to each other, the second stitch stitched into the first.



Now, stitch over those anchoring stitches with two straight stitches, side-by-side, that cover the anchoring stitches. Bring the needle up right above the anchoring stitches and go down right below them, then bring the needle up again in the same exact hole above the ancoring stitches, and go down in the same hole below them, arranging the two straight stitches to lie right next to each other over the anchoring stitches.

If you are working with a single strand of thread, you might have to take several straight stitches to cover your anchoring stitches. The trick is always going up and down in the same hole above and below your anchoring stitches, and making sure your straight stitches are lying side-by-side. This is what will make the dot look round.



Now, turn the work over, and take the needle through the stitches on the back, running through them twice, once in one direction, and once perpendicular to that. If you can't manage a perpendicular stitch, then run the needle under the stitches twice, going in the same direction each time.



Cut your thread close to the fabric, but don't pull up on it before cutting. Just get as close as you can, without risking cutting your stitches or your fabric.



And there's your perfect little dot, floating by itself above the text.

Next up, we'll cover the lettering on that word, using stem stitch and focusing on connecting cursive text and keeping the direction of the stem stitch right.

For more tutorials on hand embroidered lettering and text, visit the Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text Index of tutorials.

Any questions? Feel free to leave them in the comments below, and I'll do my best to answer them!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, October 19, 2009
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To keep this series of embroidery tutorials a bit organized, I'm going to stash all my tutorials for hand embroidered lettering and text on this page, and then I'm going to list this page in the top right column under "Editor's Floss" while the tutorial series is on-going. I'll also have a link on the Tips and Tricks for Hand Embroidery page (which you can also find listed under "Editor's Floss" in the top right corner.

Hand embroidery is an excellent way to personalize gifts, household objects, momentos and so forth. Text and lettering is an excellent way to personalize, but sometimes, writing with a needle and thread can be kind of difficult.

I've put together a series of tutorials to help stitchers improve their embroidered lettering. As the tutorials progress, I'll index each one here so that you can have easy access to it.

I hope you find these tutorials useful and fun!



Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text 1 - This tutorial covers setting up the lettering sampler. In this particular article, you won't learn much about stitching your letters, but there are a few tips and tricks for design transfer discussed, if you want to take a look! You can also get a good look at the text sample that I'll be using in this series.

Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text 2 - This tutorial features lettering in backstitch, but it focuses mostly on how to "travel" your threads in order to achieve a clean, finished look from the front. I discuss the path of the embroidery, noting that the path you would follow for hand writing is not necessarily the same path you would follow for hand embroidery.

Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text 3: Dot Your I's. In this tutorial, I focus on one method of dotting I's. You know how the dot floats so far away from the text? Well, how can you dot, without carrying your threads? I'll show you how, and then the technique can apply for a variety of different dotting stitches.

Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text 4: In this tutorial, the focus is on stem stitch, especially how to travel in the right direction to keep the stem stitch looking like stem stitch, and to keep the working thread in the right place in relation to the needle. This sample is in cursive, so we will also look at how to travel the threads to achieve a nice cursive text, without bulky double lines. Finally, this tutorial also addresses the question of crossing over previously stitched lines.

Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text 5: This tutorial will focus on a suitable stitch for very small text - whipped backstitch - and how to keep the whipped backstitch smooth and consistent in its twist. We'll look at the difference between whipping the stitch while traveling in different directions, and discuss how to avoid changing the direction of the stitching. Also, check out this article on stitch direction for whipped backstitch - it'll show you the difference in the look of your stitching depending on the direction.

Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text 6: Did you know that you can combine your stitches on the same lettering for very nice results? Well, you can, and this tutorial is going to look at using a combination of stitches on the same lettering, specifically buttonhole stitch and stem stitch.

I'll be adding links to the individual tutorials as the tutorials are posted. The series will cover more than five tutorials, but so far, I only have samples embroidered for these!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, October 17, 2009
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Here's the first stitching instruction installment for hand embroidered lettering. Yesterday, I showed you the lettering sample I'll be using for these tutorials, and how I set it up to start stitching. Today, the stitching begins...

The first sample of hand embroidered lettering is on the word "The" at the beginning of my sample sentence ("The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog"). I'm using two strands of DMC cotton and a #8 crewel needle, and the stitch I'm using is backstitch. Fabric and hoop were discussed in yesterday's post.



To begin stitching, I started at the base of the T. With knot in the thread, take your needle down into the fabric about a half an inch away from the base of the letter. Take two small straight stitchs in the fabric, towards your starting point and away from the knot, ending at the back of the fabric. Then, bring your needle up at the very base of the letter, so that you're ready to travel up the line of the T, covering up the small stitches en route.

I've already posted a picture tutorial on beginning your embroidery threads in this manner, if you want to take a look at this technique in detail.



Using small stitches evenly spaced, I'm embroidering the base of the T with backstitch. I stitched all the way to the top of the line.

Now, at this point, if you were hand writing, you would probably pick up your pen and take it to the far left of the top line on the T, put the pen down, and draw a straight line to cross the T.

However, we're not going to do that here. Our last backstitch ended a whole stitch length below the cross line. If we were to take our thread to the left side of the cross line on the T, we'd end up trailing a thread across the back of the embroidery, where it could be seen.



Instead, I started my next stitch on the cross line right in the middle of the line and worked the backstitch all the way to the left end of the cross line.



To return to the center and finish the right side of the cross line, turn your work over. Wrap your working thread around the back of the stitches by "whip stitching" around the back of the stitches. You'll only need to whip the back of the stitches about twice to return you to the center of the cross line.



Finish backstitching the cross line all the way to the right. The next step is to return to where the H crosses the cross line of the T.



To do this, turn your work over and whip stitch around the back of the stitches, to the point where the H crosses the cross line on the T.



You'll only need to whip around the backs of the stitches once or twice - and make sure you don't pick up any fabric! Just take your needle underneath the threads, wrapping them.



I'm working the top of the H that extends above the cross line on the T. This way, I don't have to travel back up here later to finish the H. It's important to look ahead when you're embroidering text, to see the easiest (and "cleanest") path to follow for your stitches. In this case, stitching this little stem here will get it out of the way. Then, I can move back down and do the rest of the H.



Once you get to the top of the H, turn your work over and "travel" your threads back down the back of the stitches by whipping them as you did above.



Continue backstitching down the downstroke on the H. If you were hand writing, once you reached the end of the downstroke, it is likely that you would not lift your pencil or pen to bring it back up to the bump on the H. However, when embroidering text, you don't want to double different parts of your lines - they'd end up looking bulky.

So, just as you traveled your threads on the back before, now you'll turn over your work and wrap the back of the stitches up the point where the bump on the H begins.



The "traveling" on the back (by wrapping your thread around the backs of your stitches) is indicated by the dotted line here. When you travel to the right place, come to the front of your fabric and backstitch the bump of the H.



When you finish the H, turn your work over, and wrap the working thread around the stitches on the back. Cut the working thread.



This is what the back of your embroidery will look like about now. The E in "The" is separate from the other two letters, so I'm not going to travel my thread from the H to the E. The most obvious reason for this is that the thread will be seen from the front, through the white linen. Even using white thread with white fabric, your thread would be seen. And even if you were using DARK fabric with a light thread, carrying your thread across an empty space could still be visible, because the thread can form a small ridge in the fabric, especially once the fabric softens with time. Even though it is (admittedly) a pain in the neck to constantly be changing threads, it is best to get into the habit of changing them rather than carrying them across open spaces. If it's a habit, it won't seem like such a big deal when you have to start and stop often.

If it really bothers you to start and stop your threads often, when working up your text, consider arranging it so that each letter in every word touches. Then you can travel your threads on the back by wrapping them through the back of your stitches, and you won't have to start and stop for individual letters.



Begin the next thread the same way the first thread was begun, by a series of tiny stitches that will be covered up with the backstitch.

Considering the E, I decided to start from the base and work up around the loop, rather than starting at the inside of the loop and working down to the base. My reason for this was that I wanted a neat join, where the loop and the back of the E met, and I figured I could achieve that better by stitching the back of the E first, and then meeting the back after traveling into the loop.

You see, then, that it's a good idea to think ahead along the path that you want to stitch. Notice where the various parts of the letter meet.



When the E is finished, turn the work over and run your working thread under the backs of the stitches, then snip the thread.

And there is the end of the first word, stitched in a simple backstitch, which works well for this style of lettering. Though there are some curves in the lettering, there are not many tight curves, so the backstitch looks smooth and not too blocky with the simple printed lettering.

Next up, we'll work cursive in stem stitch.

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and that there was a little tip or two that was helpful for you!

Other Posts on Hand Embroidered Lettering

Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text 1 - setting up the sampler

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, October 15, 2009
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Using lettering and text in hand embroidery can be a great way to make personalized needlework items. But sometimes it's difficult to know what types of stitches, threads, and stitching techniques to use when writing with your needle and thread. In this series of tutorials, we'll look at stitches and threads suitable for embroidered lettering, along with little tips and tricks for producing neat embroidered writing.

If you want to follow along with this series of hand embroidery tutorials, you're welcome to join me!

You can choose whatever text you wish. The idea here is to learn techniques and to get the feel of stitching lettering, so really, any text will work. If you are the type of person who likes to create "samplers" that can be used for decorative purposes, I suggest picking a quote, short poem, saying, Bible verse or something of that nature that you like, and setting it up in an attractive way using a variety of writing styles, so that you can practice using different stitching techniques and threads on the sampler.

For this series, I sat down with a piece of graph paper and pencil and wrote out a sentence using a variety of handwriting styles. Then, to expand the canvas a bit so that I have plenty of samples, I repeated words and filled out the space with lots of lettering.



Because the sentence covers all the letters used in the alphabet, I chose "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." Before I started writing out the letters, I determined the space I wanted to fill, using my hoop as a gauge. I'm working with a 10" hoop to give plenty of room for the text, with extra room to work out some small tutorials on the side. You might want to work within a smaller space, and that's just fine.



After writing out the text in pencil, I traced over it with a micron pen so that the lines were clear and dark. Fine tipped Sharpies or micron pens are essential tools in my tool box - perfect for this step in any embroidery project.



I'm using a piece of white linen for this project. It is a plain weave (not even-weave) medium weight linen with a relatively close weave. You'll want to use a close-weave fabric - for practice, pretty much anything will do (though you'll find a natural fabric like cotton or linen easiest to work on).

Because the linen is light enough and the lettering on the paper is dark enough, I didn't need a window or light box to trace. I ironed the fabric smooth, laid it on top of the lettering, and traced the lettering onto the fabric with a regular pencil.



With the fabric hooped up, I picked out a few colors of DMC stranded cotton to start with. I'll also be using pearl cotton and floche, and any other threads that come to mind during the series here.

If you plan to join along with the stitching, you'll also want a variety of sizes of embroidery needles (crewel needles) in sizes 3 - 9 or 10. I'll be using size 10 (for tiny text with one thread), size 8, size 5 and probably a size 3 for pearl cotton #5.

So, now I'm ready to stitch! I'll begin with the word "The" (why not?) using a very basic stitch, with a focus on starting and ending threads and "traveling" with your threads so that they are invisible from the front.

Labels: beginner embroidery, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, October 14, 2009
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Frequently, e-mails show up in my inbox requesting pointers on how to hand embroider text or lettering. Here are a few of the questions on this subject that have shown up in the last couple years:

What stitches should I use to embroider a name?

I'm hand embroidering a poem on a quilt. What type of lettering should I use and how do I stitch it?

How many strands of thread should I use to embroider text on a baby blanket?

I want to hand embroider a baseball cap but I don't know what stitches to use. Can you help me?

I'm using stem stitch to embroider a poem, but my stem stitch looks bad especially when I go around corners. Any ideas how I can fix it?

To answer all these questions and more, I've developed a plan...

... and I plan to work on the plan over this weekend. In the upcoming weeks here on Needle 'n Thread, I'll be presenting some short tutorials on embroidering lettering or text by hand.



Not to be confused with stitching monograms, embroidering text or lettering - especially multiple words - so that it looks good and is clear to read can be daunting. I want to address the subject so that beginners especially can get the hang of hand embroidered lettering without suffering too much grief along the way.

Do you have any questions about the subject that you would like to see particularly addressed? If so, now's your opportunity to bring them up, so I can address them in the tutorials!

If you've embroidered lettering before, I'd love to know what your favorite stitch is for lettering!

What do you think? Will this be a worth-while series of short tutorials? Any thoughts or suggestions?

Labels: beginner embroidery, hand embroidered lettering, hand embroidery information, Hand embroidery stitches, miscellaneous embroidery musings, needlework tutorials

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, October 09, 2009
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Last week, I told you about the iron-on transfers from Mani di Fata, which I purchased at Lacis while on vacation. Here's a little towel I worked up, using one of the corner designs in that package. I'm also going to show you (gasp! shock! horror!) the back of the embroidery.

As I mentioned earlier, my favorite way of transferring an embroidery pattern - even if it's an iron-on - is actually by tracing. That's what I did with this particular towel. I taped the iron-on to my little light box and traced the design on using a regular mechanical pencil with #2 lead. There are other ways of transferring designs, of course! I've got a bunch of them explained in the articles under Tips and Tricks for Hand Embroidery, if you're looking for some other way to get your embroidery design onto your fabric. For me, though, for this type of embroidery, I prefer just to trace with a pencil. It's easy, it doesn't require special equipment (you can use a sunny window instead of a light box), and it's really fast.

After transferring the pattern, I picked out colors. Generally, on towels, I stick with no more than four colors, and often only three. In this towel, I used four: green, red, a lighter orangy-red, and yellow.



The design is pretty simple, but bold.



The entire thing is stitched in stem stitch, with the exception of the satin stitched dots around the outside of the flower and the satin stitched center of the flower.



Stem stitch is an absolutely delightful stitch. It's my favorite for line patterns, because it's easy, quick to work, and its rope-like appearance is pretty. Despite arguments contrary to the fact, there is a difference between stem stitch and outline stitch, by the way! If you choose to use outline stitch for lines, you won't get that rope-like appearance.



The Back of Embroidery is generally a subject that comes up either in hushed tones or apologetic tones... I received a funny e-mail from a reader, asking Very Apologetically if I would mind showing the back of my embroidery some time. She was worried because, especially on the towels she was making, the back is not covered up. "Slugs" where the end of the thread is anchored were a concern.

You can see the "slugs" where I wrap the ends of my threads around the backs of the stitches to anchor them. I either wrap (whipping around the backs of the stitches), or just pull the threads through the stitches, taking one extra backstitch around the back of the threads to anchor the thread. You can read about this under Ending Embroidery Threads, if you want. In any case, this is generally how I end stitches in a line on the back of towels.

In certain types of embroidery (needlepainting, goldwork, etc.), if I'm filling an area and I haven't filled it all the way yet, and I need to end a thread, I'll end my thread by taking it into an area that will be filled with other stitches and working several tiny backstitches that will hold the thread. It's the same concept as beginning with anchor stitches, only, in a filled area, you can work the little anchor stitches perpendicular to (and into) each other (without building up a lump!). I've shown this technique on the video tutorial on bullion rose buds, if you want to take a look.



But, on line stitches on the back of a towel like this, where I don't have anywhere to hide little anchoring stitches, I wrap the end of the thread through the stitches on the back. Yes, it makes a bit of a slug. But it's the back! So I think it's ok! Just trim your little fuzzies, and clean it up as best as you can, and I think it'll look fine for the back of the work!



Decorated flour sack towels are useful for a number of purposes besides just drying dishes, hanging on the fridge, wiping the countertop, or sopping up messes. They make terrific basket liners, for one thing. We use them to line bread baskets for serving bread in at the dinner table. You can fold the corners up over the bread to keep it warm, and if you put your embroidered corner on the top, it's very pretty!

Additionally, you can line gift baskets with them. This is great for wedding showers! Instead of wrapping the gift, put it in a basket lined with a towel, and fold the towel over the gift, with the embroidered corner on the top. A nice personal touch!

I like embroidering flour sack towels when I'm in the mood for relaxing, easy needlework that doesn't require any kind of thinking or planning. I usually keep a couple towels "kitted up" in my work basket, ready for moments when I need something to do with my hands, but can't afford deep concentration on needlework.

PS... Great source for flour sack towels: American Chair Store. I use their Deluxe Flour Sack Towel. They're nicer than any I've found anywhere else, and, so far, they've been consistently nice, which is good. They're cheaper by the dozen, so if you plan to decorate many towels with hand embroidery, consider getting them by the dozen...

Labels: beginner embroidery, Embroidery for the Home, embroidery tips and tricks, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, July 20, 2009
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Yesterday, I had the opportunity to take a couple of my nieces out to the studio and set up some embroidery projects with them. They wanted to stitch some "quick" designs onto flour sack towels to use as bread basket liners (and hopefully sell). So, out we went...

... to the studio that was clean and neat, and there we sifted through designs and ideas. Luckily, the towels were already prepared. I had two dozen deluxe flour sack towels from American Chair Store in the cabinet, awaiting designs and embroidery. These are consistently the best flour sack towels I've come across, by the way, and they are worth the cost of $1.60 each if you buy them in packs of 10. (Like everything else, the price, by the way, has gone up... I bought them by the dozen for about $15 not too long ago...)

Contemplating designs, we very quickly settled on the brilliant idea of making use of the iron-on transfers I told you about yesterday. After all, we could kill two birds with one stone: I could see how well the transfers work, and they could have their towels ready for stitching in no time flat.

Anna selected a few different designs: the three cups, cut out and arranged askew on the corner of one towel, the "B-I-S-C-O-T-T-I" design for across the edge of another towel, and a swirly floral corner thing for another towel.

Emma selected one design - a small bunch of plums that she insisted were peaches and are embroidering them as such, so they are coming out looking like apricots.... which is fine. Emma's eight years old, so I've adopted a new policy with her concerning embroidery: Keep It Simple (despite her inclination to want to do what everyone else is doing) and One Thing at a Time. If she finishes the plums-gone-peaches-gone-apricots, she can set up another towel.

So, we got to try the transfers, and this, of course, takes me back to my reasons for preferring to trace rather than use a transfer.



The transfers took pretty well for iron-on transfers. For the most part, the designs came off very clear, and in little corners here and there where they didn't, the fault belongs to the person behind the iron. These particular transfers are definitely made to give a good, bold first transfer.

We tried a couple of the designs twice, making up, for example, two Biscotti towels. The second impression of the design was actually better than the first.



One thing I remembered I don't like about iron-ons is the thick line they can leave if you are trying for a bold impression. If I'm stitching up a towel for a gift, I generally use 2 strands of floss, which keeps the design bold enough, but not chunky looking. I'm not sure if these transfer lines will wash out, so the best bet is to cover them well when embroidering. This'll require at least 3 strands of floss.

Anyway, as far as the transfer itself goes, these work well. Whil I may still prefer tracing my designs, I have to admit that ironing them on is really quick - we were able to set up about 8 projects yesterday in less than an hour.

After setting up the individual towels, we selected floss for each, then bagged up the floss and the folded towel to make up a "kit." Now the gals will have something to keep them busy! They like to stitch and listen to audio books, which is a good passtime for summer, when they're not in the pool or frolicking about doing other things.

That's done, then.

What else am I up to? Well, I've cleaned up the studio (once again) and sifted through a few things to tie up some loose ends. Sometimes, it's just easier not to go on vacation! Playing catch-up doesn't always seem worth it! I've got a heap of mail ready to go out (the birthday give-aways from June! Finally!). I've gone through all my photos and organized them (about 10 times now), looking desperately for photos of the finished pall I embroidered recently. I never found any, which leads me to think I never took pictures of the finished piece! And now it's delivered! I could kick myself for that one - so, for those of you who have asked about the finish, sorry about that.

I'm still trying to catch up on e-mail, but I fear some may have fallen through the cracks, and, just this morning, for the first time, I've finally caught my feedreader up.

The laundry room here at home has a new coat of paint on it (thanks to my niece, Bridget), but the dining room is stacked with all the shelf clutter from the laundry room. I need to tear down my bedroom this week and get it ready for new paint, which will be followed by new furniture and new linens, curtains, etc., in the next couple months. I'm going with periwinkle walls and white trim, all white linens, all white furniture - and the palest of greens and yellows for highlights. I'm excited about that, and am looking forward, especially, to carrying out my Curtain Idea. I'm going to make (or buy) some airy white sheers for both windows and stitch some very simple, loose scroll designs on them in colors to coordinate with the new paint job. It'll be a while before this is realized, though, as the kitchen, dining room, living room and entryway all have priority.

And, in the midst of all that, I'm working on school work for next year, planning classes and so forth. As the summer passes all-too-quickly away, I must schedule several hours a day just to focus on school preparation. Anyone who thinks teachers have it made, with summers completely off, is rather incorrect in that assumption!

That's what's going on in Real Life right now. In Website Life, I'm still working on projects for Needle 'n Thread, including the long-promised long and short stitch tutorials, as well as a slew of new videos. I haven't had any prime video days yet, though - the days are too broken up with other work and visitors and all the hubbub of the summer.

I hope your summer is going well, and that you have time to relax and enjoy working with your needle 'n thread!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Embroidery for the Home, embroidery resources, iron-on embroidery transfers

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, July 14, 2009
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I've been dying to try out hand embroidery on waffle weave towels, because I see a lot of waffle weave out there in colors that I like. I've always thought the texture and relative looseness of the weave might be deterrents to hand embroidery, though. When BJ's package arrived in the mail - replete with a bright yellow waffle weave tea towel - I decided to give waffle weave a try as a ground for hand embroidery.

I'll tell you right off the bat that my approach was simple and not too ingenious. The towel was yellow. I like yellow, red, and white. So - why not big white daisies with red centers? Nothing too extravagant - I planned on filling petals and centers with chain stitch. And that's what I set out to do.

BUT - then I got an e-mail from a reader who embroiders on waffle weave towels, and uses the weave as part of her design... and that's when I saw a much more exciting potential to waffle weave! I'll show you down below...

First, my dabbles with daisies on waffle weave:



Using a tiny micron art pen, I drew a line of random large daisies across the lower edge of the towel. Drawing on this particular weave with a tiny pen tip is somewhat difficult, as the pen snags on the longer threads in the weave. The best thing is to go slowly and to try drawing in smooth long strokes, rather than short sketchy strokes.



Once I had the daisies drawn on, I started foraging for thread. I wanted to use something a bit heavier than regular floss, with a bit of texture to it - but not as thick as #5 perle cotton. I happened to have some #8 perle cotton in both red and white, so that's what I decided to use.



Knowing that my stitching time would be a bit sporadic, I arranged everything in a bag for easy access - hoop, scissors, threads, needles and towel all fit into one of the mesh-like bags that's featured in this month's give-away.



The first time I had a moment, I started stitching. I'm using chain stitch as a filler - nothing too complicated here!



It works great! Waffle weave is easy to stitch on!

Now, this is the thing:

Janice Miller took embroidery on waffle weave to a different level of fun! She went all out, embroidering this design with a variety of stitches, and ingeniously using the waffle weave squares as part of her design. Here it is - her "To Market" towel:



This towel is amazing! It's not just the design, which I think is rather hilarious - the little lady with her perfect curls, sunny hat, breezy dress, carrying the fat chicken (which looks be-dazzled) to market - but it's the meticulous attention to detail in stitching that's really delightful!



Using the squares created by the waffle weave, Janice filled in the dress, hat, and chicken with a checkered pattern.



She filled in many places with chain stitch - the face and arms, the sash on the hat, the bow on the dress, etc. - and worked the hair in perfect bullion knots!



You can see satin stitch, straight stitch as a filling, French knots, running stitch, a buttonhole wheel for the eye... an amazing variety of stitches on a really cute design, all on waffle weave!

So, now you know! Hand embroidery works on waffle weave - and it not only works, but in the hands of some stitchers like Janice, it works great!

Go grab a waffle weave towel and see what you can do with it! You can find them in most stores that have a kitchen linen section, or online through various sources that sell embroidery blanks. BJ found the yellow set at All About Blanks, for example - the set includes a large yellow-and-white checker print, a small checker print, and the matching yellow waffle weave towel.

Just as an aside on waffle weave... my shower curtain is white waffle weave fabric, and I can't tell you how often, when in a position to contemplate the shower curtain, I have considered embroidering it. Hmmmm....

Thanks, Janice, for sending the photos! Thanks, BJ, for the towel!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Embroidery for the Home, embroidery resources, needlework pictures, pictures, readers embroidery, supplies

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, May 19, 2009
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Last week, I set up a "grab-and-go" embroidery project that materialized into a fairly nice Easter gift for my sister's family. The project was an embroidered flour sack towel, with a spring garden design on the corner. I ended up using it to line a matching basket, which I filled with Easter candy and took to the fam. Here's the completed project.

As Easter approached, I didn't think I was going to finish the embroidery on this. By Thursday, this was the extent of my progress...



...and I still had to work the tulip in the corner and the other side of the design.

The bulk of my stitching time actually came on Easter morning, when the world (at least at my house!) was relatively quiet. After going to church very early, I went home and started stitching. By 11:30 am, family and friends started popping in, but I was determined to keep stitching - I was too close not to finish!



The corner tulip ended up mostly purple, with pink highlights (opposite of the two end tulips)



I only finished the one corner. When I first set out on the project, I was wanting to stitch two opposite corners. Ha. Well, I'm perpetually an optimist on that kind of thing - I never gauge correctly how long it takes to embroider something!



I chose a rectangular woven basket in bright pink, to match the flowers. After finishing the towel, I washed it and, being in too much of a hurry, I only let it dry part way, then I tried to iron it dry the rest of the way!

Have you ever ironed something dry? I do it to linen all the time. But the strange thing about ironing something dry is that the thing can feel dry, when it isn't actually dry-dry.

Yep. That's what happened here. The towel was still just the slightest bit damp here and there when I arranged it in the basket. I know, because the jelly beans took on a kind of clammy skin after a bit. "Oh, that's just from kids rummaging through..." No, no! The m&m's - you know, those things that melt in your mouth and not in your hands? They melt on damp towels!

When I realized what had happened, I pulled the towel out of the basket! But not before I got a shot of it with this little fellow:



... and not before the towel was completely bespeckled with pastel-colored-candy-syrupy-sticky-splotchy-gunky mess!

Did I take a picture of THAT?

No.

Remember what your mother always told you: Haste makes waste! And learn from my experience! Rumor has it that the Laundry Queen at my sister's house (that would be my niece Julie, who likes doing laundry for some bizarre reason) has removed the stains, and all is well again with the towel.

Now, isn't that bunny just the cutest thing in the whole wide world?

Labels: beginner embroidery, Embroidery for the Home, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, April 15, 2009
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I've managed to get at least one of every element in the Spring Garden Corner design embroidered so you can see what stitches I'm using, in case you want to embroider the design yourself and don't know what stitches to use. Keep in mind that there are really no absolutes on this kind of project - you can use whatever stitches you want, and whatever stitches will work!

I didn't plan out my stitching before I started - I pretty much worked whatever embroidery stitch came to mind as I got to any particular part of the motif. This has worked well overall, except in one area that I picked out. I'll tell you aaaallll about it...



Here we are so far - the colors are pretty bright and cheery...



Here's one of the "tulips" up close. I'm doing the two end tulips in pink for the outline, but the middle (corner) tulip has a purple outline.

Concerning the buttonhole scallops on the edge, I suggest penciling in the shape of the inside of the scallop - it'll help keep your scallops a bit more even. I didn't bother, but I probably should have.



In order from left to right, you'll see two backstitched rows in yellow, with a green running stitch between them.

The next line is a purple fly stitch following the zig-zags on the pattern, and between the zig-zags, three straight stitches kind of fanned out to fill the valleys of the zigs and zags.

The next line is chain stitch in yellow, interlaced with green.

Then you see another green running stitch - that line's not on the pattern, but I stuck it in there while I was stitching...

And finally, at the tip there, you'll see some buttonhole scallops worked far apart at the base (where the scallops are on the design), but closed at the top.



For this little guy, work the buttonhole wheel first, leaving a large-ish hole in the center. The center is filled with French knots. A chain stitch line is worked around the outside of the buttonhole wheel, and the little petals are daisy stitches.



This is the larger flower, and this is the one I tried something different on and then picked out. I was going to satin stitch the round petals, but it takes too long and it's too solid, and so I changed my mind. Start with the inside - the buttonhole wheel. The center is filled, again, with French knots, and outside the buttonhole wheel is another chain stitch circle. Next, work the petals, and then work the single French knots (they're the yellow ones) last.



I ended up working the petals in a chain stitch spiral, starting on the outside and spiraling in. I didn't work the spirals really close and tight - I didn't want it quite that solid.



Ok, this thing is really weird. I don't know what I was thinking, but this is what it ended up looking like. The easiest way to do this bud thing would be to work large daisy stitches for the flower buds and leave it at that. I worked bullion knots for the two side bud petals, then the middle one is fly stitch, worked vertically and close together. The stames are long straight stitches with a French knot at the end. I couched over the long straight stitch with the same thread, to secure it. On towels, it's not a good idea to have longish stitches floating about...

The green part of the bud is satin stitched in three sections. The two outside sections slant down towards the middle, and the inside section is stitched vertically.



The large leaf is worked in stem stitch, just like the rest of the stems. Stem stitch the longer parts of the leaf outline, but where the leaf juts in to the middle, just use a little straight stitch. The veins are also stem stitched.



All the other leaves are worked in fishbone stitch.

So there it is!

Thank you all for your very kind birthday wishes yesterday! I had a nice birthday, and your good wishes made it even better! Thanks! If you haven't signed up on my birthday give-away post yet, please check that out and join in the fun! I'm going to send one lucky commentor a surprise birthday package to help me celebrate!

Also, just a reminder that The French Needle is running a 10% off special for readers of Needle 'n Thread through April. Check out their kits and charts! They have some really beautiful stuff! (By the way, I'm not affiliated or paid by The French Needle - I'm just pointing out a good resource for embroiderers!)

Hope you have time for your needle & thread today!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Embroidery for the Home, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, pictures, stitch along

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, April 09, 2009
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Yesterday, I showed you my "grab-and-go" embroidery project, a little Spring design for the corner of a towel that I'm going to use as a basket liner. Here's the embroidery pattern for that piece.

This embroidery design comes from a stack of hand embroidery transfers that I got at a garage sale. Most of the designs were loose; the few that were in booklets came from the 1950's, so I'm assuming this one is about the same time period. The original was a mess, so I scanned it and worked from the scanned image, cleaning it up into a vectorized image, which I've saved as a gif file (you can click on it to make it larger, then save it to your computer and resize it if you wish), and also as a PDF file, which you can also resize and print.

The design on my towel corner is about 8 inches wide - just wide enough to print on regular paper. The PDF should work out to about the same (hopefully!)



Here's the PDF:

Spring Garden Corner Design for Hand Embroidery

If you are interested in using the same colors I'm using, here's a list of DMC numbers:

Purples: 208 & 209
Green: 907
Yellow: 743
Bright Pink: 602

I have a blue, too (DMC 794) but so far, I haven't used it, and I'm not sure if I will. It doesn't seem "quite right" somehow.

Of course, you are more than welcomed to use any colors you want!

As I stitch, by the way, I'm just improvising. I'll try to finish enough of the design tonight so that each element is stitched, and then I'll explain which stitches I'm using.

In the meantime, if you want to stitch along, feel free. You can always get started with the leaves - they're all worked in fishbone stitch, except for the largest open one, which is outlined in stem stitch - and the stems, which are worked in stem stitch. The center of the flowers are worked in buttonhole wheels, then filled with French knots. You can see these up close on the introduction to this little project.

For a flour sack towel, I suggest using a better quality one, if you can find one. Some of the flour sack towels out there are very flimsy and seem almost like cheesecloth.

Labels: beginner embroidery, Embroidery for the Home, free embroidery patterns, stitch along

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, April 07, 2009
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Yesterday, I set up a grab-and-go embroidery project. "Grab and go" projects are those "quick" projects that can be taken anywhere or can be picked up for a few quick stitches when you're on the go. I know this week is going to be hectic, like last week, and admittedly, I'm going nuts without simple and quick to work on.

At first, the whitework sampler was providing ok 15-minute stitching "fixes," but the cutwork part is rather tedious, and since it's the same stitch over and over and over again, it does get a bit on the boring side.

For grab-and-goes, I like color and simplicity! I also like cheap materials! If I'm working on this type of project in the car, in waiting rooms, or outside on the front porch, I don't want to be using expensive linen and silk threads. So, cotton on cotton is great!

This particular Spring Towel is a flour sack towel to use as a basket liner for Easter. Flour sack towels make great liners for large baskets that you might serve bread in - or, in this case, that you might arrange Easter eggs and candy in. You embellish at least one corner (I think I'm going to do two on this one), and then you arrange the towel so that the decorative corner hangs over the edge of your basket. If you're putting bread in a basket to serve a crowd, you would arrange the towel so that the decorative corner folds over the top of the bread.

Because it is likely that the towel will come in contact with food and will need to be washed, use colorfast threads (DMC or Anchor work great).



Here's the corner. I've already started stitching. It's a rough and chunky design, and fun to work. I'm not shooting for "perfection" here as much as just a fun, colorful corner. The design extends about 8 inches from each corner.

I transferred the design by tracing it with a regular pencil. All the lines will be covered - and if they're not, that's ok. They'll wash out.



The embroidery pattern is mostly just a series of strange flowers and leaves. The design came from an old transfer I salvaged from some garage sale junque. I altered the design a bit to turn it into a corner pattern.



I was musing a bit over the colors - at first, I thought pretty pastels would be the thing for Spring, but they didn't seem to go with the bold design. So instread, I picked out a selection of colors reminiscent of bright Easter baskets.



I'm pretty sure I'm going to do all the leaves in fishbone stitch. I just love this stitch! I was going to work with two shades of green, but I have a feeling I'll reduce the whole project to as few colors as possible - just bright and bold. We'll see...

This is also my first complete adventure using Q-snaps. I'm a hoop person, personally, but so many people rave about Q-snaps that I thought I should give them a try. I did try them briefly on a piece of linen a while ago, but ... sheesh... no, I didn't like that! Thinking I didn't quite give them a fair trial, I decided to use them from start to finish on this project. I'll let you know my thoughts once I've given them a fair run!

Now, the question is - should we place bets? I'd like to finish this and the opposite corner (same design) by Easter. Do you think I'll get it done?

Labels: beginner embroidery, Embroidery for the Home, Embroidery Projects, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, April 06, 2009
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Sticking with the scrolly theme and following up on my scrolly medallion for hand embroidery, here's a scrolly design that can be hand embroidered as a corner, an edge, the top of something - you name it.

This type of scrolly design is a good way to practice line stitches, especially stitches such as stem stitch, coral stitch, Palestrina stitch, and chain stitch. The design itself would be easy to embroider, and you can add a bit of variety to it by varying your stitches or your threads, or by working different types of stitches side by side.

Think placemats, table cloths, cloth napkins, towels, aprons, dresser scarf, pillow cases ... You can even create a mirror image of the pattern to fill up a square area for pillows, etc.

This is actually a take-off from a sconce on my sister's wall in her living room, with a bit of elaboration to it.

Here's the design. You can click on it for a larger version and resize however you wish. A PDF version follows.



Scrolly Design (PDF)

If you're looking for more hand embroidery designs, check out my Index of Hand Embroidery designs - you'll find all kinds of stuff there, including a long list of patterns available at other websites. Feel free to recommend a website, too, if you know of anyone offering hand embroidery designs...

Enjoy!

Labels: beginner embroidery, free embroidery patterns

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, March 07, 2009
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There are several different ways to go about transferring your hand embroidery design to your fabric so that you can stitch it up accurately. I've written about some of them already, which you can find indexed under Tips and Tricks for Hand Embroidery (under Editor's Floss, always at the top of the right column on each page of Needle 'n Thread!). I've never actually written about this particular method of design transfer because I don't use it often. That may change - thought it takes slightly more time than tracing, it's accurate, lasting, and easily visible.

I think most embroiderers have their favorite way of transferring designs, which they probably stick to pretty regularly. Of course, the manner of transferring a pattern is going to change with choices of fabric and thread.

If you're stitching, for example, on dark fabric, it isn't likely that a regular pencil is going to help much for tracing the design onto the fabric. Neither would a water-soluble fabric marker, really. If you're stitching on white fabric with white threads, you can run the risk of discoloring your threads if you use too soft a pencil and too heavy a hand when tracing your design! Prick and pounce takes a long time - and it's a multi-step process: first you have to prick the design carefully, then you have to pounce the powder on (and sometimes that includes making a felt roll to do so - or even making your own pounce!), and finally, you have to use a tiny paintbrush and paint in all your lines. Oh, then there's the dressmaker's carbon method - which works ok, but what if you end up with a super messy line that you can't cover with your stitches, and you hadn't intended to wash the piece? Or you can't wash the piece easily because you're using non-color-fast overdyed specialty floss? Oh, the options go on and on... and there are many of them.... but they don't all work in all circumstances (except for maybe prick and pounce, but golly - it can be a tedious job to pounce a whole pattern!).

Transferring your embroidery design using tissue paper actually does work in most circumstances. I can't think of any circumstance in which it wouldn't work, really. This is how you go about doing it.

First, you need some supplies: tissue paper, a fine tipped pen, thread, a sharp needle (crewel needles or sharps are fine), and some other miscellaneous things that are nice to have on hand but not necessarily essential.

When deciding what thread to use, I suggest a regular sewing thread that's the same color as the embroidery floss you're using, more or less.



The first thing I did was trace the design I'm using onto the tissue paper. Now, this paper is a bit weird, and I don't exactly know what it is. It was lying around the office - a big roll of it - forever, and my boss finally told me I could take it home if I wanted it. It's a very lightweight yellowish-brown paper, a bit like pattern paper but slightly crisper and very sheer. It's used in our school maintenance and building department to do overlays on building projects, apparently. I use it for everything that requires pattern tracing - mainly because it was really cheap (as in, free)... You can use regular wrapping paper tissue for this part - one thin sheet.

Using my magnetic needleminder and a few refrigerator magnets, I positioned the tissue paper on my embroidery frame.

Now, keep in mind I made a pretty big mistake in this whole process, but it doesn't really change the process - hopefully, it will just serve as a deterrent to you, so you don't make the same mistake!



As you can see, I'm using a green thread to transfer the design. This is the mistake I made! I could have very easily used white thread, and it would not have been as noticeable in this piece (which will be stitched in white). Using green thread requires me to do some very serious (and tedious) thread picking as I go. If I had used the same color that I would be stitching in, then any residue would not be noticeable - but green has an uncanny way of making itself visible on white! That was one of those forehead slapping moments. I used the green because I thought it would look better in photos! I didn't even think about the ease of stitching! Rats!

Using small regular running stitches, stitch over the entire design. The stitches can be fairly widely spaced on open, longer lines, but as you work into detailed and curvy areas, keep your stitches a little smaller and close, to make sure the details can be seen when the tissue paper is removed.

Don't use knots in your sewing thread! Just anchor it as you would if you were basting. You want to be able to pick the design threads out easily.



Make sure that you cover every line in the design, unless there are parts that you know you can "eye-ball" as you stitch. Those little hairy dashes in between the elements of the design are where I anchored my basting thread, by just taking two or three small straight stitches into the paper and the fabric.



Once you've finished stitching, it's time to remove the tissue paper. Gently, pull the paper up and back, away from the stitching. Don't pull it too high in the "up" direction - I find it better just to kind of pull it back low on itself. This keeps the stitches from pulling up out of the fabric.

You'll notice that some bits of tissue still stick in the fabric - that's ok, you can deal with them after you've gotten the majority of the paper off.



The tissue paper will be easier to remove in the larger, open spaces of the design. Still, don't just tear and yank off! Take it easy as you remove the paper.



Once the paper's more or less gone, take your tweezers from your tool box and pick out any remaining little shreds. Once you're finished, you'll have a good representation of your design on your fabric, and it won't smudge, it won't rub off, it won't disappear - you can work with confidence at any pace you wish, without worrying about your embroidery design!



I can't help reiterating a word of warning here, now that the green is so visible! You can imagine how easy it would be, if this were stitched in a fine white sewing thread, to stitch right over that sewing thread with my white embroidery cotton (coton a broder), covering it up for the most part, but not worrying if I don't quite get it. I would, of course, still remove as much as the white sewing thread as possible as I stitched - but if I didn't get it all, I wouldn't have much to worry about as far as visibility is concerned.

I used one strand of green floss. This is a huge mistake! Not only can I not leave a shred of it - it would be too obvious - but because it's floss and not sewing thread, it fuzzes more when being picked out.

So - don't make my mistake! It served well for the pictures - the white sewing thread would not have shown up as well - but it won't be as easy to stitch as it would have been if I had used the white sewing thread!

Give tissue transferring a try, if you're inclined! It's perfect for transfering a pattern especially to dark fabric. There are plenty of ways - tracing being the easiest - to transfer a design to light fabric, but with dark fabric, we often get stuck. This method works great for dark fabrics!

What method do you use to transfer your embroidery designs? Do you see any pros and cons of trying tissue paper? Would you personally bother with this method of transfer, or not? Beginners would especially benefit from input from other embroiderers, so if you have time, drop a comment about the way you transfer your designs! Thanks!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery design, embroidery tips and tricks, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, February 12, 2009
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Do you ever get to the point where you decide to shelf a needlework project indefinitely? Here's one I just shelved...

This is a spring tea cloth from Anchor (a Fleur de Lys kit), worked in a variety of surface embroidery stitches. On its own, when considering the various recommended stitches, it's not anything too elaborate - the stitches are simple, and the interpretation of the individual motifs is equally simple.



The garden image goes all around all four sides. And I think it's pretty enough, but every time I sit down to work on it, I am not particularly "grabbed" (as in, enchanted, delighted, interested, and so forth!).

I'm having a heck of a time deciding on how to stitch those blue bell thingies. The pattern calls for satin stitch, using three strands of floss. Well, that just looks ridiculous! So I tried all different kinds of stitches, from split stitch filling (I think that's what's on there right now) to long and short stitch (I'll probably revisit that one - it was a bit too poofy with three strands, but I'll take Margaret's advice and try it with two), to satin stitch with three threads, then two threads, then even padded and the top worked with one thread. None of the latter satisfied!



I've had this kit, actually, for about two or three years, and I took it out for the first time about a year ago. I worked the round pink things in the front and some of the stems at the time, but then put it away. The next time I took it out, I worked the yellow flowers and then put it away.

So here I am, putting it away again. I thought, about a month ago, that I might be able to finish the piece up for a Christmas present. So I took it out and worked a few stitches.

I'm not sure why this project doesn't grab me. It should be a rather relaxing embroidery project, simply because it's relatively simple. I picture it being fun to work on. Yet every time I take it out, I barely manage a few stitches before I toss it aside for something else! Why?

By the way, Margaret's stitching the same project, only she's almost finished with hers, and she made Vast Improvements on the kit as she went, shading and adding different colors and stitch types, etc. I can't wait to see her finished version - maybe it will inspire some determination in me to take this up again and really finish it!

Do you have any ongoing projects that you regularly set aside for other things? If so, why do you shelf them? And is there any "trigger" that causes you to take them out again and determine to finish them?

Labels: beginner embroidery, Embroidery for the Home, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, December 18, 2008
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Somewhere in the not-so-distant past, at some point, I made some statement about a hand made Christmas, didn't I? Embroidery projects for gifts? Something like that? Are you sure I actually said that? What I'm wondering is whether or not I actually meant it. Perhaps I was joking when I said it... or perhaps I was just a little naive. (Maybe just plain stupid?!) It sure seemed like a possibility at the time, but as the days tick onwards and I keep making cards and embroidering on that riffemrackemfrickemfrackem Christmas greenery towel, I must admit that I'm beginning to wonder....!

Still, the challenge is fun, and I have actually managed to complete a few more embroidered Christmas cards. Tonight, I assembled them and put the finishing touches on them.

You might wonder what you'd have to assemble on a hand embroidered paper card. Isn't, after all, the embroidery enough by itself? I suppose it would be, but I have a tendancy to go overboard on some things. More is not always better. I need to learn that.

There are a few elements of the embroidered card that require assembly, though, depending on how you make the card.

First of all, if you embroider on a separate little decorative piece of card stock, you have to situate that piece onto the folded card. Then, if you want, you can continue to decorate the card... and decorate it.... and decorate it some more. Take, for example, the snowflake card and the wreath card.

First, the snowflake card. I like this embroidery pattern, and it's really very easy to stitch - it goes pretty quickly. The pattern can be found in Erica Fortgens "Merry Christmas" book, I think, though I've been using several different books for patterns lately. I used regular textured card stock, and Sulky rayon machine embroidery thread in white.



It took me about an hour and fifteen minutes to prick the card and stitch it.



Then I started decorating it further, just on a whim. And then I decorated a little more. And a little more.



I added little rhinestone accents and punched out snowflakes. And I went, as I am often want to do, a bit overboard. Still, it was fun.

Then there's the wreath card.



The embroidery on this one took a bit more time - all told, about an hour and forty five minutes. I should have left well enough alone, and mounted the little white square with the pretty wreath onto the red card and just left it. But there were these strange cutout little flowers floating around in my stuff. Scraps, really. And I found I could cut them in half. And in cutting them in half, I realized I could line them across the top of the card. But then I realized they looked lonely, so added a paper strip.



And of course, the wreath needed some "bling," too, so I added a few red rhinestones. And.... sheesh. I did it again.

So that's one kind of assembly when you're embroidering paper cards.

Sometimes, instead of stitching on a cut-out piece of card stock, you might want to stitch directly onto the card itself. I had a plethora of red cards that I bought for practically nothing ages ago (before Christmas preparations were even thought of), so I decided to use those up. I pricked designs on a bunch of them and set about embroidering them.

These cards are simpler. This holly card, for example, is stitched straight onto the card, with no extras to adorn it:



The snowman is also stitched directly onto the card, though the "Merry Christmas" sign at the top is separate.



His little scarf is made out of perle cotton #5 twisted together.



(I hate to admit this, but the whole time I was working on him, he reminded me - and still does - of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters!)

This is a very simple white-on-red snowflake card that took around 40 minutes total to make:



This little swirly Christmas tree is also stitched directly onto the card, too:



After stitching directly onto the card, you still have to do a little bit of assemblage, because the inside of the card, covered with bits of tape securing the threads, is most distressingly messy, and that needs to be covered up!



To cover the inside, I choose a matching decorative paper, cut it to fit (sometimes with a straight edge, sometimes with a decorative, depending on my mood - or whether or not I want to mess with changing blades on my cutter), and glue it into the inside of the card.

For the holly card above, I chose a gold holly card stock.



It doesn't always have to be card stock, though. For the inside of the swirly tree card, I used a decorative paper, in a green holly pattern.



If you don't have decorative scrapbooking paper, I've found that wrapping paper works great, too!

If you're going to add any extra touches (like the gold beads on the swirly Christmas tree), do that AFTER you've covered up the inside of the card with decorative paper, because it's much easier to glue the inside paper down smoothly when you don't have bumps on the front of the card.

I use strip adhesive, by the way. It's so easy, it's worth the cost of the adhesive. When you can get the stuff on sale, it's worth picking up refils!

I still have a few more cards in the works, like this sparkly bauble card that still needs a few more baubles and a message.



At the rate I'm going, though, I don't think I'll be sending hand made cards to my whole list! Still....



It's not a bad collection. Maybe I could do the whole list. A few late nights... early mornings... enough spiked egg nog...

Labels: beginner embroidery, Christmas, embroider on paper, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, December 12, 2008
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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, December 04, 2008
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I finished the hand embroidery on the corner of this bread basket liner --- well, it's a towel, actually, but it'll be used as a bread basket liner.

I made a mistake on part of the embroidered design - can you find it?



Unfortunately, I tend to be the type of stitcher who gets caught up in the mistakes on my work. I really see them! And perhaps that's the case with most stitchers and crafters. But sometimes, I think it's quite alright to let a mistake go, and that's absolutely what I'm doing in this case!! But I'd be interested to know what you would do... would you take it out and re-do it?



Have you found it yet? Here's a hint:



And here's the other hint:



Would you re-do the little circles? I'm not. If nothing else, they make it characteristically hand stitched. A machine would not have made the mistake of stitching a mirror image using a completely different stitch!

I'm making a series of these towels, with similar, simple corner designs, for my sister for Christmas. She's a cook and an entertainer - she has large crowds at her home often for big meals. In fact, I think her daily meals for her family (and friends - there always seem to be guests at her table) would be considered "fancy" meals for most people. She's the Queen of Hospitality, and a great cook. She always sets a nice table, not just on formal occasions, but for casual daily dinners as well. One of her signature items is bread. A day doesn't go by that she doesn't have bread going - rising, baking, rising, baking - the smell permeates the house. She makes artisan loaves of naturally leavened bread; she makes French and Italian breads; she makes great crusty dinner rolls and melt-in-your-mouth soft rolls and fruit and nut breads; she grinds her own wheat and makes a wonderful, nutty wheat bread as a regular staple for the family. With crowds at the table, she uses large baskets lined with flour sack towels for bread. I thought a set of nicely embroidered flour sack towels to use solely for lining bread baskets would be a good gift.

So, let's see - how far away is Christmas? I've finished one towel. I have a Christmas-themed one in the works. I intended to make six towels altogether. I figured I could make two a week, and still stitch on other necessary items, if I stuck with Really Simple Designs, like the one featured here. But the Christmas one is slowing me down! I wasn't supposed to fill in the designs, but satin stitch seemed perfect for the berries, and the pine cones look better in long and short stitch than they do merely outlined. Aaargh. Six might be a bit ambitious at this rate!

Anyway, I'm still trying to dig up some simple corner patterns. The one I used on this towel above was a lot of fun - I may do it again, in a different color scheme. I may draw up a wheat pattern to use, too, if time allows! I'd like to share this pattern with you, but it isn't mine. I need to check the source (it's from a huge envelope of older patterns that a friend dropped off one day) to see if it's copyrighted.

And, finally, speaking of time - I'm out of time for the day! I hope all you Americans have a great Thanksgiving weekend. Teaching has its advantages - I've got a four day weekend, during which I plan to get some serious embroidery done and I hope to devote a lot of time to the website, too. I've scheduled a filming session for Saturday mid-morning, so keep your fingers crossed for me! If I have sunshine and a relatively quiet day, I should be able to actually finish some of those hanging video tutorials of more embroidery stitches!

For now - I must go bake pies!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Christmas, Embroidery for the Home, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, November 26, 2008
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If you're gearing up for the holidays and have it in mind to make your Christmas cards, you might consider embroidering them. And if you're considering embroidering your Christmas cards, you might be looking for books to help you out!

Our little embroidery guild has been working on embroidered cards the last two times we met (last night and a month ago). I thought it would be fun to introduce the ladies to embroidery on paper, in case they wanted to make their own cards, gift tags, ornaments, etc. - and it would make a welcome break from the on-going saga of the silk sampler!

I had a few books on the subject of paper embroidery - but after a while, they all seemed kind of ho-hum since I had seen the patterns so often before. I decided to spice things up by adding a few more books to the collection before last night's meeting.



The first book book is Basics of Embroidery on Paper
by Erica Fortgens. I really like Erica's books, primarily because of the patterns in them. She's got a huge variety of patterns in this one, and a nice selection of new Christmas patterns. As far as explanations of techniques are concerned, her books lack a bit, but the basics are there, and the abundant amount of really pretty patterns make up for the lack of technical discussion.



The second book is Embroidery on Paper for Every Occasion
by Joke and Adriaan de Vette. In this book, there's a little more discussion on technique, and some very nice patterns, including holiday patterns. In fact, there's even a Madonna and Child pattern in this one, if you like religious themed cards. The lamp on the front of the books is typical of the ornate and delicate style of the patterns in here.



The third book is Embroidery on Paper (A Passion for Paper)
by Cynthia Rapson. I bought this book particularly because it focuses a LOT on original finishes for paper embroidered items. In fact, it focuses mostly on finish work, which is nice. The drawback is that it doesn't focus that much on the embroidery itself - there are no patterns in this book for the actual pricking of the paper. The author relies on brass stencils, which is nice and all, but if you don't have the stencils, it ends up costing beginners considerably more to get into paper embroidery if they start with this book. But again, she really goes into some interesting and unique finishing techniques for cards and other paper products (including paper boxes, little paper memory books, paper purses, etc.). Since I had books that focused on the embroidery, I thought this was a worthwhile investment to show how an embroidered piece of paper could be finished into all kinds of things. One other shortcoming with this book is that the author gives stencil numbers for the embroidery and embossing stencils she uses, but she never says who makes the stencils. Not very helpful!

Each of these three books has its own merits. If I were getting started with paper embroidery, I'd pick one of the first two; if I were looking for finishing ideas after already knowing the basics of embroidering on paper, I'd consider the third book.

So, if you've got the bug to create your own greeting cards this year - and, hey, maybe you could make it a New Year's Resolution, to make all your own cards throughout the year - you might want to check out these three books. They're fun! I like all three (even if I do list a few disadvantages of them!) I think if I had to pick my Absolute Favorite in this batch, it would be Embroidery on Paper for Every Occasion (the second one listed). They've got some great little patterns in there!

If you want to check them out through Amazon, you can use any of the links above or these links below. I do the affiliate thing through Amazon - in truth, it doesn't make that much! But if you do shop through Amazon, it would be Really Nice if you went through my links, since I get a small (minute) kickback, and every wee little bit helps! Thanks!

Labels: beginner embroidery, book review, embroider on paper, embroidery books

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, November 25, 2008
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On a current project, I'm embroidering some satin stitched red berry thingamabobs. I have no idea of they are accurately depicted as far as Mother Nature is concerned, but, in bright red, they go well with the spray of evergreen and pine cones around them. I had a little misadventure with some satin stitching, so I wanted to show you the problem and the solution.

First, the problem: The berries are not huge, but they're a decent size at their widest point (perhaps three quarters of an inch on the larger ones, at most). Satin stitch is not meant to be used on very wide spaces - I'd say an inch to an inch and a half should be the longest span of satin stitch, and even that might be a bit too much, depending on the thread and what you do underneath the stitching.



Here are the berries in question, relatively close-up. I'm not so keen on those darker centers, but since they aren't the issue, let's just ignore them for now!

So far, three berries are fully satin stitched. The top left is outlined and padding stitches have been worked perpendicular to the direction of the top satin stitched layer that will be worked next.



The arrows point to the berries in question, which, from far away, don't look so bad.



But, when you get really close to the one on the lower right, you can see here some ridges in the stitching. Not too attractive. Besides being ridged, the stitches seem a bit loose. On the berry to the left of this, you can also see a bit of ridging in the satin stitching.



This berry, however, is fine. And it has the longest length satin stitching. Longer lenghts of satin stitch are usually the cause for ridging in stitches - because the stitches are longer, the tension cannot be maintained as well, especially if the fabric loosens in the hoop. And once the fabric is out of the hoop, with long satin stitching, you really risk your stitches flopping apart altogether.

So how is that solved? What's the difference between the two berries on the bottom where ridging is evident and the longer berry on the top, where the stitches lie perfectly smoothly?

The difference is in the padding. For most satin stitching, at least one layer of padding is essential, especially if the stitch is half an inch or longer (using regular floss). The more space the stitch needs to cover, the thicker the padding should be. The padding not only provides lift underneath the satin stitch, but it also provides friction for the satin stitching threads and a stable base for them to rest on.

In the lower two berries, I used one strand of floss for the split stitch outline underneath the satin stitching, and one strand of padding, worked inside the split stitch outline, perpendicular to the satin stitched layer.

One strand on the padding was not enough; it was a weak, skimpy foundation for the satin stitches.

On the top berry, I switched to two strands for the padding stitches, and the increase in density underneath the satin stitches helped them lie better and filled the space in undereath, so that, once the tension is removed (that is, the hoop is taken off), the satin stitching will still look terrific. On the other berries, the satin stitches will shift, because they aren't well padded.



On very small areas of satin stitching, like the light green pod in the midst of these evergreen needles, little or no padding is required. In fact, I did outline the little pod, and I worked a scant filling with one strand of floss longwise down the pod, then satin stitched over it. But on a tiny space like that, I could've gotten away with not filling it at all.

Another tip on the satin stitching: use one strand of floss. Yes, it takes longer, but the secret to nice satin stitch is zero ridges - a perfectly smooth surface. If you use two or more strands of floss, they'll twist on each other and then won't lie perfectly flat, parallel to each other. You could use a laying tool, which would help smooth two or more strands out, but even then, you get a slight bunching in the hole where the threads emerge. Satin stitch generally just looks better when one strand of floss is used.

Many stitchers are intimidated by satin stitch. "I can't get mine to look smooth." "My edges are messy." I hear this a lot! It's not a difficult stitch; generally, it's just a matter of practice while following a few tips:

1. Stitch the outline of the area you are satin stitching in split stitch. When you stitch your satin stitch, take your satin stitches just over the split stitch line. This split stitch line will help keep your edges straight, and will barely lift the satin stitch up off the fabric. Don't angle your needle back under the split stitch line before going back into the fabric. Just go straight down into the fabric just on the other side of the split stitch line.

2. Pad your satin stitches at least lightly. Work the padding stitches perpendicular to the direction of the top layer of satin stitches. If you are doing two layers of padding, stitch the first layer in the same direction as your satin stitch, stitch the second layer perpendicular to the first, and then your final layer (the satin stitch) will be perpendicular to the second layer of padding.

3. Use more padding layers or thicker thread for padding (or even felt, depending on what you're embroidering!) for larger spaces of satin stitch. When you pad the area, you don't have to take the thread all the way across the back - you can come up right next to where you went down in the fabric. However, when you do your satin stitching, the satin stitch should carry all the way across the back of the area you're covering, in order to keep the correct tension on the thread.

4. Use only one strand of floss for the final satin stitching layer. Make sure you carry your thread across the back of the area you're covering.

I hope these tips come in handy for you. Satin stitch is worth practicing! It really is a beautiful stitch!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, November 21, 2008
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This weekend, I didn't manage a whole lot of embroidery-related tasks, much to my disappointment. Still, I did manage a couple things: 1. to assemble a couple projects into easy-access packages so that, when I can snatch some time for stitching, they'll be ready for snatching; 2. to stitch up most of a towel, thanks to some late night hours...

I'm stitching up a few sets of flour sack towels for Christmas presents. The designs are varied. Some I drew, some I copied, some I adapted. In every case, I tried to keep the designs relatively bold, with clean lines, for quick stitching in a variety of line stitches.



After ironing a couple towels and tracing the designs on to them using a light box and pencil, I selected no more than six colors (but in truth, I think four colors are sufficient), and put the threads and the folded towel into a handy-dandy zip-loc bag. Now, when I have time to devote to this kind of embroidery, I've got everything on hand to start one of these projects. I'm glad about that, because I only have a gazillion more projects to complete before the holidays!!



I had a bit of time later Saturday evening for some focused stitching, so I set out on one of the towels.



I'm just using four colors (two shades of green, a darker burnt red, and a reddish-orange) and two stitches - stem stitch and chain stitch.



I was going to throw two shades of blue in with these colors, but I'm glad that I didn't!



I'm about two-thirds of the way finished on this one. I'm only doing one corner - enough for a splash of color.

Here's hoping that this week presents a few more opportunities to make some headway on Christmas gifts! I'm under a little crunch at work, so we'll see what develops on the home front in the evenings. I still have the front of the goldwork and silk ornament to complete - just a tiny bit more to go! Keep your fingers crossed for me that I can finish it this week!

If you haven't signed up for this month's stash give-away, don't miss your opportunity to win some really good threads and stuff!

That about covers my weekend as far as embroidery goes - I hope you had the opportunity to spend more time with your needle 'n thread and were able to accomplish everything you wanted to!

Enjoy your Monday!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Christmas, Embroidery for the Home, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, November 17, 2008
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Continuing with this series of photo tutorials on beginning and ending your threads in hand embroidery, here's a very simple way of ending your embroidery threads without using a knot.

I stitched a line of broad stem stitch to demonstrate this, using a waste knot to anchor my thread before starting. This method of ending threads, though, will work with practically any kind of stitch.

Once you're ready to end your thread, take your needle to the back of the fabric (with the last stitch) and turn your work over.



Run your needle under the back of two or three stitches.



I like to "anchor" my ending thread by taking the needle back under the last stitch - it's like making a backstitch over back of the last stitch you went under. This "locks" your working thread and makes it a little more secure. So, backstitch over the last thread you went under in step #1, and then continuing threading your needle under the line of stitches, until you've about covered your needle. Then pull the needle through.



Snip your working thread.



You can see here with the "anchor" stitch is. With finer threads, it won't be as obvious, but here, I'm working with a #5 perle cotton, so it's a wee bit bulky. Still, I use them even with cotton perle. It doesn't make enough of a bump to be felt or seen from the front.

So that's one way to end your threads, and perhaps the easiest way!

If you're new to embroidery, you may want to check out the other tips and tricks on beginning and ending your threads found here on Needle 'n Thread.

Enjoy your stitching!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, October 24, 2008
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Usually, my embroidery classes for kids end when the summer comes to a close, and I don't really think about children's embroidery projects again until the following spring. But that changed this year, with the phone call of a friend.

I have a friend who is a teacher's aid for a fourth grade class of 29 students. She thought it would be fun for the kids to do a little embroidery project for art class, so the other night we met and bounced around some ideas, using scraps of felt and bits of thread leftover from last summer's classes.

Since she's thinking the project would be good for the last three weeks before Christmas break, we migrated towards the idea of little individual tree ornaments made out of felt.

I didn't have a lot of felt on hand, since we used it up last summer, but I did have a length of dark brown wool felt that served for mucking about on. This is what we managed to stitch up while we were discussing possibilities:



The colors are not, overall, too appealing for fourth graders, but that can be adjusted. But the concept is there: basic embroidery on the front in a cute design (not necessarily this one!) backed by a second piece of felt, and buttonholed all around. Simple enough.



We only used three stitches, really: whipped running stitch, daisy stitch, and buttonhole or blanket stitch around the edges.

But this is the thing...

My friend has never (that's right, never) embroidered before! So ... not only will this be a crash course in simple embroidery (she won't have a problem with that), but also a bit of a crash course in how to organize for such a project and how to teach it in a logical and ordered way to a class of 29.

These are some of the pointers I've given her:

1. Limit their options. As we were talking and enthusiasm was abounding, we came up with all kinds of possible shapes for ornaments: gingerbread folk, houses, trees, hearts, ornament shapes, simple bird shapes, simple flower shapes, etc., etc., etc. Oh, I agree they'd all be cute... but with 29 students on a first-time project, limiting the students' choices will help minimize confusion.

2. Limit the number of stitches for instruction, and keep the stitches simple. I suggested instructing on no more than four basic stitches.

3. Limit the number of colors for the projects - again, I'd limit them to four.

4. Pre-design the ornament, drawing out the design on it. This is where there can be some variation - draw different designs on the ornaments, so that they aren't all exactly the same. This will give the students a sense of individuality, but it won't leave the burden on them for deciding "what to do" on their ornament. If the designs are pre-printed on the fabric, they can start on the projects a whole lot faster!

5. Plan everything well in advance. Make sure all supplies (felt cut-outs, threads, plenty of needles, etc.) are all on hand, and divide up a little package or kit for each student. Use zip-lock bags, so they have something to keep the project in. Plan the instruction out in step-by-step increments, allocating enough time to each step.

6. Print out a picture diagram for each stitch, and give a photocopy of each to the students. Maybe even make blown-up copies of the diagrams to use while instructing on the stitch. If they can look at the diagram as you walk them through it, then they'll be able to understand the diagram better and can refer to it for help on their own (whether at home or in the classroom).

7. Plan for small group instruction. While the whole group is occupied with a task, break off into small groups to give more individualized instruction.

8. Make sure to plan in enough quiet stitching time, in which you can circulate and help individuals, and in which the students can get the "rhythm" of the stitch down.

9. Although there will be two instructors in the room, perhaps consider finding one other assistant to help out. 29 first-time little stitchers will have lots of unthreading needles!

So those were my recommendations. I'll be teaching her the basics of embroidery over the next couple weeks, and we'll narrow down ideas and make supply lists for this series of embroidery classes.

My question to you: Any other suggestions for this venture? Or any alterations on my suggestions above that you think would be helpful?

I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

Other news:

If you haven't signed up for my October stash give-away, don't forget! The deadline is Tuesday morning, 5:00 am my time. See the details on the original post.

In Country Bumpkin's e-mail newsletter that I received this morning, they also mentioned the advantage for overseas shoppers that I mentioned yesterday. A year's subscription to Inspirations is averaging just over $50.... much better than $70 and higher, so it really is a good deal!

Enjoy the weekend!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, needlework pictures, pictures, wool felt

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, October 10, 2008
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Continuing with the various ways you can start and end your threads in hand embroidery, this picture tutorial shows you how to use anchor stitches when embroidering a line. If you're not familiar with this method of starting threads, you might find it a bit strange, but bear with me! Read through the tutorial, and you'll see why it's useful to know how to do this.

Using this technique for starting your threads only requires you to work from the front of the fabric. You don't have to turn your fabric over to run your threads under anything, and you don't have to keep a finger on the back of your threads to make sure you're crossing over the thread on the back. This is straight-forward, front-of-the-work stuff. Knowing how to start a thread working solely from the front of your work - and still not using a knot - can be very handy...

This works best with a thicker line stitch. If you're working a very fine stem stitch line, or a back stitch line, you might prefer a regular waste knot. Still, you'd be surprised how invisible you can make these anchor stitches, even on relatively fine lines.

I'm going to be stitching this line with the heavy chain stitch.

Method of Work

Begin by placing a knot near the end of your thread. Here, I've left a tail that's unnecessarily long. You don't have to have a long tail - the closer your knot is to the end of your thread, the less thread you use. However, you do want enough of a tail after the knot to be able to pull up on your thread before you cut it.



Within an inch (or even half an inch) of your starting point, take your needle from the front to the back of your work so that the knot is on the top of your work.



Between the knot and your starting point, take one tiny backstitch. Here, because this is a loosely woven fabric, I can easily take a stitch over one thread. In a fine, tightly woven fabric, you might pass over two threads. But you're aiming for a relatively tiny back stitch, in any case - over one or two threads of the fabric, depending on the weave of the fabric.



Working away from the knot and towards your starting point, bring your needle back up to the front of the work just on the other side of the tiny backstitch.



Now take your needle down into the middle of the backstitch, splitting it. As you pull this stitch, you want to apply enough tension to sink the stitch into the first backstitch. Don't pull so hard that you distort your fabric or stitches - just enough to pull the second stitch well into the first.



Still working away from the knot and towards your starting point, bring the needle back up to the front of your work, just on the other side of your second stitch...



...and take it back down into the stitch before. Essentially, you've just made three split stitches, only you're splitting your stitches from the top, rather than from underneath.



Pull that third stitch enough to bring it down into the second. Here, you can see it's sitting up a bit.



Pull up firmly on your thread tail, and snip off the knot, right above the fabric. The thread will boing down to the other side of your fabric.



And now you're ready to stitch. Looks bulky, doesn't it? Hard to believe it can be covered and not noticeable...?



Here's the beginning of that petal, worked in heavy chain, covering up those stitches. You'd be surprised, actually, how well these anchor stitches can be covered up with a line stitch, even line stitches finer than the heavy chain. I've used this method for regular stem stitch and the anchor stitches have been invisible.

Pros of Using Anchor Stitches on a Line

1. The technique doesn't require much thread, so there's very little waste.

2. You can work solely from the front of the fabric. This is especially handy when you're working on a larger piece that's a pain to turn over.

3. It's fast - there's no turning over, running under, or anything like that. You jump straight in to stitching.

Cons of Using Anchor Stites on a Line

1. On the very finest lines, they could be visible. But ... you can make them fairly invisible with a little practice.

2. I can't think of any other ones. Can you?

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, needlework tutorials, pictures, threads

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, September 28, 2008
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A couple years ago, I wrote about a random sampler that I began on a road trip. Lost in the labyrinthine oblivion of my website, I didn't even have the post available in my gallery. But you know, I liked this piece.

I remember the pleasure I had working random stitches all over the place, doing whatever occurred to me, using whatever thread. There's a real pleasure in that. It's just so... random.



I also remember having specific plans for the piece. Hahhahahaha.



It has nestled, neglected, in a basket of other neglected scraps, trials and errors.



But today, I'm resurrecting my Random Sampler! I'm going to go look at it again. I'm going to see if I can make something of it. I'm going to decide if I like it as well in person as I think I remember. And then... if I do, I'm going to finish it into something.

I have no idea what.

Along with that plan, I've got a list of to-dos about half a page long. Six of them are needlework & blog related. Seventeen of them are not. I'm not sure why Saturdays are so short...

Some of the needlework and blog related activities:

I'm planning the long and short stitch "classes" or lessons still. I have decided to take Joey's advice, and work an individual motif at a time, rather than a whole project. And in fact, I'm arranging individual motifs into a sampler of sorts, so I'll be showing you that soon.

I've got to edit a few videos. I don't even want to think about it!

I have to clean up the studio and get it ready for a guild meeting Monday evening. In the process, that's when I'll pull out the Random Sampler.

I will be planning my Saturday afternoon sessions - I'm going to do some Christmas card sessions with the kids on Saturdays over the next couple months, and I'd like to get that going next weekend. I can't do that without proper planning. So I plan to properly plan today. Besides using designs I already have from books and online sources, I have several card patterns (embroidered cards, you know!) bouncing around in my head. They need to come out on planning paper, and then they need to be tested. So that's something I'll be writing up.

I must, today, finish the goldwork project I'm working on. I've got to get it in for framing, since it's a wedding gift and I want it finished on time. So I will finish that today. And take photos....!

I must clean, organize, line up - all the related activities associated with getting ready for upcoming projects. For example, I have to pick out the stitching on the baby booties and get the supplies put together for those and packed into a bag, so I can work on it when time allows and everything will be at hand. I need to assemble all my threads for the Pelican (and that's a good thing, because I have them scattered hither and thither).... oh, bother. This is going to be my "junk drawer" category for the day.

Ok. You're right. I need to face reality: What can I actually accomplish today? I suppose we'll have to see!

.... I'm thinking I should skip doing laundry ...... and do I really neeeeed to vacuum? Heh heh heh.

Have a great weekend!

Labels: beginner embroidery, needlework pictures, pictures, sampler, wool felt

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, September 27, 2008
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Here's a little photo tutorial for another common way of beginning your threads when you embroider. This is a good method to use when you're going to be stitching on tighter curves, but you can also use it on straight lines, or filling, or any time you start a thread!

I call this an "Away Waste Knot," to distinguish between it and the waste knot I described earlier. "Away Waste Knot" doesn't have a very good ring, though, does it?

The Away Waste Knot: Method of Work



I'm going to stitch around that curly shape on the right. Start with your fabric up, a knot in the end of your thread, and take your needle down into your fabric from the top a few inches away from the point you intend to start stitching, so that your knot is on top of your fabric (as shown above).

Now, it will make things a whole lot easier if you take your thread down into your fabric at least three inches (and possibly more) away from your starting point. It is also wise to make sure your thread isn't crossing the design, if there are "blank" areas in the middle of the design. To eliminate any difficulty of catching your thread with your stitches after your thread has crossed over a blank area (risking visibility on the front), make sure the path between the knot and where you're starting isn't in line with your stitching.

I didn't do that, and you'll see what happens here - but it isn't a big deal on a design this small...



Well, that was easy enough, wasn't it? Stitch whatever you intended to stitch....



... and then pull up on your knot, and snip it close to the fabric. You need to pull up a bit on these knots before you clip them close to the fabric - you want the tension from pulling up on them to "boing" the thread back under the fabric for you.



This is the back of the work. You can see that I've cut the knot off, and the thread is just hanging there, waiting. It isn't stitched over (except for one tiny stitch, where it crossed over the design).



Thread the thread back onto your needle. With the limited length of your thread here, a needle threader would come in really handy.

I suppose you've probably noticed that my thread here is really too short for much manipulation with the needle. If your length of thread is longer, then at this point, you would simply take your threaded needle, and, passing under the back of the stitches, you'd wrap your threads on the back of the stitches to secure them.

I don't like using a super long length of thread with this type of knot. Well - I take that back - it depends on the thread. But if I'm working with a more expensive thread, or a specialty thread that I don't have much of, I don't want to waste a lot of it.

But, if the thread is too short, you're not going to be able to manipulate your needle... and you won't be able to wrap around the back threads. So what do you do? I have two different approaches.



The first approach is to take the needle eye first through the back of the stitches. But this can be really incovenient, because it means you have to un-thread and re-thread in order to move your needle around.

So, in comes the tool....



I use a tiny crochet hook that I keep in my tool box, just for this. It's a #12, so it's small enough to slide under (hook face down) behind the back threads, grap the thread, and pull it through beneath the stitches. You can very quickly pass your short thread underneath 5 or 6 stitches with ease this way.

They make tools for this, too - specialty tools. But I crochet hook will cost about a dollar, and it comes in handy for lots of little things, so it's nice to have one on hand. The disadvantage of the crochet hook is that it graduates in size up the handle, so it isn't suitable for passing under a long row of stitches. But it works great for passing behind one or two stitches.

Ok, so, last step: Trim up the little tails of your threads to neaten.

Pros of the Away Waste Knot:

1. It's easy. You don't have to mess with anchoring the beginning thread right away, so you can launch straight into stitching. You also don't have to worry about crossing over the thread as you stitch, as with the regular waste knot.
2. It is a good way to secure threads neatly, after you're finished stitching with that thread.
3. It works great when you're stitching something on a tight curve, where a regular waste knot wouldn't work.

Cons of the Away Waste Knot:

1. It can make you a lazy stitcher. I do know people who riddle their work with these kinds of knots, planning to cut them at the end. Unfortunately, in the meantime, they've stitched over the crossing threads on the back.... and over them again... and so forth, until the back of the work is a mess. I think, in their eagerness to keep stitching, they don't stop to think that, at the end, they're going to have to take probably even more time to finish off threads, since they have a clean-up job to do, too. It's just better not to be lazy about starting and ending threads correctly. You'll be much happier with the finished results of your work if you take the time to run your threads under with each thread, or at least with each section or motif of a larger work.

2. It can be very wasteful! It uses up more thread than most methods of starting your threads. If you want to use this waste knot the easy way, you'd allow yourself a minimum of three inches (and really, for ease, probably more like four) to work with at the end. Considering there are ways of starting a thread that take up less than an inch of thread, this approach comes off as pretty wasteful. Now, if you're working with a thread that's inexpensive and readily available, and in fact you have a surplus of it yourself, it's not a big deal. But when you're working with a thread that costs $3 - $5 (or more!).... well. Three or four extra inches every time you start a thread can really add up!

3. It can be inconvenient if the knot is not far enough away. If you don't have a tool to pull that thread under, it can be a regular pain in the neck. You could use the eye of your needle just to "scrape" the thread under if you had to, but that really is a pain, and you can distort your stitches on the front, doing so.

But, though the cons seem to outweigh the pros, the away waste knot has its place and can be quite convenient to use. So ... try it! See what you think! And let me know how you liked it, if you do give it a try!

You can find more ways of starting and ending your threads under Tips and Tricks for Hand Embroidery, in the article titled Starting and Ending Threads.

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, needlework tutorials, pictures, threads

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, September 25, 2008
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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, September 23, 2008
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One of the most frequently asked questions I receive via e-mail is "How do I begin my embroidery thread without using a knot?" Way back when Needle 'n Thread first started, I wrote a post (with a really corny title) about waste knots. But sometimes, it's better to see it in pictures, so...

I worked up a series of photo tutorials on starting threads when you embroider. There are several ways to begin your embroidery thread, and I'll be covering my favorite ways with these tutorials over the next week or so. I'll also categorize them in an easy-to-find index.

The Waste Knot

We'll start with the easiest one (in my opinion...), the waste knot, which is great to use when you're stitching along a line. It's very convenient to use when you're beginning a thread that is not adjacent to any other embroidery stitches, although I sometimes like to use a waste knot even if I am adjacent to other stitches, too.



You begin on the front of your fabric, and yes, you do use a knot! Put a small knot at the end of your thread. Then, with the top of your work facing up, take your needle down into your fabric about an inch or so down the line from where you will begin stitching.

You want to head towards the waste not as you stitch. I'm going to use a stem stitch here.

Take your first stitch forward, then turn your work over:



I'm turning the work over here, so you can see the back. Usually, when I use a waste knot, I don't turn the work over. I use a finger to move the thread on the back up and down, to make sure I'm crossing over it. Once you get used to the whole concept of a waste knot, you'll also get used to manipulating the thread on the back up and down, so that you don't have to turn your work over.

Each time you come up to the front of your work from the back, you want to cross over that thread that's lying across the back of the line you're stitching, so that you are, in a sense, couching that thread down.

Alternately, some stitchers like to pierce through the line of thread on the back, rather than cross over it, stitching through the back thread down the line. I don't really like doing that, especially if I'm using a thread that has any "fuzz" to it, because the fuzz can pull back up with your stitching. Also, I think on some threads, splitting the thread tends to weaken it or fray it, which would make this whole concept somewhat useless!



On the front of the work, you want to stitch up to the knot, checking the back to make sure that you're crossing the thread (or using your finger on the back of your work to move the thread up and down so you can cross over it).



When you're within a stitch of the knot, pull up on the tail of the thread to lift the knot off the fabric, then snip the thread right under the knot, close to the fabric.



On the back of the work, you will have a neatly couched line, and your thread is now secured without leaving a knot in your work. Simple, isn't it?

Pros of the Waste Knot

1. It's very easy to use for straight lines and gentle curves, and it works great for surface embroidery, needlepoint, cross stitch, and other counted techniques.
2. It conserves thread, compared to some other ways of starting threads. At the most, you lose around an inch and a half of thread in the anchoring process and in the knot.
3. Once you get used to it, you can manage a waste knot solely from the front of the fabric, which is convenient.
4. It's a great way to start a new thread when you're not working adjacent to any other embroidery stitches (or even if you are, if you want).

Cons of the Waste Knot

1. To work it efficiently, you need to get used to it. Until you can manipulate your thread without turning your work over, it'll take time and it'll be a bit of a pain to have to turn your work over to make sure you're stitching over the back thread.
2. There are other ways of starting your threads that do not use as much thread as the waste knot.

If you've never used a waste knot, go ahead and try it out! Let me know what you think!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, needlework tutorials, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, September 23, 2008
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Here's another video tutorial for a hand embroidery stitch to add to your repertoire. The Vandyke Stitch creates a decorative band between two parallel lines. It's a fairly easy stitch to work, so let's see how it's done...

The Vandyke stitch can be worked vertically or horizontally (I'm working it vertically in the video) between two parallel lines, and it can also be worked on gentle curves. The characteristic look of the stitch is long horizontal arms, with a raised chain-like stitch down the middle, on top of the bars. You can vary the look of the stitch by changing the length of the arms, or by increasing or decreasing the space between the side lines, even while working down the line.


Vandyke Stitch

Here's the video:



For more hand embroidery stitch videos, visit my Video Library of Hand Embroidery Stitches Index, where you'll find instruction for over 50 hand embroidery stitches presented in video format.

Also, just a little reminder: I'm giving away one of Trish Burr's books this week. If you haven't joined the drawing, it's not too late! Just add a comment to the post announcing the drawing, answering the question posed about YOUR topic preference for Trish's next book.

Enjoy!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, September 17, 2008
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I'm not sure what it is about me and whitework lately, but here I am, back on another whitework subject! I received a really nice book this past week, and I wanted to tell you about it.

The book is called Schwalm Embroidery Techniques and Designs, by Christine Bishop. Even if Schwalm embroidery doesn't seem to be your thing, I discovered a couple good aspects of the book that would make it useful for those who enjoy other surface embroidery techniques.

But first, a little information on Schwalm embroidery. It's a whitework technique hailing from the Schwalm region of Germany (think Hansel and Gretel and other fairytales...). The characteristics of Schwalm embroidery are basically bold outlines and delicate fillings. Schwalm whitework creates a lacy look, but it isn't properly lace. Some stock shapes are typical to Schwalm embroidery - hearts, tulips, birds, leaves, etc. - but the technique is not limited to just these shapes. The shapes are outlined with a bolder line, made up of coral stitch and chain stitch, and then they are filled. The filling is the thing that amazes me - the range of filling designs is limited only by the stitcher's imagination, really. The fillings are executed on the fabric with threads drawn out, to lighten the look of them, or to enhance the pattern.

As far as materials go, Schwalm whitework is worked on high-count linen (32 count and higher, generally, with 50+ count being standard and even preferred for intricate designs). The thread employed is coton a broder, something I've been mentioning a lot lately. This is a non-divisible 4-ply mercerized cotton that comes in sizes 12 (large) to 40 (small). Actually, here in the States, it's easier to find 16 through 40 - sizes 16 through 35 are produced by DMC, and Anchor seems to be the only available size 40. You can find coton a broder in the US through specialty shops - I usually order mine through Lacis.



If you want to see what Schwalm whitework looks like and read a little more about it, check out the Essay on Schwalm Embroidery at Heritage Shoppe. There are two really pretty pictures there.

Many of the websites devoted to Schwalm embroidery are in German, and even if you don't read German, it's still worthwhile to check them out. For example, the site of Margarete Grandjot, Stick-Atelier, has an excellent gallery on it, where you can see some beautiful examples of Schwalm embroidery. Scroll down to about the middle of the page, and you'll see a fantastic circular linen (it's really shaped like a doughnut, with a hole in the middle!). There are close-up photos underneath the main picture, showing the different motifs around the piece. There, you'll get a good sense of the variety of fillings used in Schwalm embroidery.



Another website on the topic of Schwalm embroidery is Hessenstickerei, the site of Renate Fernau. Unfortunately, the site is still under construction, and the last evident date on it was 2005, BUT - on the German version of the website, it has a decent gallery, though the photos don't enlarge very large! The thing I like in particular about this website is that, on the English version, under catalog, you will find a section on patterns for Schwalm embroidery. You can get a good sense of the "look" of Schwalm patterns here.

One thing you'll notice about Schwalm embroidery is that it looks rather "folk-ish," and there's a reason for that. Schwalm developed among the peasants of Germany, as a decorative embroidery for the "average" person, rather than for the wealthy. The "wealthy" counterpart of Schwalm whitework could perhaps be considered Dresden whitework, which looks more like lace and was worked by professional houses to supply the stuff to those who could afford it. Dresden whitework reached its zenith of production and popularity in the mid-1700's. Strangely enough, it was worked on muslin (very, very fine muslin, imported from India). Schwalm was generally worked on linen by the peasants, for their own personal decoration - household linens, clothing, etc. It's quite a bit "rougher" than Dresden work.

Funny how things turn around - linen is a much dearer fabric today than muslin or cotton! Of course, you have to consider the sheer fine-ness of the muslin then, and that it was woven by hand. An interesting story is told in a pamphlet published by Lacis on their whitework museum (PDF): "The story is told that when a Nawab reproved his daughter for allowing her skin to be seen through her clothes, she demonstrated that she was wearing no less than eleven thicknesses of such material." So - very fine stuff! If you haven't read that pamphlet (linked to above) and you're interested in whitework, you might give it a look - you'll find heaps of photos of different types of whitework and lace.

Now - I've strayed from the point - back to Schwalm and the book at hand.



Schwalm Embroidery by Christine Bishop is a great introduction to the techniques of Schwalm whitework. It's perfectly suited to a beginner, with techniques and designs of varying degrees of difficulty throughout the book.



I particularly like the sampler that's presented in the book. Samplers such as this one are great for those interested in trying out the various techniques within a particular type of embroidery before launching into a major project involving those techniques.



You'll also find some really nice project ideas in the book. See the needlelace on the edge of the cushion? The author goes into detail on creating that edge, and the instructions are clear and accessible for the beginner.



Notice that the projects in the book are not all executed on white linen. I really like the look of the white on the natural linen, as in the sampler above. While I was out shopping yesterday, I went to Two the Point, a little needlework shop in Kansas City (where I bought some goodies I'll tell you about later!). While I was there, I picked up a remnant of a high count natural linen that would be perfect for such a sampler. I've tucked it away, though - too many other projects coming up - but I plan to go back to it, with this book in hand, before the year's out. We'll see!!

Finally, as last point on Schwalm embroidery - I like the fact that it involves various techniques that carry over into other styles of embroidery: pulled thread, drawn thread, satin stitching, a variety of surface stitches - all are used in Schwalm embroidery. So if you play around with Schwalm embroidery, you'll pick up skills useful in other types of embroidery, too. And this book by Christine Bishop will help you learn those skills!

The book is part of the Milner Craft Series, and is available through Amazon for $14.00 new.

Labels: beginner embroidery, book review, pictures, regional embroidery techniques, Schwalm, whitework

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, August 24, 2008
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The results of this summer's children's embroidery classes keep trickling in! This project is another towel, embroidered with a butterfly and flower design. The project was worked by Josephine, in the age 7-9 class, and I think she did a terrific job! You just have to check out her chain stitch...

The towel below is embroidered with perle cotton #5. The kids picked out their own colors, though some had a little help with coordinating colors, if they tried to get a little too ... whacky!



I like the bright colors that Josephine chose! On the towel, the kids worked six kinds of stitches: stem stitch (around the butterfly), backstitch, French knot, chain stitch, daisy stitch, and straight stitch.



She did a perfect job with her stem stitch around the butterfly. On the lines inside the butterfly, I had them work backstitches to cover the lines, rather than longer straight stitches, which would have been the normal choice for the lines. I was afraid that, if the towels were used, long straight stitches might catch on things.



The petals on the flowers were worked with daisy stitch, and then filled with a straight stitch in a contrasting color. Adding a straight stitch helps hide the pattern marking. On this pattern, which I traced on each towel using a light box and micron art pen, the petals for the flowers were marked with a straight line. The daisy stitch "surrounds" the straight line, leaving it visible - hence, the straight stitch! Besides, I like the "full" look of the petals with the contrasting color inside, don't you?! And, right smack dab in the middle - a French knot! The kids did a good job with French knots!



My favorite part of the towel is probably the base of the design here, because I associate it with a remark made by one of the kids in the class: "They look like cacti." Cacti? You're 8, and you're pluralizing cactus into cacti? I thought it was funny! And she was right, they do, in a thickish sort of way!

BUT - check out her chain stitch! Isn't it nice? It's so even and snuggly fitted!

Excellent job on the towel, Josie - now.... what's your NEXT project?

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, August 12, 2008
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If you like the idea behind crazy quilting - the whole notion of embellishing seams with embroidery stitches, and adding unique touches with beads and so forth - and if you like the look of "primitive design" in embroidery, but you're not a quilter and you don't draw your own designs... well, what can you do?

Carol of Chickadee Hollow Designs combines the fun of "crazy quilt" embroidery, the variety and quirkiness of the Primitive embroidery look, and the personalization of color choice and embellishment in her array of projects available on her website. When I saw them, I thought - "That's funny. It's all the fun of crazy quilting embellishment... without having to do any piecing and quilting!"



Now, keep in mind these aren't properly crazy quilt design, as they aren't made out of pieced fabric. When Carol designs a piece, she sketches it out, draws in the embroidery stitches and "seam" treatments, colors the piece in with watercolors and colored pencils, and then, through a scanning and printing process, transfers the colored design to fabric. What you receive from her when you order one of her designs is the printed fabric, ready to embellish. You can personalize your project by varying your stitches, adding beads, and selecting the colors of your threads. Each project comes with stitch instructions and thread color recommendations, to keep it easy on the stitcher --- but... if you want to be a bit more creative, you can play around with color and thread choice and so forth.



I think Carol's projects would be a great way for someone to get into embroidery. The Christmas ornaments she features, for example, would be an excellent project for teaching embroidery to a youngster. It's always fun to work on something colorful, that requires a variety of stitches!

Her Christmas stockings, too, are cute - and I love the little scenes within the bigger piece. It's not the kind of embroidery project you'd get bored with!

And, outside the realm of Christmas, she also features some pillows and other objects for home decorations.



I think the concept is interesting - I'm not a crazy quilter (I keep thinking I'm going to go back and try to redeem myself from my first crazy quilting blungle!), but I do like this idea of working up the "look" of crazy quilting in another form. Jeannine's hearts kind of remind me of this idea - they're a great way to sample all kinds of stitching. The other place I've seen the concept at work - where you get the pleasure of crazy quilt embellishing, but where you aren't actually quilting - is Judy's work on Possibilities, Etc., where she "crazy quilts" on needlepoint. She makes really pretty pieces this way!

If this type of stitching looks fun to you - or if you have a youngster in the family who's ripe for learning embroidery stitches - you should stop by Chickadee Hollow to see if Carol's got just the project for you. You never know - it could be a whole new type of stitching addiction....

Labels: beginner embroidery, crazy quilt, embellishments, embroidery resources

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, August 05, 2008
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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, August 03, 2008
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One of the kids from this summer's embroidery classes showed me her finished final project, and ... golly! I was really impressed. I took some pictures, and I thought I'd show them to you...

This is a baby pillow case hand embroidered by a 13-year-old. I have to admit, I think she did a really nice job.

The last project for the 12-14 year old class was a "pick your own," and among the blanks I had (some of which were meant more for the adult class!) were some very nice linen baby pillowcases, which I got from All About Blanks. They have a little drawnthread (hem stitched) edge.

So, this student picked her own blank (the pillowcase, for a new baby sister), her own design (which she transferred by tracing it with a light box, using a pencil), and her own colors of thread. When she was finished, she wanted an "A" in the middle of the design and asked me to draw it in for her. That's the only thing I did on this whole piece - everything else was left up to the student!

Here's the pillowcase:



And here's a bit of detail:



The stitches she used are French knots, daisy stitch, satin stitch, bullion knots, and stem stitch.



I think she did a good job on everything, but I was particularly impressed with the bullions (and there are lots of them!) - bullion knots don't generally fall in the "easy" category.



There's the center motif with the initial. Her satin stitching looks good, too - she worked some French knots on top of the satin stitch on the side flourishes (blue satin stitch, yellow French knots).

The whole design was embroidered with two strands of DMC stranded cotton.

Nice job, Anna!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, Embroidery for the Home, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, August 02, 2008
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Knotted Diamond Stitch is the latest addition to my video library of hand embroidery stitches! It's a decorative band stitch that's easy and quick to work, and looks great!

The knotted diamond stitch makes a decorative band of diamond shapes between two parallel lines. It can be worked horizontally or vertically. It would make a great seam treatment in crazy quilting, it could be used as an edge treatment on a towel, or for lines in band samplers. I was thinking it would make a neat edge border around the outside of a card, for paper embroidery, but I haven't had a chance to try that yet!



You can build on the stitch, too, by adding other elements to it - like French knots or colonial knots in the centers of the diamonds, or daisy stitch petals coming off the points of, or placed in the "V" between, the diamonds.

Some hints which I touch on briefly in the video:

I find the stitch faster to work if you lay your thread on the fabric in the correct arrangement, rather than wrapping the thread around the needle for each knot.

When you work from the right to left (forming two knots, one on each side - you'll see it in the video), lay your thread down in the shape of a "C" (equivalent to wrapping your thread over and around the needle counter-clockwise).

When you work the center knot coming back (from left to right), lay your thread down in the shape of a "G" (again, you'll see this in the video) - this is equivalent to wrapping your thread over the top of the needle, and back around, clockwise.

It also helps at first to mark off even spacing for the "X" that's formed by the stitch, until you can judge it by eye.

I'm using perle cotton #5 in the video (and in the photo above). It's a nice thread for this stitch, although it works well with other threads, too.

Here's the video:



You can find more videos (51 of them!) in my Video Library of Stitches, as well as a link for solving playback issues, if you have trouble viewing the videos on your computer.

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, July 28, 2008
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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, July 21, 2008
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My embroidery classes for children are coming to a close. I have one more class next Monday morning! So the projects are rolling in, although I don't think I'll see all of the completed work by the end of our last class. I thought I'd give a little recap of the different projects worked this summer and share a few photos of some embroidery projects completed this week.

For the 2008 Summer Embroidery Classes for Children, we worked the following projects, divided into groups by age:

Group A: Children 7 - 9 years old (mostly - there were a couple 10-year-old newbies in there, too) worked the following projects:

• Two stitch samplers - a butterfly and a flower, both filled with lines for practicing different line stitches
• An embroidered felt bookmark
• A white towel, embroidered with a butterfly and flower scene (no photos of that one, yet! Hopefully, next Monday we'll see some completed towels!)

Group B: Children 9 - 10 years old (with a 7 year old thrown in for good measure!) worked:

• A stitch sampler - the lined butterflies
• Embroidered felt bookmark
• Embroidered checkered dish towel (pictures below)
• Embroidered greeting card

Group C: Children 11 - 14 years old (with some younger ones thrown in for good measure here, too!) worked:

• Embroidered Flour Sack Towels
• Embroidered Greeting Cards
• Embroidery project of their choice - linen handkerchiefs, bookmarks, or pillow cases

The kids picked out their own threads and colors for the various projects, with the exception of the stitch samplers, the check towels, and the felt bookmarks.

In all the groups, there were several stitchers who finished all their projects by the end of the last class, but most of the students still had a little bit left to do on their final project, so they were able to pick out enough thread to finish up the projects and take them home to finish during the slow summer days.

Here are a few photos of projects that came in this week:



This is one of the blue checkered dish towels. Originally, they were going to work chicken scratch embroidery on the checked towels, but the checks were bigger than I thought they would be. Still, I like this little design. It reminds me a bit of the Pennsylvania Dutch look.



And here's one of the red checked towels. These towels are Really Nice quality towels. I got them from All About Blanks.



Here are three of the kids' flower sack towels that came in. This was another great find in good towels - these particular flour sack towels came from Embroider This. The designs are the Java Break and Wine Country patterns from Aunt Martha, which you can find at Colonial Patterns. Most the stitching was done in simple line stitches: back stitch, whipped back stitch, stem stitch, and some chain stitch.



This is a larger photo of one of the more complex ones! I was so happy to see them finish these, as they were bigger projects than the Java Break designs, but they seemed to like doing them and were proud of the finished results.



This is one of the select-your-own projects from Group C, done by a 12 year old. These handkerchiefs (from All About Blanks) make really pretty monogrammed hankies. And I think she did a great job, using simple stitches and nice colors. Her tiny stitches, actually, are really perfect.



She used French knots and backstitch - I was really impressed with her even backstitches!

I'm still eagerly waiting the butterfly towels done by Group A, some of which should be done when the come to class on Monday! There are also a few of these towels out:



This is one of the class samples I made up, but didn't finish stitching before the classes started.



I think a reader asked previously about this pattern - it's found in the Repeats and Borders book I reviewed earlier. It's a fun pattern to work, and I'm looking forward to seeing some of the kids' results with it.

I was really very happy with this summer's embroidery classes. We had five two-hour sessions for each group, and I think they had fun, I know I had fun, and although it's a lot of work, I really think it's worth it! If you have the opportunity to instruct children in needlework of any kind, grab it! It's a wonderful chance to pass on to the next generation a love of handwork. You also have the opportunity to give children a hobby that will make them happy for years to come, if they keep up with it! And you never, never know what they'll do with it.

If you are interested in teaching children, but you don't know how to go about establishing a venue or getting the word out, I suggest contacting your local library to see if they have any summer programs for youth that they're looking for volunteers for.

If the other projects show up on Monday, I'll share some photos of those, and then that's it for the kids' classes until next summer! Though I was thinking it might be fun to take a day over Christmas vacation and do an ornament class or something... I'll have to muse a bit over that one!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroider on paper, embroidery for children, embroidery for fun, Embroidery for the Home, Embroidery Projects, iron-on embroidery transfers, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, July 17, 2008
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One more week of kids' embroidery classes for this summer! And as they wind down, I'm taking photos of the embroidery projects from this year. Yesterday, I assembled the last of the finished bookmarks that the kids embroidered on felt, so they're ready for them to take home. I thought I'd share a couple photos - they're quite colorful!

These bookmarks are embroidered on wool felt, which is great for kids to work on. It's sturdy stuff - more so than your typical craft felt. Wool felt withstands a lot of abuse, and still looks great!

I get my wool felt from Wooly Thread, usually, although many of these colors I picked up from Twining Thread before it went out of business. I'm glad I did! The variety of colors was half the fun! But you can find good wool felt at Wooly Thread, in heaps of colors, and in pre-cut sheets. You can also buy sample packs from them, which are great for small projects.

I've already gone through the basic instructions for making these bookmarks, so you can check those out if you want. I won't bore you with the repeat information!

To finish the bookmarks, I used Pellon "wonder under" fusible web, cut to the size of the embroidered part of the bookmark and fused to this part first, then peeled and fused to the back of the bookmark. The back of the bookmark, by the way, was cut on my paper cutter, with the scalloped wheel attached. I'm sure there's a reason I shouldn't use my paper cutter that way, but it worked fine. I suppose the corners could be set up a bit better...?? How does one align scallops when cutting with a rotary cutter?



It didn't take too long to finish these up - about a half an hour all told - but I was relieved once they were done, because I know the kids are eager to take them home!



Pretty! Most of the designs are the same. When I was setting up the bookmarks, I free-handed the design on it, and pretty much, it was whatever popped into my head. I stuck with the wavy flower design for the majority of them, because it was easy and because it would give them the opportunity to practice the first five stitches: running stitch, backstitch, whipped stitch, daisy stitch, and French knots.



I just think the kids did a great job on these, don't you?

More photos of more projects soon!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, July 11, 2008
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One of the projects we're doing in my summer embroidery classes is an embroidered dish towel. We're using flour sack towels and embroidering a little (actually, relatively big) design on them. I thought it would be a good project for the older kids (ages 11-14), and I'm also doing it with the adult beginners. So, here's my class sample and a little information about the set up and stitching...

First of all, keep in mind that flour sack towels can be a delight to embroider on, or they can be a pain. Good flour sack towels take hand embroidery very well! I bought the towels for this year's embroidery classes from Embroider This! - you can see the ad for the company in the right hand column. They were very generous in helping me with the endeavor, and I did get a cut for the bulk order. In exchange, I'm running an ad for them for a month.

I bought the Ultra Premium Flour Sack towels from them, and I'm really, really glad I did! They are super smooth and super sturdy - not the flimsy, filmy, wrinkly kind sported by Walmart and Target. The only reason I bring this up is because I did go buy some from Walmart and Target - and they were thin and flimsy. At $2.99 each from Embroider This (that's their retail price), it's not a bad deal for a good towel!

The towels are huge, by the way. I've read on some blogs that embroiderers will often cut the flour sack towels in half and hem up the fourth side (where the cut is) to make two towels. I suppose that's a good idea, if you want a smaller towel.

Anyway, on with it...

My original intention, as I noted before when I was introducing you to my monogrammed guest towel sample, was to use iron-on transfers for most of our projects this summer, so that we could save some time on setting up projects. But that changed as I prepared my sample for stitching!

I purchased a few sets of Aunt Martha transfers - Wine Country and Java Break - but the transfers were bigger than I liked. I wanted them just slightly smaller! So I reduced them on the copier and traced them.

Yeah. That's right. I traced 20 towel designs - and that was just the flour sack towels! I've also ended up tracing designs on 20 other towels for the younger kids. They aren't flour sack towels, though. They're gingham towels and smaller kitchen towels. That was a lot of tracing! I used a light box, and a micron art pen on the gingham towels and smaller kitchen towels. On the flour sack towels, I used a #2 pencil.

For stitching, the students are using two strands of DMC and a variety of stitches. I kind of saw the whole towel project as a sampler, in a sense. That is, it would give the kids practice on their line stitches (I'm emphasizing even stitches and smooth lines), but at the same time, it would give them a finished, colorful project that they could keep or give to Mom or Grandma, or whatever. (Kids like finished projects!)

Here's my class sample, which is from the Java Break collection:



I had to pick the pattern with the cupcake. I wanted to stitch pink frosting for some reason!



Here's the cherry, worked in whipped backstitch for the fruit and chain stitch for the stem. There are three reasons I like to use whipped backstitch with the kids: 1. it creates a relatively smooth line, compared to plain backstitch; 2. It's easy; and 3. It's like learning two stitches in one, since they have to learn the backstitch, anyway!



I worked the letters in chain stitch in dark brown, and, in light brown, I worked a line of stem stitch right next to the chain stitch, to give the letters a little depth (or something!)... just to set them off a bit.



The cup and saucer and the dessert plate are worked in chain stitch, in a bright yellow and red.



And the decoration on the cup - the red grid - is worked in backstitch. The coffee inside the cup is worked in rows of stem stitch (used as a filling), and the steam rising from the coffee is also worked in stem stitch.

So, overall, the towel gives the students the opportunity to practice some common line stitches - especially chain stitch, stem stitch, and backstitch - and (hopefully!) to perfect their spacing and sizing of their stitches. That's my plan, anyway - I'll let you know if the idea was successful!

You know what? I had fun stitching this towel! I'm thinking about doing the other three corners, so the thing can be used as a little "coffee cloth" (as opposed to tea cloth). Really, the towel is big enough to spread as a tea cloth on your table. It's not super fine linen, that's true, but it would be fun to spread out for a coffee break when your pals stop by for a cup!

Other ideas: great wedding gifts for coffee drinkers, fixed in a basket with other coffee supplies (some special cups or whathaveyou).... or, do a bread / wheat motif in all the corners, and use it as a liner for a large basket of bread when company's coming, or when you're having a cookout and you want to put the hamburger buns in a basket and cover them. So many ideas... so little time!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Embroidery for the Home, iron-on embroidery transfers, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, July 01, 2008
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Milner Craft Series has a new book out (as of March, 2008), called Floral Interpretations for Silk Ribbon, by Helen Dafter. I've just had the pleasure of perusing the book, which is a great resource for embroiderers interested in silk ribbon embroidery. So here's a review, with indications of what's in it, and what I like about it.

Whether you like silk ribbon embroidery for accenting crazy quilts, or you use silk ribbon flowers to embellish paper embroidery, or you dabble with silk ribbon to make articles for home decoration, the book Floral Interpretations for Silk Ribbon would be right up your alley.



True to the format of the Milner Craft Series books, you'll find all the useful background information on essential embroidery supplies, techniques, pattern transfer, and so forth at the beginning of the book. For the stitcher new to silk ribbon, there's a good bit of information on different types and sizes of ribbon and what they can be used for. You'll also find a good stitch dictionary for the various silk ribbon stitches employed in the book, as well as for regular embroidery stitches that accent a silk ribbon piece.



But, as usual, what I find most enticing are the projects! In this book, they are arranged according to flower. You'll find projects for all kinds of flowers: lavendar, violas, grape hyacinth, gardenias, daffodils, gerbera daisies, camellia sasanqua (new one to me...), cornflower, flannel flower, roses, crab apple, and daisies.



In each project section, you'll find a general blurb about the flower, as well as a watercolor interpretation of it. The watercolors are very handy, because it gives you a sense of the shading, position, placement, growth pattern, and artistic look of the flower.

You'll also find information on what stitches are used to produce a realistic flower using silk ribbon.



You'll also get a photo of the finished project. I love seeing photographs of finished pieces when I'm working on something - they give an invaluable guideline for producing what you're trying to produce!



And, of course, you'll also find the pattern for the piece, in a black and white line drawing suitable for tracing.

Again, the projects are arranged according to flower, rather than according to ease of work. I think that's ok, though. The book is thorough enough to give the beginner a good resource to learn the techniques, and at the same time, it's diverse enough to enchant the expert with inspirational material!

Even though I don't use silk ribbon too often, I'm always thrilled when I finish a silk ribbon project. My most recent venture in silk ribbon was this little box decorated with silk ribbon embroidery, and other than that, I've done several greeting cards and other little pieces over the years. I've also used silk ribbon as accents on different embroidery pieces, like notebook covers and whatnot.

Do you want to know what I like best about silk ribbon embroidery, though? (Besides the fact that I think it's really pretty?) ... it's the fact that silk ribbon works up fast! With relatively few actual stitches, you can produce the item you're embroidering and see very quickly a finished piece coming together. A whole petal, or a stem, or a leaf, might just take one stitch! I love that!

What I like about this book is that it takes silk ribbon beyond just the basic quick stitching to a whole new level of realistic and beautiful interpretations of flowers - perfect for filling out any stitcher's repertoire!

So, if you like the idea of playing around with silk ribbons and trying out some pretty stitches for pretty results, take a look at Floral Interpretations for Silk Ribbon by Helen Dafter. The book is distributed in the US by Sterling Publishers, who produce a wonderful array of craft and needlework books. You can pick up the book through Amazon for less than $15, which is about $5 less than the publisher's price.

Enjoy!

Labels: beginner embroidery, book review, ribbon embroidery

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, June 28, 2008
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As I prepared for my first kids' embroidery class for this summer, I realized that organization really IS everything. Whenever you teach a class - or prepare a new embroidery project - or cook a recipe - or anything that requires multiple parts to come together smoothly and conveniently, preparing in advance is essential. Any good school teacher knows this. Even if you're running a casual summer embroidery class, the rule holds true. I found that out this morning!

My preparation for my summer embroidery classes began weeks ago, as you know. I've talked a lot about it (I hope I'm not boring you to death!), and I've done a lot of thinking, stitching, writing notes, ordering materials and all the stuff that goes with getting ready to get ready. And that's just it - that was just the background work. Then the real work comes!

As the first class date approached, it was time to actually put everything together for a smooth beginning. So this is what I was looking at this past weekend:



I spent a couple days cutting fabric, separating threads, and putting together each "kit" project for the first class of the first week (I have three kids' classes I'm doing this summer - this is only one of them!) for the first group (ages 7 - 9 years old).



Yeah. The front view wasn't so bad - it's the side view across the room that becomes a bit discouraging!

But no worries!! All the background work is absolutely worth it. After the felt, threads, needles, and everything were sorted, pieces cut, designs drawn, everything was cleaned up and put away, the floor swept, and each child's place set up.

When the children came in this morning, they were met with this:



Nine chairs for nine children - each place with a sampler cloth and a bookmark kit.



Here you have the "place setting."



To the top right, the blue square is a piece of 3 mm. craft foam, cut in a small rectangle. This has one threaded needle stuck in it, ready to go.



The red square to the top left of each place setting is also 3 mm thick craft foam. I used a single hole punch, and punched out about a 6-hole hole. In that hole, I looped their sampler threads. You may be familiar with thread rings, thread keeps, and so forth. Well, this is thread foam. I made it up, but it does work! I wanted some way to keep their threads more organized than just stuffing them in a plastic bag, so, modeling the foam on the idea of thread cards and thread keeps, I tried it, and I liked it! More on this concept, up close down below.



Above the place setting is the bookmark kit, ready to go. It contains the felt front, with the design drawn on, the felt backing already cut with the scalloped edge, a needle, and coordinating threads.



The sampler is a piece of medium weight (clothes quality) linen (I picked up 5 yards on sale for practically nothing!), with a butterfly outlined on it, and the butterfly has lines across the wings. I'll give you specifics on these little practice pieces when I have some finished ones to photograph! As they are here, they're rather plain.



And finally, just to go back to my thread foam a bit... this is a great way to keep thread ready for class use. After punching the holes in the foam, I folded the collection of threads in half and stuck the half fold in the hole, forming a loop. Then I put the ends of the thread "rope" through the loop and hitched it to the foam.

You might think that every time you want a thread off such an apparatus, you have to undo the loop, but not so!



You simply select the thread you want from the front of the looped threads, and pull it straight out. You don't have to undo your loop - you just pull it out, and there it is!

I know it's a simple concept, but I'll tell you why it thrills me. I've lost more money on threads over the years, because kids tend to stuff them in bags or just put them in their sewing box, where they automatically mix up, generally into a knotted mess. This way, I have quantity control over the threads, and the kids are more careful with them, too.

Using the craft foam to make these thread keeps was a last minute idea. Craft foam can be puchased at any craft store for about 79 cents a sheet. The sheet can be cut into multiple small rectangles - and it's much sturdier than regular poster board or card stock for holding threads this way. I had a bunch of the foam on hand, because I'm using it as paper-piercing mats (for embroidered cards) with the older class. While I was setting up the place settings, I mused over how to solve my thread dilemma - and the idea of the foam popped into my head. I had so much fun setting these little things up, and I really think the kids like them, too!

So there's a cheap way to organize threads for a project. I haven't tested the colorfast qualities of craft foam, nor do I know the long term effect it might have on threads, but for this short term use, it seems like a great idea.

So that's the set up for classes. The first day, the kids learn three stitches: running stitch, whipped running stitch, and backstitch. They practice all three on their butterflies, and then they apply what they learn to their bookmarks.

The two hour session today went really well, and I think that goes back to organization. The kids made good progress. Alas, I took no photos! Next week, next week.... Now, if I could only get the next classes that ready, I'll be really happy!

If you've got any nifty organizational ideas or anything that you think would be useful to know in classroom situations, please share! I'm all ears!

See you tomorrow!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, embroidery tips and tricks, hobby room, needlework pictures, organization, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, June 17, 2008
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I've begun working up my samples for my summer embroidery classes, which are looming in front of me and I, unprepared! I cheated a bit on this one - my 7-year old niece was my test subject! I had her come over and "help" me. She embroidered while I .... helped her!

Actually, except for the first two stitches of each new embroidery stitch, and a couple "fix ups" here and there, my niece did the whole thing on her own, which was good because I saw that it is an easy enough project for my youngest group of kids (8 & 9 year olds).

Now, it isn't going to go quite this way in class! We started by selecting colors - but the bookmarks with designs already on them and coordinating threads will be ready for the kids when then get to class. They won't have to labor over choices of colors of felt or thread, or over design! I know it sounds a bit restrictive, but trust me. The slowest process of teaching kids is not actually teaching them to stitch. It's helping them make choices on colors or designs. To move the classes along this year, this decision-making has more or less been eliminated. On their last project that they work, the kids will have some lee-way, but by then, they'll know what stitches they like and their little hearts will already be set on their favorite color schemes.

This is how our little test session went:

First, we picked out two coordinating colors of felt: pink and periwinkle. Emma wanted pink and green, since they are her "favorite" colors, but the green just didn't go. So she "settled" for the periwinkle, which is actually a very pretty color.

Then we picked out four colors of thread: periwinkle, light blue, yellow, and green.

Then "we" decided on a design. Emma wanted an "E" for Emma ("It should be in cursive!") and some flowers.



So that's the design we settled on. The running stitch border is marked out in even stitch spaces, which is a good thing to do for children who are just beginning to stitch. It takes more time to mark out the stitches, but they get the hang of even stitches much better if they begin with specific stitch markings.



The running stitch border was worked first.



We're using #5 perle cotton for all the stitching. It's much easier, when working with kids, to use embroidery threads that are one strand, that don't have to be stripped and put back together again.



She worked stem stitch for her flower stems, and I was rather impressed! I showed her only two stitches, and she did the rest. When I showed her the stem stitch, I didn't pull the thread all the way through, but I left a big loop hanging down, so that she could see where to put the needle in, and so that the working thread remained below the needle. I told her to make sure her thread hung in a Big Smile, and that's how she'd know it's in the right place. And it worked - she remembered, and I didn't have to correct anything on those lines. Good job!



Yep, it took concentration!



The "E" was worked in backstitch in periwinkle and whipped over with light yellow. There's a bit of wobbly stuff going on there. Kids get uptight when stitching, and will often compensate for their awkward motor skills by making their stitches too small. It takes a while for them to get the hang of spacing, and even then, it isn't necessarily easy. Some of the backstitches were too small and a little cock-eyed here and there, which led to a wobbly whipped backstitch. But you know what? She's 7 years old, and it's the first time she's ever done this! So under the circumstances, I was pretty pleased!



You can see the wobbles a bit better here.



The leaf was worked in plain backstitch. I was duly reminded, "Don't forget to draw a line in the middle of the leaf." Of course! Every leaf has a line in the middle!



The lazy daisies took a little more work (by the time she was working on those, she wasn't saying, "This is SOOOO easy!"). Missed loops and a couple knots on the back slowed it down a bit, but the end result was very good! She stitched the petals in blue with a yellow straight stitch in the middle.



All in all, the back is not bad! She got the hang of starting and stopping threads without knots without a problem, but the wrapping and weaving through the back threads did cause a little bit of build up. Still, not bad!



Perhaps I should skip my trimming story. It was not meant to be trimmed quite so close to the running stitch border, but... well, I'm a lot like my dad when he goes out to trim the hedges. A little more here, a little more there, a touch here, a snip there, until the hedges are gone! I didn't have my rotary cutter and mat available, so I just eye-balled it. Remind me to get the cutter and the ruler out!

We had a good time, actually - I told her stories from books I had read when I was a kid, and she told me stories from books she's reading now. And we both persevered for four hours. Close to the end of the four hours, I tried to teach her the French knot, but that was pushing it! So we called it a day!

I'll be taking Joey's advice and fusing this to the second layer of felt, then using scalloped scissors, if I can find some, for a decorative edge.

This is a nice project to work with a little kid, so if you're looking for something fun to do this summer with one of the kiddos, try it!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, June 13, 2008
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This past weekend, I had a million things to do, and that awful sensation of not knowing where to start. I couldn't start my next Big Embroidery Project, because I didn't have one Big chunk of time to get things set up. So I took up a little embroidery project instead - a small silk ribbon embroidery kit that finishes as a little keepsake box.

This is a Bucilla ribbon embroidery kit. A friend gave me a slew of these kits (well, three or four), in case I wanted to use them for my summer embroidery classes. They actually do make great prizes - I gave one as a prize last year. But I thought, for the fun of it, I'd work one up to see how thorough Bucilla kits are.

Bucilla is a well-known name in needlework kits, simply because they're everywhere. You can find them at any local hobby or craft store. But I don't know much about their actual quality, as I've never used one of their kits. So this was an adventure (in a low-key kind of way!), and it was something to do late at night, without having to dig out a big project.

This is the finished product - a fairly sturdy keepsake box, topped by a little silk ribbon embroidery design.



The pros of the kit:

1. I like the idea of the box. It's pretty, it's sturdy, it has a magnetic closure, and it's useful.

2. The stitches are super-duper simple stitches, accessible to any beginner, and the stitch diagrams in the instructions are clear.

3. The project is small enough to be completed in one evening.

4. The overall finished product is attractive.

5. The kits are relatively inexpensive. In fact, for me, they were free (thanks, Amy!). They were bought on clearance, which is always a good way to pick up little projects inexpensively.

The cons of the kit:

1. The fabric is too small, and it's kind of cheapy fabric. If it is supposed to be hooped up, as directed, the beginner might wonder how to accomplish that. You'd have to sew extra fabric around it if you wanted it to fit in a hoop, unless you had a three inch hoop. A four inch hoop is too big, even. I worked it in hand, which isn't so easy with ribbon embroidery, French knots, and so forth.

2. The print of the design was a little off center. This is noticeable when the piece is finished and mounted on the box.

3. There wasn't enough light purple ribbon, but there was enough dark purple, so I just substituted that.

4. They used simple stitches, I guess with the beginner in mind. But there are ribbon stitches that are equally simple that would have been more attractive for some of the flowers. The bunches on each side of the spider web (pale yellow) rose are ok, but not that attractive. But I will grant that they are simple - they are cross stitches with a French knot in the middle.

5. For the spider web rose, they specified the light yellow ribbon, with the spokes worked in the same color floss. Strangely enough, there was only dark green and dark purple floss. No pale yellow in the kit. I could have used the dark green - and probably should have - but instead, I used the ribbon for the spokes.

6. Mounting problems: they supply on the box two borders of double-sided sticky tape (already on the box - you just remove the top strip). The inside border is where you mount the fabric, and after you've stretched it and mounted it on this sticky tape, you are supposed to trim the fabric straight along the edge of the tape. This would be done easily with a ruler and a rotary cutter (carefully - you don't want to slice the box through). But they didn't specifiy that. I started with scissors, but it was a messy job. Then, the outside mounting strip is for the window covering of the top of the box. It doesn't work. The top would not stay stuck, even when I piled some heavy books on top of the box to press it down. So I resorted to Elmer's glue, and glued it on. For good measure, I also glued the edges of the fabric. Then I wiped any excess off with a damp towel, and I piled books on top of the box overnight for it to dry. That worked.

7. Finally, you can see the pattern of the box behind the fabric when it's mounted. If you're expected to put a lining behind that, they should specify!



That's the inside of the box.

Despite the longer list of cons, I think it was a good Quick Project. I'm happy to have the box and the other kits, which I'll work up over a couple evenings. They'll make great prizes for the kids' classes!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Embroidery Projects, needlework pictures, pictures, ribbon embroidery

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, June 12, 2008
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I like redwork - I think its simplicity is charming: pretty, delicate (or rustic, depending on the look), and normally executed with simple stitches. And of course, its usually red! I love red. Jeannine's redwork square here is her first attempt (you'll find it hard to believe she's an beginner, which makes it that much more impressive!)

The embroidery pattern is from Needlecrafter, where you can find some nice vintage embroidery patterns, all cleaned up and ready to go. For the first time in ages, it looks like Needlecrafter is busy again! There have been new additions, and, although there are some broken links in the photos (and the pictures in the new gallery don't display yet?), I'm excited to see that there may be life on the site again! So check that resource out for online patterns!

But first, check out Jeannine's redwork square:



This is a closer-up on the top half of the design - the stitching is nice and delicate.



And here's the whole thing! I love the feet and slippers, and the pretty dress!

I think the stitching is really well done on this! It's nice and neat and tidy, and just the right delicacy for the design. Jeannine used DMC 814, which is a deep, rich red. I think it was a good color choice!

Congratulations on your first redwork, Jeannine, and thanks for sending the pictures along!

I've got a few other readers' projects coming up soon. If you have pictures to share of your recent projects, drop me an e-mail and I'll reply!

And in the meantime, I'm crunching an embroidery project this week - I started it Saturday afternoon, and it has to be finished this Saturday. I'll show you photos tomorrow!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery resources, free embroidery patterns, readers embroidery

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, April 29, 2008
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In one of my embroidery stash give-aways, I asked readers what their favorite embroidery thread is. The majority said they use DMC because of the good color range and the availability. DMC makes good quality threads, and they actually produce more than just the 6-stranded floss that's so widely available.

For example, have you ever tried DMC floche? Floche is a non-divisible, long-staple, 5-ply cotton thread with a beautiful sheen. It's used for all kinds of applications, especially cutwork and surface work where heavy coverage is desired. It's the same thing as coton a broder (sometimes it's called floche a broder or cotton floche or floche coton a broder... ), except that you can usually special order coton a broder in a variety of sizes, all the way up to 40 (the finest). Coton a broder in other sizes than 16 usually comes in white or ecru. Floche comes in a good range of colors. If you want to see a really lovely example of a piece stitched with floche, check out Jeanne's post with her completed soft shading project on Just String. The project was worked with floche!



These buttonhole flowers were also worked with floche. Although floche is technically non-divisible (meaning you use the whole thread, you don't strip it into separate smaller strands like you do with regular stranded embroidery floss), with care, you can actually divide the plies, then blend them with another divided strand. Check out the pansies in the photo below. You can see a kind of creamy yellow blended in with the purple if you look closely!



Floche and regular stranded cotton are standard threads in my stash, and I use DMC stranded cotton pretty regularly. When I teach children's embroidery in the summers, I use DMC stranded cotton solely, because of its easy availability, its affordability, and the wide range of colors. With the kids, I also use DMC perle cottons (especially #5) regularly, since the thicker, non-divisible thread is easier for children to work with.

Finally, though, the news: DMC is coming out with a new thread, and I'm looking forward to trying it! It sounds enticing! It's a new specialty thread called Satin Floss, and it's supposed to be a nice smooth thread with a nice sheen. They're producing a 36-color palette, and the colors are nice! The thread is 100% rayon, but it doesn't look like the finicky rayon - it looks a bit more substantial. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm hoping to soon - at which time, I'll review it and give you some comparisons.

DMC is a tried-and-true embroidery company. It seems they're trying to "come of age" with embroiderers today by offering some more trendy projects and so forth to their repertoire. You can see some of these in local craft stores: the Linea projects that were popular a couple years ago, and other clothing / accessory embellishment projects. I'm rather more keen on the "old country" (France) DMC offerings! For example, I'd like to see certain threads become more widely available or easier to order here in the US - like the floche, which can only be found through some specialty shops.

Hedgehog Handworks is a good source for floche. You can order two different sized hanks from them, which is nice: a 32-yard twists made up of 21 strands 55" long ($1.25 each) or the standard 168-yard hank ($5.25 each).

DMC has a good website here in the US - DMC Creative World - which, from what I've heard, will be expanding with more informational and instructional items. I'm hoping to see more of their products on their DMC shopping pages some day, too, especially their specialty threads.

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery resources, pictures, threads

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, April 25, 2008
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I'm always happy when I manage to finish up a new video tutorial for my little Video Library of Hand Embroidery Stitches. I wanted to see it get to 50 stitches long before this - but I'm almost there! I'm going to have a celebration when it hits 50 stitches. Some sort of big ... something. You can all join me!

The rope stitch is a nice hand embroidery stitch, perfect for a thick, corded look, and a member (believe it or not) of the chain stitch family. It looks like overcast stitch on a slant, or trailing on a slant. It's a great stitch for curves, so I worked it over the beginning of a curve in the video. It takes gradual curves really well, and it will take tighter curves well if you shorten your stitches and work carefully around the curve.



So there's an up-close photo of the stitch for you. You can see at the base how the chain stitch is evident.

To begin the rope stitch, you start with a variation of twisted chain stitch. When you begin the stitch, the needle is going down into the fabric to the right of where you emerged, with your thread behind your needle, then you cross over your needle with the working thread (that's the twisted chain part), then take the thread under your needle, and then pull through. Now, here's the thing - from that point out, the stitch is really just a regular chain stitch! So it's easy.

It's a pretty strong stitch, too, as long as you aren't taking the thread too long across the top, so that it loosens up too much. In older embroidery books (from the 1800's), you'll see that the stitch is often recommended in the place of cording, if the area being stitched is going to get a lot of use.

Enjoy the video! The sound's still a bit crackly. I need new equipment!



For more hand embroidery videos, please visit my Video Library of Hand Embroidery Stitches, where you will find, as of today, 48 embroidery stitch videos! Getting close to 50...!

Labels: beginner embroidery, needlework pictures, video tutorials

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, April 24, 2008
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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, April 17, 2008
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Sometimes, I come across embroidery books in weird ways. I asked the other day for recommendations for beginner embroidery books for youth, ages 15 or under, with a price limit of $15. I got some good suggestions, and in looking some of the suggestions up, I came across a neat book that I wanted to review in case it could fit the bill for some readers who are just getting into embroidery, or for those who want some interesting, planned projects.

The book is called Embroidery Techniques and Patterns. It's written by Marie-Noelle Bayard. I really like it! I wish, in fact, I had come across it sooner, as I have had several friends ask for recommendations, and the types of projects in Marie-Noelle's book are right up their alley!



The book begins with good instructions on getting started in embroidery: materials, preparation, and so forth. It is then divided into types of stitches, which are then broken down into stitch "families" within the types. Within each section on types of stitches, the author gives instructions on how to complete various projects which are pictured in the book.



So, for example, under filling stitches (types of stitches), she has Ceylon, cross stitch and variations, satin stitch, and so forth.



The types of projects presented in the book range for useful household decor - pillows, curtains (Really Beautiful Drawn Thread Curtains), picture frames, and so forth - to pretty wardrobe accessories (purses and stoles) - to practical needlework accessories (pincushions) - to family holiday items (like a reindeer Advent calendar). They are tasteful projects accessible to the beginner.



The stitch directions in the book are step-by-step photographs, which is really handy for the beginner.



And the patterns for the projects are clear line drawings that can be photocopied and enlarged or traced as is.

The book also features a picture index of the stitches, which I love to see in how-to embroidery books!

The pros of the book: 1. it's comprehensive - stitch directions, projects, finishing tips, etc., are all available inside the covers of the book; 2. the stitch directions are clear and there are plenty of them; 3. the projects are tasteful; 4. the book is attractive; 5. the price is right - under $11 through Amazon for a very nice book - you get a lot of instruction and inspiration for the price!

The cons: 1. it's a heavy book, making it difficult to use while actually stitching; 2. the binding is typical paper-back glue binding, which, coupled with the weight of the book, makes it even more difficult to use while stitching - a spiral binding would have been much more effective. But those are really the only two draw-backs I can see to it, and they aren't major. The book does lay open on the table, so you wouldn't really have any problem stitching, even if it isn't quite as convenient as a spiral binding is on a how-to book.

I'm really glad I came across this little gem. I think it will be perfect for those who want "something to embroider" that would look good used in the home or on the person, but who don't want anything too complex or expensive as far as supplies go.

Age-wise, I'd say it would be a good book for beginners, age 15 and up.

So, if you're looking for a nice how-to book that has a lot in it for the price, do check out Marie-Noelle Bayard's Embroidery Techniques and Patterns! I think you'll like it!

Labels: beginner embroidery, book review, embroidery books

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, April 11, 2008
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Finally, another video tutorial! This is a raised chain stitch, worked down a line of straight stitch bars to form a raised chain stitch band.

This is a composite stitch. There are two embroidery stitches here put together to make the raised chain: the simple straight stitch which forms the bars on which you stitch the chain stitch.

If you wanted to use this stitch as a filling, you would work wider bars (straight stitches) across the area you want to fill and then work multiple lines of chain stitches to fill up the shape.

It's a neat stitch, with good texture and a bit dimensional since it's raised. I'm working it from top to bottom here, but you can work it from right to left (right handed stitchers) or left to right (left handed stitches), or from bottom to top, and along curves.



There's a close-up photo of the stitch, which I worked in two colors so that it would be easier to see. You can work it in a single color, or in two shades of the same color, for things like vines and stems and so forth.

I must apologize for the crackly sound in the video! I'm going to discover what I can do to rectify that (perhaps a new mic) and, when time allows, rework the sound on these. But in the meantime, here's the video:



For more hand-embroidery videos, visit my Video Library of Stitches, where you'll find some 47 videos.

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, April 07, 2008
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Sometimes, it's hard to make a decision about what embroidery or needlework book to buy, so in my needlework book reviews, I try to give you enough information to make an informed decision so that you're not disappointed. There's nothing worse than getting all excited about a new embroidery book, then getting it and finding it lacking! If you're looking for an embroidery stitch dictionary - one of those handy reference books on how to do this stitch or that - here's a review for The Embroidery Stitch Bible.

You can be assured, when I review an embroidery book, that it's a book I own. I try to give the pros and cons of the book, and specify what's different about it that makes it especially useful to the embroiderer.

The Embroidery Stitch Bible has a couple great features, the primary one being a section at the front of the book called the "Stitch Selector." This is a pictorial guide to each stitch in the book. If you don't know the name of a stitch, you can browse through the Stitch Selector to identify it.



In the Stitch Selector section, you get little photos of each stitch as it really looks - it is worked, not just sketched. The stitches are arranged by types - satin stitches, couching stitches, laid filling stitches, etc.



Set in each little picture is the reference number for the embroidery stitch so that you can flip right to the instructions.



Each category of stitching is pretty thoroughly covered, as you can see by this page of the Stitch Selector showing drawn thread stitches.

This pictorial "table of contents" at the front of the book is perhaps my favorite feature of the book!



When you want to learn a stitch, there are three aspects to each instructional page or spread of pages in the Embroidery Stitch Bible: 1. a photo of the stitch worked in several variations; 2. a chart of how to work the stitch (this is a drawn diagram); and 3. text that takes you through the stitch and some variations step-by-step.



Techniques besides strictly "embroidery" are covered, such as sewing sequins and other embellishments on.



You can see here on the bullion knot page the three elements of instruction - at the top, the photo of the real stitching, then the diagrams (there are two two-part diagrams), and then the text. You can also see the variation on the stitch, which, in this case, is a bullion rose.

The one element that some may consider a "disadvantage" to this book is that the stitches are demonstrated in drawn diagrams, often in two diagrams, but sometimes only in one diagram. Compared to other books such as the A-Z series on Embroidery published by Country Bumpkin, or their Embroiderer's Handbook, this can be seen as a bit chintzy in a way. Country Bumpkin generally gives you a step-by-step series of photographs of each stitch as it is being worked. But in a book that covers over 200 stitches (as the Embroidery Stitch Bible does), it would be quite a feat to fit that many stitches into one book with step-by-step photos!

So you have to weigh what you want: a lot of stitches, with a visual representation of the actual stitch worked and a diagram to show you how, OR fewer stitches, with step-by-step photos of the stitch in progress.

A word on diagrams: in this book, I think they're pretty clear. In some older pamphlets for embroidery, or in older books, the diagrams are not as well done, so don't judge "diagrams" in general by older publications. The diagrams here are clear, and if you are even just a little bit familiar with embroidery, you shouldn't have too much of a problem working them out.



Another nice feature: most embroidery books begin with a section on basic materials and setting up a piece of embroidery. This book does, too. But most books don't include finishing tips. You will find a short section on basic finishing tips in the back of the Embroidery Stitch Bible. They are illustrated, not photographed, but still very clear.



This, to me, is one of the finest features of any how-to book, whether it's needlework or any other craft: A SPIRAL BINDING! I wish publishers would take this aspect into consideration more often! When you're teaching yourself from a book, it's great to have a book that lays flat on its own! So the spiral binding on the Stitch Bible is a huge plus!



I like the cover, but don't let the background photo or the majority of stitches on the front throw you off - it looks like it focuses primarily on canvas or counted work. It's not the case, really. Yes, canvas work is covered. But so is everything else!

I like this book, and I think it's good for beginners and beyond.

The Embroidery Stitch Bible can be had through book retailers around the globe. Country Bumpkin sells it for $36.95 Austrian, or US$31.41. (US residents beware: shipping is high!) Barnes and Noble has it for $29.95, or $26.95 for members. The cheapest you can find it on ABE Books (used) is $18.30. Right now, you can get The Embroidery Stitch Bible new through Amazon for less than $20.

Labels: beginner embroidery, book review, embroidery books

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, December 28, 2007
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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, October 29, 2007
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Finally, another hand embroidery tutorial to add to the Video Library of Stitches! It's been a while... but here's the Drizzle Stitch.

The drizzle stitch is a "texture" stitch. It makes an individual, almost-upright, slightly twisted "tower" on your fabric. It's difficult to explain what it looks like! So here are some photos of it instead:



These are the two purple drizzle stitches from the video. They're worked in a coton a broder. They're not as pretty as the stitch could be, so I tried it with Trebizond, which is a three-ply twisted silk.



I think it's much prettier. The needle is there to give you a sense of size. They're not as big as they look! These are made with five cast-on stitches.



Here they are from another angle. They look rather like a caterpillar.



And here they are from the top. You can see the shadow - they do stick up off the fabric...

You might wonder how this stitch can be used in embroidery - as I mentioned above, it's a great way to add texture to clusters. So, for example, you might stitch a cluster of them in the middle of a flower, or among any kind of encrusted areas on textured embroidery.

The video takes you through two drizzle stitches, since it's a slower stitch to work. For materials, you may wish to have a needle threader handy, since you have to re-thread your needle while it's still in the fabric (embroidery is always much easier with the right tools!)



I'm trying to figure out a way to provide better quality videos. Right now, I'm uploading the videos to Google video, but they lose a lot in resolution and quality. Anyway, bear with me - there may be future developments along this line!

I hope you have fun with the drizzle stitch!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, October 14, 2007
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This past weekend, the summer embroidery projects from my kids' embroidery classes were displayed at a fall festival. I thought I'd share a few photos, and then call that whole episode done, since the school year is now (!) underway.

I made a couple posters for the display and then laid out the embroidery projects across the table. Unfortunately, many of the girls didn't finish their embroidered bags! It's too bad, because they really were darling, and the kids who did finish them, loved them!



After putting together the first bag, and after realizing that I had plenty of lining material available, since only about one third of the students finished them, I decided to play around to see how I could get the lining to show a bit better. I managed to fiddle with the pattern until I got the kind of edge I wanted at the top of the bag. You can see the green one in the photo above - it doesn't have a lining showing. It was the first one I put together. I still think it's darling, and, in fact, it won a first place ribbon at the judging!



A few more embroidered drawstring bags...



There's one of the display posters, with pictures of the two classes I taught this summer, and in front are a few of the felt notebook covers.



And there's another part of the display, with the other poster and more book covers and bags. No people there yet...!



Some of the felt notebook covers a little closer...

And there you have it! Another summer embroidery class comes to a close, and a new school year launches.... and I'm already feeling behind!

I'll post an update on the silk work sampler from the adults' summer classes soon. We didn't really seem to get very far, but it's all relative, I guess!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, September 05, 2007
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Here's a video tutorial for another hand embroidery stitch - the rosette chain stitch.

This is one of those embroidery stitches that I have always thought looks complicated in diagrams. It's a whole lot easier when you see someone work it!

The rosette chain stitch is much like the oyster stitch, but it's worked in a line, around curves, etc. The oyster stitch is more often seen, I think, individually.

You can curve this stitch really nicely around borders. You can work it close together, so that your line comes out looking like a tight, textured braiding, or you can space them out, to get a bumpy, scalloped-looking line. You can work it in circles:



However you decide to work it, the rosette chain is a nice stitch - and once you get the hang of it, it's quick, too.

In the video, I'm using Trebizond (twisted silk). Perle cotton works great for this stitch, but really, you can use any thread - the finer the thread, the more delicate the effect.



For more embroidery stitch videos, please visit my Video Library of Stitches Index.

Have fun with it!

Labels: beginner embroidery, video tutorials

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, August 26, 2007
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This is the last of the four embroidery patterns the kids chose from for their drawstring bags. It's a little sampler, employing many of the stitches learned in their embroidery classes this summer.

If I remember correctly, only one student chose this pattern. It's a little more complicated than the other three patterns (see cirles, daisy garden, daisy wreath), but I thought it would be fun to work, since it employed different stitches.

The irony is that the one kid who picked it, didn't really work the stitches learned. Ah well. I think she had fun working on it, anyway.

Here it is. You can click on it for a larger image, then save it to your computer and resize it. Sorry about the scratchy look - it was drawn on graph paper and scanned.



The first row is fly stitch, tipped with a bead or a French knot. The long sides are simply straight stitches, or they could be daisy stitch. The second row is stem stitch stems, and then whipped daisy stitch, to cover the petals with a ribbed edge, like the ribbed spider web. The third row could have been fly stitch, or even a double herringbone, with daisy stitch or bullion knots, which should cross over and "couch" the fly stitch down - and French knot centers. The bottom row: flowers worked in lazy daisy stitch, with French knot centers and chain stitch stems, set in a row of herringbone or fly stitch.

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, free embroidery patterns

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, August 22, 2007
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Another pattern that the kids in my summer embroidery classes used on their drawstring bags was this very simple daisy wreath pattern. They embroidered an initial inside the wreath.

This was probably the most popular pattern for the kids' embroidered drawstring bags. The other patterns include circles of sorts, a dancing daisy garden, and a little "sampler" pattern, which hasn't been featured yet.

You can click on the image below for a much larger version, which you can save to your computer and shrink to the size you want!



Shortly, I'll be adding some more photos of completed work by the kids. The bags are turning out really pretty!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, free embroidery patterns

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, August 19, 2007
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Here are some photos of the kids' latest embroidery projects - the designs on their drawstring bags. I think they're doing a really good job! Some of the patterns turned out nicer looking that I realized they would!

The way we did it was this: I drew up the embroidery designs on graph paper, photocopied them, taped them to the classroom windows, and then let the kids pick the color of fabric they wanted to use for the outside of their bag. We taped the fabric to the pattern in the window, and they traced the patterns with water soluble markers.

Many of the girls finished their projects and decided to do the back of the bag as well, since they have one more week to work on the embroidery. Here are some photos of the work they've done so far.



For the kids who picked the daisy wreath (like this one above), I drew their initials onto the pattern. The water soluble marker will (hopefully) disappear after I've soaked the pieces. When they're dry, I'll starch and iron them and sew up the bags.



This is the sampler pattern. It's a bit more complicated. The girl who is stitching this bag decided to do the same pattern on the back, which means that I'll have to line up the seams very carefully so that they match.



Another initial in the daisy wreath. This one is going to look really nice with the lining, which is the same color as the initial!



Here's the little dancing daisy garden underway. This and the daisy wreath are perhaps the quickest patterns as far as stitching is concerned.



And yet another daisy garden. She decided to take the quicker route and backstitch the leaves rather than fill them.



I like the variegated threads used for the stems and for the daisies!



Here's one of the circle patterns being worked. It looks like a fun pattern to stitch - there can be a lot of variation in the stitches used. You can see a ribbed spider wheel there in the small circle below the hoop.



Another daisy wreath with an initial - this was a very popular design, and I thought that, by the time we finished, we'd have practically the whole alphabet!



And another "C" embroidered here - it's very pretty, I think!



And, finally, an "M" in green and white! I love the colors on these. They're very delicate. I can't wait to see them sewn up into bags!

So there's some progress so far. Only one more week of classes - it's been fun, but it sure makes for a hectic summer!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, August 14, 2007
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Continuing with the subject of the drawstring bags that the kids are makingn in our summer embroidery class, here's the second of the four patters we're using. It's a daisy garden.

This is the second most popular embroidery pattern for this project. The kids like it for a couple reasons: they love the lazy daisy stitch, the pattern is simple and doesn't require many different types of stitches, and therefore, it's quick to work. This morning, we have our second class since starting these projects, so I'm eager to see what they've accomplished at home in a week!

Here's the embroidery pattern. It's another sketched-on-graph-paper-then-scanned deal, so it's a bit scratchy, by you can still get the idea. If you want to save it, you can click on the image to get a larger size, then right click on that and save it to your computer. Then you can resize it however you wish.



For this design, the stem stitch works great on the stems (!), the lazy daizy works for the flowers (although you could dress them up with other stitches as well, like bullions worked in loops, which would give more texture), and the center of the flowers are French knots or beads. The leaves are fishbone stitch, or they can simply be outlined in stem stitch. For the younger children, the backstitch is preferred to the stem stitch, but the design looks really nice with the stem stitch.

This pattern looks really good on the light green, the light blue, and the light purple bags, especially because the linings on those have daisies or other flowers on them and the colors of the flowers are easy to coordinate with the colors of the lining.

Stay tuned for photos of the kids' work - I'll snap a few pictures during class today!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, free embroidery patterns

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, August 13, 2007
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In my kids' summer embroidery class, the last project is a drawstring bag. I thought I'd share the patterns that we're using to embroider the front of the bags. I just made quick sketches on graph paper, so this is a scan of a sketch - nothing fancy, but fun anyway.

This particular embroidery pattern for the front of the drawstring bag matches (at least a little bit!) the lining I picked out for the pink drawstring bags. It's not a great sketch at all, admittedly, but it served the purpose. We taped the patterns to windows and taped the fabric over the patterns, and the kids traced them using water soluble markers.

Here's the pattern. If you want to use it, you can click on it for a much larger version, and then resize it.



Well, it doesn't look like much, does it? The stitches used in it are the stem stitch for circle outlines, the buttonhole wheel, the lazy daisy, and French knots or beads where the dots are.

Here's the photo again of the pink bag with the lining. We selected threads that match the overall color scheme, and some of the kids added a few "extra" colors to brighten things up.



The bags are about 7 inches across, so the pattern should be about 6.5 inches wide when sized correctly.

As soon as we start sewing up the embroidered bags, I'll take photos and put together a little picture tutorial. They're surprisingly simple and really fun!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, free embroidery patterns, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, August 12, 2007
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This week in my kids' embroidery class, we began our second summer project, embroidered drawstring bags. I picked out five colors of cotton broadcloth, and four patterned cottons to use as lining.

The embroidered design will be worked on the front of the bag only, since we don't have time to do a front and back pattern. So I drew up four patterns, which I will scan so you can see them, and I'll work up a short tutorial so you can see how easy it is to put together a lined drawstring bag, with "finished" seams on the inside.

I searched all over online for just the right pattern, but I didn't find anything that was exactly what I wanted. There was one pattern in particular that caught my eye, and I remember liking it, but I can't find the website! So I stuck with the simple rectangle, folded in half, with the lining tucked in, and actually, I like this pattern better. It's the perfect size for the kids to embroider, without being too big to take too long.



This is basically what the bags will look like when completed, although I'm going to do double drawstrings, so that they are easy to open and close. They'll have two strings coming out on the other side of the bag as well, then. They'll also be embroidered! This was just the sample I worked up to make sure the idea would work!



This is the lining in the light pink bag - I love the bright fabric! For the casing for the drawstring, I worked a backstitch around the bag in two parallel lines, so you're seeing the back side of the backstitch inside the bag there.

I think my favorite part of the bags so far is the fabric!



I've got a light blue with a purple and light blue flowered lining (although most of the linings can be mixed and matched).



Then there's a light purple with a yellow lining, with little purple flowers and pink roses.



And the same lining looks great with the dark pink bag, too! I also like the bright yellow and pink lining in the light pink bag above, with the dark pink.

I've got an aqua broadcloth as well, which looks incredibly good (believe it or not!) with the purple flowered lining.

My 13-year old niece helped me pick out the lining fabrics, which was good. I didn't want to end up with anything "fuddy duddy" that the kids wouldn't like! She did a great job, and the kids are really excited about their last project.

The designs I drew up are relatively simple - a wreath of lazy daisy leaves and flowers, to put their initials in; a row of daisies; a geometric "sampler" type pattern for the girls who like to dress things up a lot (and who spend time at home stitching!); and a pattern of random circles (worked in buttonhole wheels and stem stitch, etc) with lazy daisy flowers, to match that bright yellow lining on the bag above. I think (I hope!) they are all quick to work - and I think they are, as most of the kids not only traced all their patterns in class today, but got a good bit of stitching done.

Only two more weeks of classes (two a week, for two different age groups), so all in all, this summer, we will have had nine weeks of classes, or 18 classes altogether. Not bad!

I can't wait to take photos of the whole display of completed bags and notebook covers! It should end up being 76 completed projects! WOW!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, August 08, 2007
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I'm trying to post at least one photo of each of my students' projects. So here are a few more. These are the last ones from the older kids' class (I've got 9 - 12 / 13 year olds in there). Today, I have the little kids (7 - 10), so I'll be photographing their progress so far, too.

Embroidery is a great thing to teach children - it gives them something to do while developing a worth-while skill, a "discipline" to follow, a sense of beauty, and a great sense of accomplishment. If you have time to do it, teach a child to embroider!



Here's a close up from the last notebook cover on this page of photos. This is the double chain stitch. It makes a great border.



This one's developing into a vine-covered bird house on a post, with (of course!) a bird....



On this one, the design was almost entirely drawn on the back, and the girl stitched from the back to the front. She ended up making a rather interesting chain stitch that way!



Here's one with a patriotic flair. Notice the variety of stitches. This student practices every stitch on her notebook cover, and any stitch that can be explained to her, she tries, whether we're covering it in class or not. So she really has a great variety!



I like these French knot and daisy clusters in the corners:



I love clustering French knots together for a textured fill, and this corner looks especially good.

So, that's it for now. I'm really excited to get into the younger kids' class this afternoon to see what they've done this week!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, July 25, 2007
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Here are a few more photos from my kids' embroidery classes. Their embroidered notebook covers are going to be darling!

Next week, we'll be getting to the finishing stage of the first summer embroidery project. They'll be stitching up the edges and adding the ribbon that ties the book closed. I can't wait!

In the meantime, here are some more photos from class:



This is a close up of one of the flowers embroidered by one of the youngest girls in the 9 - 13 group. Her daisy stitches and French knots are great, but she really does an exceptional job on her perfectly even backstitches!



Here's a little dog pattern. This one was an iron-on as well. They started adding beads yesterday, so you can see how they're used in the middle of the flowers and as part of the eyes!



A close up on a flower worked in lazy daisy with a bead center.



Here are some initials worked in whipped running stitch, with greenery and large flowers. All the kids love the whipped running stitch, since it makes a two-tone line that looks like a rope (or a candy cane, depending on the colors!).



Here's a cute butterfly on the back of a cover - you can see that the whipped running is really a favorite, as well as the lazy daisy.



Here's the front of the butterfly notebook cover, with initials and flowers. She did a great job on the stem stitch filling!



And here's a close up on the spine of that book cover - an interesting approach to stem stitch. She threaded two colors in the same needle.



Bears are embroidered on this one - an iron-on transfer was used to good effect. The designs are small enough to give the stitcher plenty of room to embroider spontaneous embellishment.



I think the honey pot is really cute!

So there are a few more updates - hope you enjoy looking at them! The classes are going really well. I've got two of them going this summer for local children, aged 7 - 10 and aged 9 - 13. These pictures are from the 9 - 13 class. They're making embroidered notebook covers out of wool felt, working in #5 perle cotton. The designs were completely up to them, and what I do is basically teach them a stitch, give them an opportunity to practice it on their "scrap" fabric until they've got it down, draw (on the board) a few ways it can be used, and then they incorporate the stitch onto their notebook cover. It's a great way for them to keep track of which stitches they've learned, and it will supply them with a visual "diary" of each stitch for reference... And - they're making something they can use when school starts! (Summer goes too quickly!)

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, July 24, 2007
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The children's embroidery classes I'm teaching are progressing pretty well! I thought I'd share some photos of what the kids are up to with their embroidery projects.

This embroidery class has children from age 9 - 13 in it. They're working on embroidered notebook covers right now. They'll be doing the finishing touches on them through next Monday, which will be our last class on the notebook covers. Then we're going to work on little draw-string bags.

The embroidered notebook covers are made out of 100% wool felt in various colors. The thread they're using is #5 perle cotton. The covers will fit on the Mead brand "fat little" notebooks.

I can't include all the photos in one article (I've got 30 from today's class alone!), so I'll split them up here and there... but I thought you'd be interested to see what little kids can produce when they're having fun with needle and thread and a little imagination!



I love the little watermelon slice worked in stem stitch and french knots. The round item to the right of the watermelon is working into a straw hat with a ribbon on the band. The hat and the watermelon are sitting on a table covered with a table cloth (backstitched). On the back of the notebook cover, she's embroidering a bird cage in chain stitch and back stitch. She just started adding some beads down the "spine" of the book cover, along the chain stitched wavy line.



Here's a big butterfly! The outline is chain stitch, and it's filled with white French knots, with buttonhole wheels at the base of the wings. The body is worked in a whipped running stitch. There are bunches of grapes next to the butterfly, as well as some backstitched hearts.



This is a sunny little scene on a flowery hill. She's still working in the rays of the sun, and adding little beads among the grass and flowers.



This is the same book cover, only the back, with a little embroidered flower and a bee trail. The bee's coming...



Here's a chick and a barn and a fish! I love the barn in the background - she's working on the roof of it now.



And here's a close-up on that happy fish, which is outlined in chain stitch and the scales are embroidered in long straight stitches in two colors.



I love all the buggy critters and flowers on this one! I also like the squared off patchwork pattern, which is worked in different colors in chain stitch.



There's the front up close. The center picture is a dancing bug.



And here's the little caterpillar and bug on the back. The caterpillar is worked in buttonhole stitch and laced running stitch.



Here's a lion and a kangaroo. These are both iron-on transfer patterns, which work really well on felt. The stitching is really well done - and I think she's the youngest girl in the class!



Here's the lion up close - worked in backstitch. The flowers are clusters of lazy daisy and French knots.



And here's the kangaroo up close, worked in whipped running stitch. The band at the base is double chain stitch.

So far, so good! The kids are doing a great job on their projects! I'm excited to see them complete the book covers! Next up, is a drawstring bag, using regular embroidery floss. That will take only 3 weeks (meeting each class once a week), and then the summer will be over! *SIGH*

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, July 23, 2007
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There are many variations on the chain stitch used in hand embroidery. Here's one that produces a "realistic-looking" chain, with a small link between each of the loops in the chain stitch. It's called the cable chain stitch.

This stitch can be worked in lines, around curves, in circles - any way that you would normally use a chain stitch, except perhaps as a filling. That's not to say it couldn't be used as an interesting filling! I haven't tried it, but I would imagine that, worked in rows, alternating the location of the stitches in each row, it would make an interesting filling.

This is what the cable chain stitch looks like when worked:



The stitch begins the same way a chain stitch does, but after the first loop of the chain is created, you wrap your thread once around the needle and insert the needle on the other side of your first chain stitch loop (instead of inside it, like with the chain stitch). Then you make another chain stitch, and continue in that fashion.

Here in the video, I'm working down a line, from top to bottom, but the stitch can easily be worked from right to left (for right-handed stitchers - left to right for left-handed stitchers).



The list of hand embroidery video tutorials is still growing, so stay tuned!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, July 11, 2007
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Here's a video tutorial for the double chain stitch used in hand embroidery. This is a quick, easy stitch which creates a wide decorative band. It looks somewhat similar to the closed herringbone stitch, but it's created with the same (few) easy steps used in the chain stitch.

This stitch would look great as a border. It can be worked on curves or straight. You work on two parallel lines, and you can certainly vary the boldness or delicacy of the result by choosing different weight threads, and working across wider or narrower lines.

In the video, I'm using perle cotton #5 because it shows up better. I've worked this stitch in a single strand of DMC or silk in very tiny stitches, and achieved a kind of lacy effect. If you're embroidering anything miniature that needs trim on it - for example, a little Dutch girl or sunbonnet girl on a quilt square - you can add a nice pretty border on the edge of a dress with it.

It also makes good seam embellishment for crazy quilting, or it looks great as a band on samplers. Some of my students are presently having fun adding it to their embroidered notebook covers.

Here's a close up of the double chain stitch so you can see what it comes out looking like:



In the video, I'm working from top to bottom down two parallel lines. You can mark the lines, or, if you're using an even-weave fabric, you can follow the weave of the fabric. The stitch can also be worked from right to left (for right handed stitchers).

Here's the video:




For more video tutorials for hand embroidery stitches, please visit my Video Library of Stitches Index.

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, July 10, 2007
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I planned to have this embroidered notebook cover finished by the time I went to bed on Sunday, but sometimes things just don't work out the way we plan them! The first kids' embroidery class was Monday morning, and I wanted to show this to them as a sample. Although I didn't finish, I did make progress, so I thought I'd share some photos...

The kids love the thing, by the way, and are excited to make their own. They learned three stitches on Monday: the running stitch (we always start with that one!), the whipped running stitch, and the chain stitch. I jump straight into the chain stitch because it's just a short step to the detached chain (lazy daisy), which is always received enthusiastically because they can make flowers with it.

We also talked a little about needles and scissors, keeping track of supplies, clean hands, and such. They learned how to hoop up their fabric (we use white cotton twill for practicing). Then they picked out two colors of cotton perle, we learned the stitches, and then they picked out the felt for their embroidered notebook cover (four different colors were available) and three pre-cut strands of three different colors of cotton perle, which they rolled up and put in their sewing boxes. I showed them where to stitch the running stitches to mark the sides of the notebook cover, and they practiced their stitches, and that was the whole two hours! Fortunately, I have two gals from our guild helping with each class - so in this class, which had 17 children in it, each of the adults were able to give some one-on-one help with each stitch.

It was fun! The next group meets on Wednesday afternoon.

So this is the notebook cover so far, which I have every intention of finishing today, depending on how long I have to be at work!



The spine is marked by the wavy line in the center, although the spine doesn't really have to be marked at all - the design could continue across the whole space. I realized it doesn't really matter which side is which, either - on this, either side of the spine could be the front cover!



This is what I accomplished on Sunday. The wavy line in yellow down the spine is a laced chain stitch. The stitching on the inside of the waves is a variation on Algerian eye, with French knots at the tips. The fan in the top right corner is worked in whipped back stitch (the ribs), and the two bold lines defining the arch are Portuguese knotted stem. The yellow between the ribs is fly stitch in yellow ribbon. The edge on the outside is fly stitch worked in three strands of DMC stranded cotton, with a little green detached chain between the peaks of the fly stitch.



I added these little hand-painted buttons to the part that I had already finished before Sunday.



The vine here is worked in stem stitch, dotted with little ribbon leaves. The flowers are daisy stitches and French knots, for the most part.



The buds that rest in the vine intersections are actually oyster stitch, covered a little by some ribbon.



There's a little French knot at the base of each bud.



This is backstitch laced with a wide and loose silk ribbon. It's a scrap of ribbon that came from an orts bag from Yodamo silk. These are little $4 and $6 bags of miscellaneous ends of silk ribbon which are great for scraps and such.

You can find pretty much all the stitches used above in my Video Library of Stitches.

I plan on posting exact instructions for making the cover - it's not complicated at all, and it's a great and relaxing project for any kid - no matter how old!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, Hand embroidery stitches, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, June 26, 2007
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