About

Mary Corbet

writer and founder

 

I learned to embroider when I was a kid, when everyone was really into cross stitch (remember the '80s?). Eventually, I migrated to surface embroidery, teaching myself with whatever I could get my hands on...read more

Contact Mary

Connect with Mary

     

Archives

2025 (74) 2024 (135) 2023 (125) 2022 (136) 2021 (130) 2020 (132) 2019 (147) 2018 (146) 2017 (169) 2016 (147) 2015 (246) 2014 (294) 2013 (294) 2012 (305) 2011 (306) 2010 (316) 2009 (367) 2008 (352) 2007 (225) 2006 (139)
 

Embroidery Design Transitions from Old to New

 

Amazon Books

I’m so glad so many of you enjoyed the resources from Antique Pattern Library that I posted last Friday!

Antique Pattern Library is really a gem of a resource, worth bookmarking and checking often for updates. Because they’re entirely a non-profit work, it’s also worth supporting them if you’re able. And they make it very easy to donate through Paypal – it takes about a whole two seconds. If you make use of APL, do consider a donation. No matter the amount, anything helps to keep the endeavor afloat.

Here’s a question that came into my inbox over the weekend:

Mary, you mention using these old embroidery books for inspiration. There are some embroideries in them that I think would make good patterns that I’d like to use, but how do you make them into a design if they don’t have a design in the book? How do you make the designs that you have on your website?

I thought I’d address these two different questions here, in case others are wondering the same thing!

Rose Swirl - Hand Embroidery Pattern
Continue reading “Embroidery Design Transitions from Old to New”

Favorite Old Embroidery Books – Free for Downloading

 

If you have a chance this weekend, you’ll definitely want to take some time to browse through Antique Pattern Library.

If you’re not familiar with Antique Pattern Library, it’s a real bonanza when it comes to needlework books in the public domain.

The folks behind Antique Pattern Library do a fantastic job scanning and cataloging a whole variety of needlework books, and many of them are excellent old embroidery books.

Today, I’ll sum up a list of recent delectable finds and old favorites that are worth downloading. I’ll also share my “shortcuts” for browsing Antique Pattern Library. In case I didn’t mention it, there are a lot of books there. Browsing can be a bit like falling into the Black Hole of Oblivion, only to emerge to a day half-gone.

All the books are free for downloading, although you can support APL by donating, if you wish – there are buttons on the site.

Free Online Embroidery Books Worth Downloading
Continue reading “Favorite Old Embroidery Books – Free for Downloading”

Stitch Fun! Fully Beaded Drizzle Stitch

 

Here’s a little follow-up on last week’s Stitch Fun! tutorial, where we learned how to bead the cast-on stitch.

We’re going to apply the same principles in that tutorial to the drizzle stitch, which is a fun dimensional stitch that sits up right off the fabric.

I’ve already shown you one way to bead the drizzle stitch, which involves placing a decorative bead just at the end of the stitch. What I like about that method is that the stitch really retains its curliness and the added bead on the end contributes a certain amount of weight to the stitch that makes it sort of floppy. I like that! It’s fun!

In this particular tutorial, with the stitch fully beaded up its whole length, you’ll see that the stitch, as I’ve worked it here, results in a rather stiff column of beads standing right up off the fabric.

Don’t be put off! You can make adjustments to this, which I’ll discuss below, to incorporate the twist that makes drizzle stitch so fun, and you can also add variety to the stitch by mixing things up a bit. I’ll talk about that at the end of the tutorial.

For now, here’s a quick little tutorial for a fully beaded drizzle stitch!

How to stitch a fully beaded drizzle stitch in hand embroidery
Continue reading “Stitch Fun! Fully Beaded Drizzle Stitch”

Sheesh – Some Shocking Shisha

 

A few weeks ago, I showed you the beginnings of this little embroidery sample worked on dark fabric.

Have you ever had one of Those Projects that you knew, from the beginning, that the results probably wouldn’t be All That Great? That was this project.

Now, don’t get me wrong! I think shisha embroidery is a lot of fun. I like the combination of beads and shisha and metallic threads.

(These all appeal to my secret attraction to Things Sparkly. Shhh. Don’t tell my family. They’d never believe it.)

But good golly, Miss Molly! Try combining shisha, beads (iridescent ones, to boot), metallic threads and dark fabric in the same project, and then try to photograph it decently, and you’re just begging for lunacy.

shisha embroidery with metallic threads on dark fabric
Continue reading “Sheesh – Some Shocking Shisha”

On Embroidery Kits & Following Instructions

 

“Do as I say, not as I do.”

When I was a professional teacher, I held this maxim to be one of the Worst Possible Ways to instruct anyone, especially children.

Children especially learn from example; they absorb what they see other people do (especially people they look up to), and they learn by what we do more than by what we say.

So I’ve always held “do as I say, not as I do” as a pretty shoddy way to instruct.

However…

(Don’t you just love “buts”?)

We’re all adults here, right? (Except for maybe Sarah, but I’m sure she’ll understand!)

When working with an embroidery kit designed by someone else, do as I say:

Read through the instructions carefully first. And I really do mean read through All The Instructions carefully first. If you want to make changes to the instructions or the design or the layout or the colors or the method, go for it! But read what the designer originally intended, first. Then make your decisions.

Don’t do as I did. To illustrate:

Late Harvest Embroidery Project - long and short stitch with beads
Continue reading “On Embroidery Kits & Following Instructions”

Embroidery with Beads – Index

 

Lately, we’ve been fiddling about with adding beads to embroidery stitches as part of the Stitch Fun! series.

Since it’s Monday morning – and Monday’s are as good a time as any to think about organization – I thought I’d do a little house cleaning on the website and create an index for all the tutorials and articles relating to embroidery with beads here on Needle ‘n Thread.

That way, if you have a favorite tutorial you’re looking for, you can find it on this list. You can also bookmark the list so you can access it easily whenever you want. I’ll updated it whenever we add a new tutorial or article of interest.

You’ll find the list nestled under Stitch Fun!, which can be found under Tips & Techniques in the main menu across the top of the website.

Incidentally, you’ll be happy to know (maybe?) that there’s a new website overhaul going on right in the background, and the new site will feature visual indexes. I’m very excited about that!

Embroidery with Beads - Index of Tutorials
Continue reading “Embroidery with Beads – Index”

Stumpwork Embroidery: Here’s Flowers for You!

 

If you love stumpwork embroidery, if you love flowers, and if you have a bit of a penchant for historical embroidery, literature, poetry… then you’ll definitely want to know about Jane Nicholas’s new stumpwork book, Shakespeare’s Flowers in Stumpwork, which is due out soon, soon, soon!

I’m so excited about this book! And on so many levels.

Stumpwork. Flowers. History. Literature. Poetry. Shakespeare. I’m a sucker for all of the above.

But really, it’s Jane’s exquisite artistry with the needle that seals them all up into such an appealing package.

Shakespeare's Flowers by Jane Nicholas
Continue reading “Stumpwork Embroidery: Here’s Flowers for You!”