How to Embroider

What you need:

• embroidery hook: a ring consisting of two parts
• small scissors
• fabric of your choice (quilting cotton works good)
• embroidery floss
• embroidery needles (have a bigger eye than other needles)

Step 1:

Embroidery hoops come in many flavors, though the basic circular wood and plastic ones are the most common. You can find them at most craft stores.

To start, loosen the nut at the top of the hoop. You'll then separate the hoops. Put the one that has the nut and bolt to the side, you don't have to worry about it just yet.

The other part of the hoop is the part you'll drape the fabric you're using over. In this case, I'm using an old cotton t-shirt because there was a whole bag of them at Instructables.

After you have the fabric over the bottom hoop, push the top hoop down over the bottom one. This will sandwich the fabric between them. Now you'll want to tighten the nut a bit and begin pulling the fabric taut. The fabric floating between the hoops should not give very much - this will make the embroidering much more complicated than it should be.

After the fabric is taut, keep tightening the nut until it feels secure to you.

Also note that this is the best time to trim the fabric if you need to. If you trim before you put it into the hoops you'll often find that it doesn't work as you think it will!

Step 2:

Needle threading can be a little complicated at times. I've found the easiest way to do it is to wet the floss (yes, put it in your mouth.) and squish it between your thumb and forefinger. This will flatten it out and allow it to pass through the eye of the needle with less fuss.

Also: keep in mind that you do not double the floss as you sometimes do with thread. You're simply going to pull the thread through the eye and let a few inches hang loose. You'll knot the other end as usual. (And make sure to cut off the loose stuff after the knot - it'll make your work neater!)

Most floss is multi strand. The most common is six strands. You can divide the floss for more detailed work. The best way to do this it to use your fingernails to separate the strands and then pull is apart slowly.

Step 3: (THE RUNNING STITCH)

Done just as it is in regular sewing. You can make the stitches long or short or randomly placed depending on your design.

I use this stitch for framing and embroidery design, or for things that I want to seem open and airy.

I don't recommend this as much for text, because it can be a little too spacey.

You can either do the standard up and down, or push the needle through and make several stitches at once.



Step 4: (BACK STITCH)

I use this stitch all the time for text. It makes the text easier to read and it's more uniform.

You basically just pull the thread up through the fabric, and make a stitch to the left or right, depending on which way you'll be going. (Left if you'll be going right, right if you'll be going left.) You'll then bring the thread up again a stitch length from the original. You'll then take the thread back down right next to the original stitch.


Step 5: (SPLIT STITCH)

This is a great raised decorative stitch. It can be used much like a backstitch and works much like one.

I use this when I want things to have a little bit of texture. For example: the frosting on a cupcake, tree tops.

For this stitch you'll pull the thread up and make a small stitch. You'll then come back up through the middle of that stitch and take it back down through the fabric a short distance away in the direction you're going in. It's best to keep your stitches pretty short (1/8 of an inch to 1/4 of an inch.) when doing this - otherwise your stitches look messy and they won't conform to curves as much as you'd like.

Step 6: (FRENCH KNOTS)

To pull off a french knot successfully, you'll need to follow these steps:

• pull the floss through to the front of the fabric.
• wrap the floss that's between the fabric and the needle around the needle 1, 2, or 3 times. (One time is a small knot, 2 is medium, 3 is large.)
• hold the floss tightly so that it is wrapped tightly around the needle.
• with your other hand, push the needle through to the back of the fabric very close to where the floss emerged.
• keep holding the floss taut and pull the needle all the way through.
• practice this a few hundred times until it becomes second nature.

Step 7: (BLANKET STITCH)

This can be used for borders and thicker lines. You can also vary the spacing of these quite a bit.

This is often used to "edge" materials - things like blankets, towels, hems on clothing, etc.

Also: note to self and possibly to you - don't use blanket stitch on a cotton t-shirt because it looks awful. Or, best case scenario, use stabilizer. It pulls too much and things become awfully uneven.

How to do the blanketstitch:

• insert the needle where you'll want the bottom of the backstitch to be and pull it up through the fabric.
• reinsert the needle up and right of your current position. Where you insert it will depend on how tall and far apart you want the stitches to be.
• have the needle reemerge so that it lines up with where you put the needle through the last time.
• make sure the floss between the fabric and thread is under the needle.
• pull the floss through!
• to end, simply take the needle down right next to the curve of the last stitch. This will secure the stitch.
• Make sure to knot on the backside. You can separate the floss into equal parts and knot it normally, if you like!

Things will look much better if you're following a pattern. To create a pattern, you can draw on the fabric, use iron on transfers or carbon paper to copy a design onto the fabric.


I hope that this tutorial from instructables.com was helpful!