In case you lost your directions or missed out on a kit, we have you covered. In this series, we will be showcasing past projects, in particular those that were originally released as Surprise Craftertunity kits at the library. So get ready to grab some spare materials and start crafting!
Basic Embroidery Stitches
In our next post we will be creating some simple felt bookmarks with some basic embroidery. To make things simpler, I have here just a couple of stitches to get you started. I think you'll discover you can create quite a few designs with just the basics at your fingertips. for more stitches, please feel free to check out one of our embroidery books.
Materials:
Scraps of felt in various colors &/or sizes (preferably wool)
Embroidery needle
Embroidery floss/thread
Scissors
Imagination
Starting:
The easiest way to start until you feel confident in your stitches is to run the floss through the needle and tie the ends together in a large enough knot that it doesn't sneak through to the other side.
Once you feel more confident, you can start not tying them but allowing one to lag behind as a tail that you can weave into your finished work later on (or you can catch it in another stitch or two as you go so you don't even have to weave the ends in). However, this will leave you with considerably thicker lines. It will still work and for some pieces it might even be preferred, but in general, not knotting but simply weaving in is preferred and is a sign of proficiency.
If you need to decide on the most important of these stitches to learn, the backstitch, lazy daisy, and French knot are probably the most important, especially as far as the next post is concerned.
Running Stitch Instructions:
Fairly simple. The threaded needle comes up from the "wrong" side of the fabric and down the "right" side repeatedly in a row.
This produces a dashed line. Its appearance can be altered by how long the stitches are, whether they are identical to one another or a pattern, and how much space is between stitches, not to mention if you do one or more rows and/or combine the previous adjustments.
It is probably the most visually well-known stitch out there.
Note: An extremely loose, removable version of this is used outside of embroidery called a basting stitch (or tacking) and is used to hold two or more pieces of material together until the final sewing can be done on them. Once completed, basting stitches are removed. If you've done any other sewing, you might recognize the terms.
Backstitch Instructions:
This basic stitch is one that everyone should know and only slightly less recognized than the running stitch. It is the stitch you will use for any kind of outlining.
The basic process is you do your first stitch, go down and come up like a running stitch but instead of going forward, you backtrack to the hole you went down in last time and go down it once more. Once you've established that first loop, it is a matter of continuing loops by going forward a stitch distance farther than the end of your last one and coming down at the previous stitch. See either the side view (above) or the top view (below) or both.
Chain Stitch Instructions:
Slightly more complicated, though not by much. Chain stitch forms a row of linked stitches:
Thread comes up through the back, loops back to it's original hole (or nearby) but isn't pulled tight yet.
Place your needle where you want the next stitch to go and wrap the loop from the previous stitch around your needle and pull the needle through the above loop.
Repeat by bringing your needle down in or near where you just came up, placing the needle a stitch away and... You should catch on pretty quickly.
The result will be a series of loops that begin within the previous loop in a long chain.
Detached Chain Stitch (a.k.a. Lazy Daisy) Stitch Instructions:
Much like the regular Chain Stitch, the Detached Chain starts by bringing your thread up and down through the same hole and then coming up inside the loop a stitch away. The main difference is that instead of coming back down in this subsequent hole, you come down immediately on the outside of the loop to catch it in place.
The tighter you pull the initial loop, the narrower the petal/leaf/loop will be. It has a few names, but Detached Chain, Single Chain & Lazy Daisy are the primary names.
It is often used for simple petals and leaves, among other things. In fact, the reason it is sometimes called the Lazy Daisy is because if you fit 5-6 of these stitches together you get a flower. (see to the right)
French Knot Instructions:
A petit knot that adds a a little flair. It is notoriously difficult to untangle and experts suggest just cutting it out instead of untangling. Completing it though is fairly simple:
Pull your threaded needle up through the bottom of the canvas.
Holding onto the thread with your non-stitching hand and close to the canvas, wrap it around the needle once (for a small knot) or twice (for a larger knot); avoid wrapping more than twice or the result will be a lopsided knot.
Pull the needle partway down into the canvas, close to the spot where the needle came to the front but not into the same hole. Keep the thread pulled taut so that it wraps snugly but not so taut that it prevents the needle from drawing through the knot.
Towards the end, let go of the thread and it should smoothly loop into a French knot on the right side of your work.
A number of sites suggest you don't want to do more than twice, as it could easily make the knot lopsided. TheSpruceCrafts.com suggests that if you are struggling with making the knot, or with staying untangled while making one, that when you get to spots requiring French knots that you start a new thread. That way if something happens, you can cut it out and not lose anything prior.
Stem Stitch Instructions:
Often used to depict stems (how it got its name), this stitch is great if you want to create a smooth curve.
Using short stitches placed immediately next to one another on an angle, by adjusting where you place your next stitch or the next stitch goes down you can adjust the thickness and steepness of the curve of your line. It looks a little like the strands are wrapping around one another (like a cord). However, if you use too long a stitch on your curve, especially a tighter curve, not only will you lose the wrapped appearance but you will also find that the line of the stitch will cut across the curve causing a "hairy", disjointed look.
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