Step-by-step tutorials for every essential hand embroidery stitch, from backstitch to bullion knots.
My first french knots looked like tiny tumors. Lopsided, half-buried lumps of DMC 321 that sat on the fabric like they were ashamed to be there. I avoided the stitch for a year, routing around every pattern that called for one, until a stitch-group friend watched me struggle for exactly one knot and said, “You … Read more
I learned my first five stitches from a library book with diagrams drawn in the 1970s, and my next five from unpicking other people’s work at the stitch group to see how the magic was done. These 10 basic embroidery stitches are the ones I would teach a beginner in order, because each one builds … Read more
If you learn just one embroidery stitch, make it the backstitch. I say this with complete confidence, because the backstitch is the stitch I reach for most, in almost every project I make. It draws clean outlines, it writes beautiful lettering, it makes stems and vines and borders, and it is strong enough that the … Read more