Hello Sewing Friends! Tamar here from Tamar Hope Designs! I’m excited to be back on the blog for another sewing 101 post! This month we are taking a little detour and talking about all things embroidery! I love doing embroidery. In our fast paced society, I think it’s so important to add slow, intentional activities to our lives. It is calming and gratifying to work on and finish a hand embroidery project. And it’s super portable! You can work on it while camping, while on a road trip, while watching TV.
If you haven’t tried it, you should! And this post will give you everything you need to get started!
Supplies
First of all, you need to pick your colors. It’s easy to get overwhelmed in the embroidery floss aisle. Don’t freak out though. The Sunflower Seams embroidery patterns now have color guides to give you a great pallet to start with. Another great way to pick colors that look beautiful together is to find a fabric that you want to coordinate with. Match your embroidery floss to the color pallet that the fabric uses.
(fabric is Art Gallery “Beyond the Clouds”)
After you bring your embroidery floss home, wind it onto spools. You can use embroidery floss spools, or you can just wind the floss around clothespins.
This is an important step. It can be tempting to just use the embroidery floss the way it is. However, this will eventually lead to a tangled mess. You will be happier in the long run if you just wind your embroidery floss on spools.
Next, it is helpful to have a needle that is specifically for embroidery. Embroidery needles have eyes that are big enough for several strands of floss. They are also sharp enough to easily pierce through the fabric. Standard embroidery needles will work for most things. Straw needles are also very helpful to have for French knots and bullion stitches. The eye of a straw needle is nearly the same width as the shaft of the needle. This makes it easy to pull through the French knot.
The needle on the left is the straw needle. The needle on the right is a standard embroidery needle.
Next, you need something to transfer your pattern to your fabric. The Sunflower Seams embroidery patterns have several suggestions for transfer methods. My favorite method is using Solvy.
Solvy is magical. You just print the pattern on the paper, remove the backing, and stick it down to your fabric. When you are done stitching, you can simply rinse the Solvy away. Another advantage of using Solvy is it provides a little stability which allows you to easily embroider knit fabrics. If you are new to embroidery, I would suggest starting with woven fabrics, as it's much easier to learn stitches on woven fabric. However, once you have gained a little confidence, you can use Solvy to embroider on knit fabric too!
Lastly, you will need to place your fabric with the pattern into an embroidery hoop. If you are using woven fabric, pull the fabric nice and tight in every direction.
If you are using knit fabric, fasten the embroidery hoop without stretching the fabric at all. If you stretch the fabric, your stitches will be loose when the fabric is relaxed. You can even embroider swim fabric. I’ve done it successfully, and the embroidery still looks great even after the suit has started to wear out. The key to swim embroidery is slightly stretching your fabric in the hoop. Try to stretch it approximately as much as it will be stretched when it is being worn.
Stitching
It just so happens that Sunflower Seam’s newest embroidery pattern, Balloon Flower has a design that is perfect for beginners to learn basic stitches. The Balloon with Sampler Stitches is a great place to start. Grab the pattern now through the end of October for 20% off with code EMBROIDERY.
Once you have your pattern, you’ll need to separate your embroidery floss. Embroidery floss has six strands all twisted together. You will rarely use all six strands when stitching. The stitch guide of your pattern will tell you how many strands of embroidery floss to use for each stitch. Cut your embroidery floss into a length of approximately 18 inches. Gently pull one strand of embroidery floss out of the length.
Repeat until you have enough strands for your stitch. Step by step directions for each stitch can be found in the stitch glossary in the Balloon Flower Pattern. If you’re a visual learner, check out these videos of each stitch.
Have fun learning all of these fun new stitches! The finished product is always worth the effort!
As a side note, my daughter has worn this sweatshirt on repeat for the last three weeks. I have had to pry it from her hands to get it washed. The extra time and effort is so worth it when the finished product is so cherished by loved ones!
Happy Stitching!
-Tamar