Hand Stitching: Getting Started
This hand stitching is fun! Especially since I’m doing everything very free form, with a minimum of planning.
I have limited expertise with hand embroidery, so I searched online for some stitch tutorials. I found Sharon Boggon’s excellent stitch directory, as well as her stunning examples. Some of Sharon’s pieces are heavily textured with stitches literally piled on top of each other. I immediately loved this look and decided to go for something similar.
I started by stitching a 5″ x 7″ outline. It seemed to me that some background stitching was in order, so I added that, as well. I plan to frame the finished piece with an 8″ x 10″ portion showing. Therefore, I folded the fabric to these approximate dimensons – just to help me judge the scale.
Click any image for a larger view.
(This piece will probably have a vertical orientation, but most photos will be shown horizontally.)
I wanted my stitching to represent movement, in response to a group challenge. So, I sketched and stitched an undulating line with this in mind.
I had no idea how to go about designing an embroidered piece like this. I studied some online examples and then just jumped in and started stitching shapes that I thought would be appropriate for the background. (The buttonhole wheels shown above were too open for my liking. I later filled them in with more spokes.)
Randomly selecting from my palette of threads, I continued working the background of the line shape.
The colors were looking a little hodge podge at this point. However, I wasn’t concerned, since I knew they’d later be covered with lots of french knots, bullion knots, and beads. And besides, I was having fun!
Ellen Lindner
P.S. If you didn’t already click on the link for stunning examples, you really should. Very cool stuff!
Thanks for the photos, I started a small piece this week when I was traveling. I ended up stopping before I got very far because I didn’t like the quality of the lines I was making. I was going for a very stark black on white and thought I could get the look by using a double thickness of thread. It just didn’t do anything for me.
After seeing your work I think I might try my piece again using some floss. Yours has the line quality I was looking for.
Thanks for sharing.
😀 eirdre