Minden Hills Cultural Centre

Alright, are we ready? It’s day three and after all that planning, sketching and transferring we’re going to start stitching!

Step 1: Put fabric in a hoop

Step 2: Decide on your stitches and choose your thread
Decide how thick you want your lines to be and separate your thread accordingly. Most embroidery thread comes in 6 strands that can be used together for a thick line or divided up for thinner lines.

Step 3: Starting a thread
This video shows how to start your thread without a knot on the back. This is only really important for the first thread, because after that you can whip stitch onto the back of existing threads. Having fewer knots on the back keeps your finished embroidery looking smooth on the top. If you’re not worried about that, go right ahead and start stitching with knots on the back.

Step 4: Backstitch text
Backstitch is a great stitch for letters and thin lines. As the name suggests you work backwards, taking a stitch and then going back into the previous stitch. This creates a nice flowing line that doesn’t have any breaks in it. The more common ‘running stitch’ or basic sewing stitch creates little dashes instead of a continuous line. I outlined each letter in backstitch and then went back to add another line on one side to add weight to the letters.

Step 5: How to finish a thread
Pro tip: end your threads way before you think you need to. It is so much easier to tie off the ends if you have 4-5 inches of thread to work with. Here’s how to whip stitch a finished thread on the back

Step 6: Add a bit of sparkle
Consider mixing up colours or adding texture with beads. Here’s a mini star, stitched in gold.

And there you have it! The basics of embroidery are now yours to enjoy!

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