All embroidery stitches fall into one of 3 simple structural groups
Straight Stitches
Stitches that are formed by bringing the needle to the front of
the fabric and taking the stitch without looping or twisting the thread around the
needle.
* Running Stitch
* Back Stitch
* Stem Stitch
* Herringbone Stitch
* Chevron Stitch
* Satin Stitch
* Wheat Stitch
* Cross Stitch
Looped Stitches
Stitches that are formed by looping the thread under the needle
to form the stitch.
Knotted Stitches
Stitches that are formed by wrapping the thread around the
needle before putting back through the fabric
* French Knot
* Colonial Knot
* Bullion Stitch
There are elements of each basic stitch that can be varied to alter their
appearance. Once you have mastered the basic stitches try some of these variations.
Change the type of thread
Change the number of strands
Change the the size of the stitch
Change the the spacing of the stitches
Change the angle of the needle.
Here I will start by showing you stitches from my current project.
Herringbone Stitch covered with Button Hole stitch with Detached Chain and crystals along one side.
Feather Stitch with Bullion Stitch Ring and bead flowers.
Herringbone Stitch done with different widths with Detached Chain Stitches and beads.
These Fans are woven over 7 Straight Stitches.
2 rows of Twisted Detached Chain with organza ribbon woven through and held in place with beads.
Herringbone Stitch Done over rick rack braid with Colonial Knots and Pistal stitch along the edges.
Fly Stitch hearts with Detached Chain, Straigh Stitches and Colonial Knots...from the Cover of Carol Samples book 'Treaury of Crazy Quilt stitches'.
Blanket Stitch Fans with beads.
The net is made up of Fly Stitches and Clusters of Colonial knots is how I use up the ends of thread.
Blanket stitch worked with different lengths and from side to side.
Crossed single Herringbone with Colonial Knots.
knotted Chain Stitch
knotted Chain stitch worked from side to side.
2 rows of chain stitch each done in a zig zag, tiny gold straight stitches to hold the chain stitch in place, detached chain in a thick metalic thread down the centre and green pistal stitches along both sides.
Herringbone stitch with detached chain stitches and beads
Herringbone stitch as a base with a thick metalic thread wound through it and different sized beads added.
Blanket stitch half circles with a bead and detached chain to make it look like a fan and straight stitches to add extra colour.
Detached chain stitches with a bead.
3 stitches from one....I was looking through Sharons copy of The embroidery Bible by Betty Barnden and found Italian Insertion stitch, Sharon took a quick glance at it and started to tell me how to do it and then half listening to Sharon and half reading the directions I stitched the middle variation (I later put the roses on it because it looked like a trellis). Next I did the stitch only listening to Sharon, thats the top variation and then I did it just reading the instructions which gave the bottom variation...I love how slight varitions can make a stitch look so different.
Straight stitches with a bead on each stitch. The beads move along the stitches and are fun to play with.
Cretan stitch with staight stitches and Beads.
To get started you only need to learn a few basic stitches and For the How To Embroider them I am going to hand you over to Sharon's Stitch Dictionry. What I will show you is how to vary and combine the basic stitches to get many different looks.
