Embroidery Stitch-a-long. Part 3: let’s start!

Hello Guys!

I am so happy to start this Sew-along with you. These last 2 months have been super busy packing your embroidery kits orders and working on new designs, and I can’t wait to sit down, grab a needle, and relax a bit.

There have been a lot of articles recently regarding the benefits of crafts in general and embroidery. It was all about mindfulness, stress-relief. Needlework has been credited with the same virtues as the soothing purrings of a kitty, plus it slows down your heartbeat, and makes you happy! It’ s like meditation with a needle!

I guess that you are all ready now with your materials and you know everything about the basics.

Whether you are beginner or not, you can follow this tutorial. I will start with the easiest stitch and will progress slowly to teach you a great variety of embroidery stitches over the next weeks.

The first stitch I will talk about is the BACKSTITCH.

It is the stitch mainly used to outline drawings and it can also be used to embroider words. It is basically a continuous line and this is how it goes.

 Here is a great video from the brilliant Mary Corbet:

For the Victorian Hands Sew pattern, we will use a backstitch to outline the hands, trace the roses and leaves, and to embroider the sleeves and gold fringes of the sleeves.

Today, I will focus on the Backstitch in BLACK thread for this pattern.

So, it will be the hands (except nails) and the sleeves (except the fringes).

We will use 3 strands of BLACK thread for all these parts.

To start, we will come out from the point indicated by the needle on this picture and we will progress down, embroidering the hands. Be careful not to stitch the fringe in Black.

When you arrive to the fingers area, pay attention and don’ t stitch the little “ thread” that is indicated by the tip of the needle on the picture. It will be stitched in a gold chainstitch later.

The last part we have to do is the sleeves, be careful, once again, to not stitch over the fringes but to cover the 3 horizontal lines of the sleeves in a Black backstitch. 

I think that’ s it for today. A great start, a bit tricky as we will embroider Black on a black line, but I am sure that you will make it!!!

Please do not hesitate to leave your comments or questions below.

Next post: the roses!!! 

Find all my Embroidery Tote Bag Stitch-a-long posts there: