Embroidery tips
Tricks, advice, and suggestions to improve your embroidery technique. From choosing the thread to managing the hoop, optimize your work with our secrets.
- Embroidery tips, DIY Tutorials, Embroidery patterns, Embroidery stitches, Home decor and gifts, Tools and materials
Easy To Make Designs is moving. Find new embroidery tutorials and articles on the Practical Embroidery Blog
Practical Embroidery online school is dedicated to hand embroidery and its practical application Practical Embroidery online school exists to teach hand embroidery techniques and application. Embroidery skills empower us to take care of our clothes, homes, and emotional health with simple stitches. This web page offers a range of online courses, workshops, downloadable patterns, video tutorials, and embroidery kits. Practical Embroidery online school is dedicated to sharing information about hand embroidery stitches and techniques. You will find a lot of free bite-sized hand embroidery lessons, tips, and tutorials here. Stitch library A-Z The list of hand embroidery stitches and techniques is grouped by alphabet names. Click on the title, and you will find…
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What is the difference between Split stitch and Split Backstitch?
Often, people call both stitches a split stitch, but you should know that a split stitch and split backstitch are actually different stitches. Both stitches are great for outlines and lettering and work excellent on straight and curved lines. So, what is the difference? The differences are: Embroidery method. In a split stitch, we split the previous stitch from below and in a split backstitch – from above. Visually, a split stitch has more volume and texture and looks thicker and sturdier. While split back stitch lies flatter on the fabric. Thread consumption. Split backstitch will consume more floss than a regular split stitch. It might not be a big…
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Border designs for hand embroidery
Decorative stitches for making borders There are many types of hand embroidery stitches that we use in modern embroidery. Some are best for outlines, some for filling, some for lettering, and some – for border designs. The border design is a pattern that runs lengthwise along the edge of the fabric or a garment. Usually, we use border designs to decorate clothes and tableware. It is common to use border designs in quilting too. In this article, I listed hand embroidery stitches that you can choose from for creating beautiful border designs. Each link in this blog post will lead you to a detailed description of the stitch and a…
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How to remove tracing marks from fabric
Some time ago, I wrote about Embroidery design transfer techniques and tools. Now, when we know how to transfer the embroidery pattern onto the fabric, let’s find out how to remove these tracing marks after the embroidery is done. Note: After erasing tracing marks from fabric, always wash your embroidery in lukewarm water, dry it, and iron. You can read more about how to wash hand embroidery HERE. Water-soluble marker These markers are a fabulous way to trace patterns and transfer designs when embroidering. To remove tracing marks of a water-soluble marker, you can: Wash your embroidery in lukewarm water. Dab tracing marks with wet cloth or sponge. This method…
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Best embroidery stitches for outlines
According to the dictionary, the outline is a line or set of lines enclosing or indicating the shape of an object in a sketch or diagram. In hand embroidery, the outline is a set of stitches that indicate the shape of an object or design. In this article, I listed some best hand embroidery stitches for outlines. Let’s see them all. Note: If you click the colored link on the stitch’s name, you will find a video tutorial of that stitch! Watch them and learn the outline stitches you like. Running stitch The running stitch or straight stitch is the basic stitch of hand embroidery, on which all other forms…
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How to wash hand embroidery
After long hours of work, your hand embroidered piece is finished. Congrats! Now you want to display it or wear it, right? It is always recommended to wash and iron the embroidered piece of art or clothing before wearing it. But do you know why? Also, do you know how to clean your embroidery the right way? For example, can you machine wash your embroidery, use bleach or dryer? Besides that, how to clean embroidery that is framed and can not be dipped into the water? Let’s answer all these questions about washing and cleaning hand embroidery and hand-embroidered clothes! First, let’s see why you should wash your hand embroidery? To…
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How to organize embroidery floss
If you want to organize your embroidery floss, you need to create a system that will work well for your needs in the long term. When you think about the floss organizing system, the first question to consider – why do I do that? Why do we need to organize our embroidery floss stash? Benjamin Franklin said, “For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.” And I agree with every word! When your floss is organized and in order, it is easy to find the colors you need for your new project. When you know how much of which color floss you have, you don’t buy floss you…
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How to transfer a pattern with the lightbox method
Step by step Instructions + Video tutorial In the previous article – “How to transfer embroidery pattern to fabric; Embroidery design transfer techniques and tools,” I wrote about four different pattern transfer techniques – Tracing, Transferring, Using a stabilizer, or Drawing a pattern directly on a fabric. This Tutorial will show you how you can do pattern tracing with a lightbox method. As said before, by definition, Tracing is a “copy of a drawing or pattern made by drawing over it through a piece of thin, transparent paper” (Cambridge dictionary). Only in hand embroidery, instead of thin, transparent paper, we use a piece of fabric. To use the Tracing with…
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How to transfer embroidery pattern to fabric. Embroidery design transfer techniques and tools
How to transfer embroidery pattern to fabric. Embroidery design transfer techniques and tools There are four main embroidery pattern transfer techniques: - Tracing - Transferring - Using a stabilizer - Drawing a pattern directly on a fabric. Let's get more details about each option!
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What is the difference between Outline stitch and Stem stitch?
For many years I didn’t know that these two are different stitches 😂 Outline stitch and Stem stitch are two names that we often use interchangeably. Also, they look very similar. But they aren’t the same thing. The main difference – the position of the working thread while making the embroidery. As you work Outline stitch from left to right, always keep the working thread above the line of stitching. And when you embroider a Stem stitch from left to right, keep the working thread under the stitching line. The other difference that you may notice – the direction in which the “rope” of the stitch is twisted. For this…
