Embroidery Stitches

You can achieve a lot with just basic embroidery stitches! Don't let the sheer number of different stitches that you will find in needlework books put you off. Learn them, one at a time, find out how much you can do with each one, and before you know it you will be producing beautiful work that others will admire. Don't believe me? Read on...

Although used in a decorative way nowadays, many of the basic embroidery stitches were first used in a functional manner. I can remember learning how to create my own buttonholes, by hand, at school using buttonhole stitch. And going further back in time, simple stitches were used to mark household linen, so that the right items came back from the laundry. Of course some stitches were even used to create the fabric itself, in techniques such as needlelace.

And if you did not have a big enough piece of fabric you could always sew many small pieces together to make a crazy quilt. Back in Victorian times basic embroidery stitches were used both to decorate, and hold the seams in place, on these ornate quilt blocks. A technique that is undergoing a rise in popularity again now, crazy quilting gives you an ideal base on which to practice different stitches and combinations. You are not limited to the seams either, you can stitch motifs in the centre of the patches and really showcase your growing skills.

So what can you do with just one stitch? How about a pretty cross stitched picture? A chart or pattern will show you which color to use where, and before you know it you will have stitched a work of art. Or if you don't want the hassle of changing colors have a go at blackwork, often worked in a single shade, and in either backstitch or double running stitch. You can't get much easier than that! But the complex looking patterns you create will make your friends and family believe that you are a master with the needle!

Once you have a number of basic embroidery stitches under your belt you will begin to realize that many of them are used in different ways to produce a variety of needlework techniques. Take Satin stitch for example...

you can fill in a petal on a piece of crewel embroidery,
create kloster blocks in a piece of Norwegian Hardanger,
pull the stitches really tight in Danish pulled thread or
cover the canvas when stitching a needlepoint cushion
...all using the basic stitch.

Even a simple stitch can be worked in a variety of ways. Loosely, basic embroidery stitches break down into categories including looped, knotted, straight, crossed and chained stitches. They can be worked in fine silks, cottons, thick yarns or even ribbon.