How to Embroider by Hand 2

Hand embroidery is an interesting craft and since many generations provided women with many hours of pleasure. You can read more about this traditional hobby in histroy of embroidery. Hand embroidery is a type of needlework or handicraft, that is to be done without a machine. You need to learn to embroider by hand as the stitches involved are very intricate and require practice. You need to outline a pattern on the cloth piece to be embroidered. Let us go into the details of how to embroider by hand.

How to Embroider by Hand
The first thing to do is choose the cloth you want to try embroidery on. Then plan the design you want to stitch on your cloth. Choose the colors of the threads and the thickeners of the thread. You need to then choose a pattern from a chart or pattern sheet, that will help you decide the types of embroidery stitches to use. Then draw the pattern or trace the design over the cloth with a washable fabric marker or quilting pencil.

Tread your needle with the thread you wish to embroider your design. You can use thick cotton or wool yarn, in case you are trying to embroider by hand on pillow cases and napkins. In case of delicate patterns like monograms or fashion trims, you may use embroidery floss, silk thread or cotton thread that is divided into sections.

Now stretch the fabric on a tension hoop. You can keep the use of tension loop optional if you are not comfortable using it. But be sure that the fabric is stretched and not pulled out of shape. Now, holding the fabric in your left hand (right hand, if you are a leftie), begin stitching at the bottom of the fabric. Secure the threads with a double stitch to get started. Then push the needle up through the fabric and down again at the end of the stitch. Remember, the length of your stitch depends on the type of stitch you are following.

Once you are done with a particular color or section of your embroidery, weave the end of the thread at the bottom of the fabric in a secure knot. Continue to stitch till you complete your project. Remove the frame from the hoop only after completion. This was something about how to embroider by hand. Let us take some idea on interesting and easy embroidery project, for those trying to learn to embroider by hand.

How to Embroider Words by Hand
How to embroider words by hand is not a very difficult project to try. You need to choose your fabric and the colors of your embroidery threads. You need to follow a pattern for the words to be embroidered like block letters, cursive letters, etc. With a washable fabric marker or fabric pencil trace the image of the word you wish to embroider by hand. You can read some tips on embroidery stitches

Now, place your fabric in a hoop and begin stitching from the left bottom edge of the word. Push the needle up through the fabric from the bottom and leave a tail of embroidery floss of about two inches. Pull the thread across the width of your word and push the needle back down into the fabric. You need to follow this step till you finish the entire word. This simple stitch of embroidery by hand, is known as satin stitch. You can learn to embroider by hand with many other stitches like chain stitch, cross stitch, back stitch, etc. The answer for how to embroider words by hand also answers your query how to embroider letters by hand. Just follow this simple step for an single individual letter.

How to Embroider Flowers by Hand
Just like a word or letter, you need to follow the above mentioned steps. Trace a flower design on your fabric with washable fabric marker or pencil. Then choose the colors of your embroidery thread. You can let your creativity flow with a flower design. You can try dual colors for the petals and to show the shading in the leaves. You can even embroider by hand with double shaded embroidery threads. You can choose a satin stitch for the petals and leafs. You can try French knot stitch for the center of the flower. The stem can be stitched using a stem stitch. You can refer to an embroidery magazine for ideas and the type of stitches you can try. You can read more on custom embroidery patterns and design.

This was a bit in short, about how to embroider by hand. Hand embroidery is a very interesting arts and crafts hobby, that will keep you engaged for hours on end. You can decorate your pillow covers, scarfs, wall hangings, table cloths and many more things in your house with your embroidery by hand. You can even give think about hand embroidered personalized gifts. You can learn to embroider by hand very easily. Once you learn to embroider by hand, you will get hooked on to this interesting hobby for life.

How to Embroider by Hand

We often exchange gifts with our friends, and friendship bands and bracelets are good gifts. To add a personal touch to your gift, you can make your own friendship bracelets. Usually threads or embroidery floss are used to knot these handmade friendship bracelets. The knots in these embroidery floss bracelets signify the strong bond between friends. Friendship bracelets are available in a variety of styles and patterns.

You can craft embroidery floss friendship bracelets and gift them to your friends to make them feel special. They would love to tie it on their hand. Believe me, crafting a bracelet does not require much time and effort and it is simple and easy. And the best part is that it is inexpensive!

You can start with a simple pattern and as you get more experienced you can make more advanced patterns, and try designing on your own. Here are the steps to make an embroidery floss friendship bracelet.

How To Make Friendship Bracelet?

Things required:

   1. Embroidery floss
   2. Scissors
   3. Measuring tape
   4. Masking tape
   5. Clipboard

Steps for making embroidery floss friendship bracelet:

    * Take four colors of embroidery floss thread. Cut a 25 inch strand of each embroidery floss.
    * Tie a knot of two inches at the top of the floss strands.
    * Tape the knotted side of the floss strands to your work surface or clip it to a clipboard.
    * Spread out the floss strands. From now we will refer to them as strand 1, strand 2, strand 3 and strand 4. Start with strand 1, loop it over strand 2. Hold strand 2 and pull the knot until it is snug.
    * Now, take the strand 1 and make double knots along strand 3 and strand 4.
    * Again, begin with strand 2 and make double knots with strand 3, strand 4 and strand 1.
    * Repeat the process with strand 3 and 4, one by one.
    * When you finish with this, tie a knot to secure the end.
    * You can add a colored bead before the end knot.

Now your embroidery floss bracelet is ready to be tied around the wrist. Wasn't that easy? You may also like to know more on how to make friendship bracelets.

Color Schemes for Embroidery Floss Bracelet

You may use different color schemes to prepare your embroidery floss friendship bracelet, like primary colors - red, yellow, and blue, or secondary colors - orange, green, and violet. Using a dark color with white is one of my favorite combinations. You can also try to combine light and dark shades of the same color. There is another scheme called, analogous color scheme, that uses two or more colors, that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel, for e.g., yellow and violet. Some other possible schemes are white and red/pink on Valentine's day, yellow, pink, and pale green for Easter or you can go for American patriot - red, blue and white. The best combination would be, your favorite color knotted with your friends' favorite color. This also shows that although, you both may have different choices, you are still bonded to each other. And your bond is as strong as the knots in the friendship bracelet.

It is said that, "Friends are the chocolate chips in the cookie of life." Do not wait for friendship day. You can gift these bracelets any time. It would be the best gift to your summer class buddies or to your high school friends, on graduation. Embroidery floss bracelets are memorabilia, that will be treasured deeply by your friends.

How to Smock

Smocking a fabric is a popularly used embroidery pattern since years. This type of embroidery pattern is widely used in making clothes more fashionable. It is used to fancify skirts, shirts, frocks, kids wear and pillows as well. You can either smock a fabric using a sewing machine or with your hands. If you are wondering how to smock a dress, how to smock a pillow, how to smock by hand, how to smock with elastic, then this article will answer all your questions. Here is the detailed procedure of how to smock fabric.

How to Smock Fabric: Step-by-Step Procedure

Material You'll Need

    * Fabric
    * Cotton thread
    * Needle
    * Fabric pencil/chalk
    * Elastic
    * Pearl pins
    * Smocking pleater (if available)

Procedure

Step 1
The first step of how to smock a fabric is to pleat it. You can mark the starting and ending point of smocking with a fabric pencil. While using a smocking pleater is an easy way of doing this, you can also do it without this equipment. While working on the fabric just remember 3:1 ratio and start pleating the fabric. This means, that you have to take 3 inches of un-pleated fabric and then 1 inches pleated fabric. Go on doing this. Read more on sewing.

Step 2
Pin the pleats with pearl pins as you move on. Keep 3 inches fabric plain from both borders. The total number of pleats formed must be even. Now mark a horizontal line along the length of the pleats.

Step 3
To keep the pleats in place use a running stitch, which you can easily remove later. Go on removing the pearl pins used previously while pleating the fabric. Mark the required number of rows for smocking on wrong side using a fabric pencil/chalk.

Step 4
Now thread the needle with 3 strands of cotton thread, tie a knot at the end. Now let's see how to smock with elastic. Take a narrow elastic of size bit smaller than length of the fabric you have after pleating. Now place the elastic thread on the wrong side of fabric, over the marking of second row. Go in stitching it in a row. Once you reach the end, put a back stitch so as to secure the stitches properly. Now put a knot and cut off the remaining thread. Learn how to embroider by hand.

Step 5
Start working on the next row below it in the same way with elastic and thread. Go on doing this till you finish the number of rows you have marked for the project. The smocked fabric is ready to be used. Instead of using thread and elastic you can use an elastic thread as well.

Remember, that if you want to smock a particular part of a dress, first smock this part and then join it with other pieces to form a dress. Also, make all the marking on the wrong side of the fabric that won't be visible. Usually, the cuffs or sleeves of a dress are smocked. Smocked chest line is a popular fashion for dresses. This gives a classy touch to the outfit. You can have variations in the smock pattern. You can have wider or tiny pleats to have a detailed smock pattern. You can try this on a rough piece first and do variations as desired on the final fabric, to have a fantastic pattern ready!

Blanket Stitch Instructions

Any good seamstress will tell you that one of the most handy stitches to know is a blanket stitch. It is used to sew the edge of thick blankets or any other heavy and thick fabric. It is also used for sewing hand appliqué to a fabric. Of all the different types of embroidery stitches, it is the easiest to master and is usually done by hand, although you can do it in a sewing machine too. The trick to having a nice even looking blanket stitch is that all the individual stitches should be of the same size and they should be evenly spaced. Blanket stitching will come in useful for many other sewing projects for both adults and children. Here we are going to give you blanket stitch instructions.

Simple Blanket Stitch Instructions

Here is a step by step blanket stitch instructions that will teach you how to make a simple blanket stitch on a piece of fabric.

    * The first thing that you need to do is to thread a needle with a strand of embroidery thread and then make a secure knot on one end.
    * Take your piece of fabric and hold it tight in front of you. Draw a line about ½ cm away from the top edge of the fabric, which is parallel to it.
    * Now insert the needle from the bottom side to the top at the edge of the fabric at the left. Now insert the needle again from the drawn line and take the needle out at the edge of the fabric, directly opposite to the location where the needle was inserted.
    * As you draw the needle out through the top edge of the fabric, make sure that the thread is under the needle.
    * The resulting stitch will look like a square and this is what we are aiming for.
    * Again insert the needle at the line at equal distance and take it out parallel to it at the edge.
    * Place the thread under the needle and draw out the needle slowly, making sure that the stitch is secure.
    * Repeat steps, making sure that the height as well as the spacing of the stitch is maintained.
    * When you finish, insert the needle through the back of the stitch and secure with a knot.

Machine Blanket Stitch Instructions

It is possible to do blanket stitch in a sewing machine provided you have the right embroidery sewing machine. Different sewing machines depending upon whether they are manual or automatic, will have different setting for sewing it. For a manual sewing machine, you need to set the set the needle tension to 1. Then you have set the fabric into the machine and start stitching along the edge of the fabric. You can also roll the edge of the fabric to make decorative blanket stitch along the edge of the fabric.

Embroidery Blanket Stitch Instructions

Many beautiful embroidery can be made with blanket stitch. It is also used in knitting patterns for baby blankets. Another very important embroidery that is made with the blanket stitch is called as the button hole wheel. It is often used for making floral motifs while embroidering. To make this stitch, you need to simply make a blanket stitch in the form of a circle so that each stitch passes through one central point. Make sure that the blanket stitch are evenly and tightly spaced, otherwise the embroidery stitches will be ruined and these tips on embroidery stitches will go waste.

This was all about blanket stitch instructions. Blanket stitch is one of the most simple and easiest stitch to master. It comes in very useful for making appliqués and for embroidery. Now that you know how to make blanket stitches, you can make any embroidery project with it.