a goddamn stitch of a situation

When I said I'd continue stitching colour wheels until I was stopped, I meant it. Blackwork embroidery on black 14-count Aida cloth.

A total of 17 thread colours across 24 sections, each with its own fill motif.

The Unicorn's Garden, my cross stitch take on the medieval tapestry "The Unicorn Rests in a Garden"

Concept: the moon but leaves

We’ll lay here for years or for hours So long we’d become the flowers Two corpses we were, two corpses I saw

-In A Week by Hozier

Introduction:

Embroidery is a craft that uses thread to decorate fabric (and other materials). It’s a great way to spruce up a garment, customise objects, and to hide mends you’ve made!

Embroidery is usually done with embroidery floss, but depending on the base material you’re working on, you could also use yarn, ribbons, or plain old sewing thread. Don’t be afraid to experiment!

Embroidery is easier to do on taut fabric than limp fabric. That’s why most people use embroidery hoops. While not strictly necessary, a hoop will make your life so much easier.

Using the right needle will help, too. Use a crewel needle if you’re working with embroidery floss, a chenille needle if you’re working with ribbon or yarn, or a tapestry needle if you’re doing cross-stitch embroidery on open-weave fabrics.

While there are many types of embroidery from all over the world, this post will focus on some basic stitches you can use in your own work.

Basic embroidery stitches:

For a more thorough overview of embroidery stitches, check out these embroidery tutorials by Mary Corbet’s Needle ‘n Thread.

The following images show some of the most basic stitches:

(Image source)

The 16 stitches in the images above can be combined into any shape or form you want. You might recognise some from my hand sewing post: embroidery is a type of hand sewing, after all.

You don’t need to know all of these to be able to make beautiful things. Even just one of these is a great start for a project.

This sampler by Sew Nancy shows how these basic stitches can be used to outline shapes or form flowers, for example.

(Image source)

Fiorelila used a combination of the stem stitch, satin stitch, lazy daisy, and french knots to spruce up this sweater:

(Image source)

And this person used lazy daisies to add some flair to their jeans:

(Image source)

Embroidery for visible mending:

Embroidery is a useful tool to hide mends you’ve made, or to even accentuate them if that’s your style. This is called visible mending. While this is a topic that deserves a post on its own, here are some quick examples:

Like this fix by Redditor Takemythyme who embroidered a rose over a hole in a knit fabric:

(Image source)

Or like how this person has spruced up their jeans repairs with embroidery:

(Image source)

In this example, The Woolery Guy chose to use flower embroidery to make a hole in a knit fabric look like it was there by design:

(Image source)

For more examples, check out Pinterest or VisibleMending.com.

Conclusion:

Embroidery is a useful skill to give new life to your wardrobe. You can use it to give some flair to items you’ve grown bored off, or even to mend your clothes.

Once you’ve got a few basic stitches under your belt, the possibilities are endless. Be creative and have fun with it!

I will continue stitching colour wheels until I am stopped. Blackwork embroidery on 14-count Aida.

This one uses just seven thread colours (six for the fills, plus white for outlines). Each section has a 3-part gradient on a bit of a curve, which was a bit different to design, but no harder to stitch than my earlier 2-part gradients.

I really do have designs in the pipeline that aren't colour wheels, but rainbows and blackwork gradients make me happy. Blackwork embroidery on 14-count black Aida cloth.

This one is a companion piece to the Penrose Wheel. Same seven thread colours (six for the fills, plus white for outlines), same size (120 x 120 stitches).

Did finish it before the wedding!! My sister cried and I cried and her husband loved it and it was lots of love all around. It is actually queen sized, nearly 100"x100", done in worsted weight on size 8/5mms.

The final tally:

Just over 240 hours 💀

Also can't believe I didn't mention it but I also made a matching one for their cat. They put it on this chair which is specifically this guy's and has never been sat on by a human since they got it