
During the darker days of the year, crafting becomes more important to me. It is comforting to me, to be able to make beautiful things inside our cozy home when the outside world is sleeping.
I’ve been a knitter for so many years, but there are so many more crafts to explore! And ever since Judit Glummlich released her incredible book “Embroidery on Knits” (available here), I’ve been thinking of ways to make more of my handmade items truly unique. Late summer 2022 I embroidered her fern design on a linen dress using my Natural Sock yarn. It made my outfit so much better and gave it a really unique touch, which I loved!

Last month I started dreaming about doing another dress, and after sharing the progress on my Instagram page, I had a lot of questions and requests for a tutorial.
I also started thinking about offering an embroidery kit to spread this nice way of taking your project to another level. With another way to slow stitch and spend your crafting hours during the darker days.
I’m in no way a professional, and just like to go with my intuition. I don’t believe there is a right way to do things, so just experiment and see what works for you!
Here are some tips and tricks from me that you might find useful.

What fabric should I embroider on?
While I only like to work with natural materials, I would say to begin with linen. A woven non-stretchy fabric would be the easiest to start with. You can find a heavier type of linen included with my embroidery kit, which you can find here.
I’ve also created a little naturally dyed fabric bundle. You could sew a nice pouch from these, for example, and embellish this with some embroidery
A way to make embroidery on stretchier fabrics more easier, is to use a stabilizer. There is a water soluble one available, which allows you to draw your design onto it and iron it onto your target fabric. When you are done with your stitching, simply soak it into water and the stabilizer will dissolve leaving your embroidery looking neat!

What type of yarn is suitable for embroidery?
Your imagination is the limit! You can use anything you want! Wool, cotton, linen, silk, just experiment and see whatever looks best for you. For my dress and journal cover, I have used my Natural Sock base. This yarn is nice and smooth, and the Tencel content gives it a really luxurious shine.
You can also use ribbon to make some beautiful designs with an interesting texture.
Why would you use a hoop?
A hoop is very useful to keep your fabric in the right tension, you won’t pull your stitches too tight and crease your fabric. It really helps with making your stitching look more neat, and you will find it much easier to position your needle accurately on the back of the fabric whilst stitching, making the whole process quicker!
Also, it’s better to use a smaller hoop and move it around your design if it happens to be bigger than your hoop. I found that keeping a nice tension with a bigger hoop is much harder than with a smaller size.
What kind of needles should I use?
There are so many needles out there. Typically, the ones used with traditional embroidery, have super tiny holes.. I can imagine that might put a beginner off! I would recommend you to use a needle that fits your yarn, remember you are creating something that should make you feel happy while making it! If you are doing French knots, a smoother needle will give a neater stitch.

Where can I learn to embroider?
There are lots and lots of tutorials to find online. You can find some small clips of stitches on a Pinterest board that I created with this blog.
Also, I always search for the stitches that I want to make on youtube. Here are some links for beginner friendly tutorials:

Where can I find designs?
I like to use Pinterest to look for inspiration for my embroidery. I have created an inspirational board, which you can find here
You can create something that fits your skill level, or just dive in and see where it takes you, like me 😀 Here are some artists whose work I admire:
– Stephanie from Fabelwald has the most beautiful collection of embroidery pattern, mostly nature-inspired. You can find her templates here.
– Agne from NinisAndFamily is offering really nice beginner friendly embroidery patterns, inspired by woodland. Check them out here.
– Sarah from OlmstedNeedleworkCo on Etsy offers a lovely pdf pattern of Wildflowers with step by step instructions. Find it here.

I hope this blog post was helpful for you, to guide you a bit in the right directions.
Good luck on creating your own embroidery embellishments!
I also would love to see what you create!
Warmly,
Vera