Beginner embroidery 101 - tools and materials
Each week I receive quite a lot of questions about beginning embroidery so I have decided to create a series of blog posts that will help to answer the questions I get asked the most and will also get you started with embroidery.
Today I’m starting with the tools and materials that you need for embroidery. If you have more questions please pop a comment at the bottom and I will try to answer it. Also if you have tools or materials that you particularly love please comment below and share them.
I should begin by saying that I am not an RSN trained embroiderer. I learned as a child and picked it up again as an adult so these posts are very much about how I embroider and what I like to use. I am also not sponsored for anything at all, I never take any sponsorship as I only like to recommend products I am confident using and if the product is good then they deserve the mention without having to pay me in any way.
At it’s most basic embroidery needs very few tools and materials, fabric, thread, needle, scissors and possibly a hoop but the difficulty can come from choosing which of these (particularly with fabric, thread and needles) so I am going to talk about what I use and when.
I’m going to begin with scissors as they are the simplest. I actually have 4 pairs but couldn’t find my pinking shears. I generally use fiskars, they seem to last well and cut well. The little silver scissors are some very old ones from a relative (pretty for photography).
You will need large scissors to cut your fabric. I usually use pinking shears for this to stop fraying but it’s really not necessary. Normal fabric scissors are fine.
Next I have some small scissors that have about a 7cm blade. I use these to cut the dresses for applique and to cut the embroidery threads. There are all sorts of thread snips available but I just use small scissors (I have been known to use huge scissors if that’s all I can find). The little silver ones just look pretty and cut threads.
Needles
I use crewel needles. The eye is relatively large and they are a nice length for stitching. The numbers on needles get larger as the size gets smaller, so a number 12 needle is much smaller than a number 6 needle. I use a 7 for two or three strands, this is my most used needle. I also use a number 8 for a single strand.
My preferred brand is Bohin because they feel very smooth and are quite reasonably priced
I also love Tulip needles especially as they have a gold tip which is easier to see when threading but they are more expensive (about twice the price of Bohin) and harder to get hold of.
John James are great needles too and these are the ones I send out in my kits. These are the cheapest of the three and are a British company.
Which you choose depends on budget really. I find that needles last a long time as long as I don’t drop them on the floor and lose them (although these sometimes get found by other cross members of my house!)
I’ve included a picture of a needle threader because I happen to have one. I don’t find them useful as they always break I think others have the same problem judging by some of the chats I have, but they are available if you want to try them.
Stockists - I can only offer UK stockists but if you know a good stockist in the country you live in please add it in the comments
fabric
I only use two fabrics for my own embroidery.
Firstly, I have an organic calico that I buy from a fabric shop based in the UK and online. I love this fabric but I can never ever get it perfectly smooth. I actually love the texture of it but if you want a smooth finish this might not be the fabric for you (unless you are much better with an iron than me, which is quite likely).
The other fabric that I usually recommend is Robert Kaufman Essex linen in natural. This is a smooth linen/cotton mix fabric that is medium weight (so the back of your work doesn’t show through to the front).
When choosing a fabric I am mainly concerned that it is smooth and fairly tightly woven for the type of stitching I do. Quilting cottons can be great and come in lots of lovely colours too. I always use natural fibres either linen, cotton or a mix of the two.
If you are worried that your fabric is a little thin then you can just stitch through two pieces (using one as a backing fabric). You can buy special stabilizers for this but I prefer to use fabric.
The printed panels that I sell are printed by a specialist company so I am limited to the fabrics they have. Some are printed on white cotton (similar to quilting cotton) but I am using the organic calico for more of them as it’s organic and I prefer the natural colour over white.
Stockists
Thread
If you are stitching my patterns or panels you will need DMC threads. Apart from a few older patterns that may also have Anchor threads in them I always use DMC for the patterns. That is not to say that there aren’t some absolutely beautiful threads out there (I particularly love weeks dye works) but DMC threads are available almost everywhere, they are certified oeko tex (so no toxins), I’ve never had the colour run and they are smooth to stitch with.
there are different types of embroidery thread and I use DMC stranded cotton so I will concentrate on this thread here.
In the picture above you can see that the thread separates out into six separate strands. So when I say I use two strands I cut the thread (elbow to wrist is a good length) and then separate the strands working with just two at a time. My patterns mainly use 2 strands of thread but sometimes one for a delicate area and I usually use three for french knots.
You won’t use the whole skein of thread in a single embroidery so you might want to store it. I wrap mine around these floss cards to keep them neat and tidy. Just wrap the thread and write the number on it. Mine are card but you can also get plastic ones.
You can also buy plastic boxes to store these in
Stockist
Embroidery hoops
I always stitch my patterns in an embroidery hoop. I can’t imagine not using one. I have tried all kinds of hoops but I always come back to simple wooden hoops. I have a favourite very old anchor 6” wooden hoop that I love but sadly those are hard to come by now (I’m always checking charity shops for them!). The hoops that I put in the kits are Elbesee
For projects that sit better in an oval hoop I use a flexi hoop. This is a plastic faux wood hoop. It has a nice vintage looking hanger at the top perfect for framing your work. I tend to work in a normal round hoop and just frame it in these hoops but you could work directly into the hoop. I use the 5”x7” oval hoop
You can also get round flexi hoops which make perfect frames. You just need to trim the edges away and you can hang your work straight away
Stockists
printed fabric for applique
Some of my patterns involve appliqueing printed fabric dresses to the girls. My absolute favourite fabric to use here is liberty tana lawn. The prints are gorgeous the fabric is fine but still strong. Obviously you only need a small scrap of fabric for this so ideally you will use a leftover scrap. You can use any fabric that’s not too heavy so start keeping those offcuts! I suggest small florals or polka dots so the pattern isn’t lost on the tiny dress. I buy my liberty from Alice Caroline as you can buy smaller amounts and charm packs.
The dresses are appliqued using bondaweb which is a sort of adhesive web that you iron on. After that they are also stitched down.
Stockists
Storage is a fun part of stitching I love looking for pretty boxes and tins. This is my main storage for my daily embroidery, a little embroidered pouch for the threads and a pretty tin to keep everything in
The extras that you can see in the picture are a beautiful black heart magnetic needle holder from Maggie Magoo designs (you might find it hard to choose just one). Thread magic which I will explain in the transferring post next week and finally a stitch unpicker that I don’t think any embroiderer can live without unfortunately.
a lovely embroidery shop where you can buy maggie magoo and other lovely things
I have covered all the tools and materials that I use for the patterns apart from transferring tools. Next week’s post will be all about transferring. I will also explain about how the patterns work and about the printed panels.
I hope you find this series useful. If you would like to be reminded when a blog post comes out (and also any other stitchy news that I have) then please sign up to my newsletter here
If you are interested in getting going straight away then my patterns are available in my new payhip pattern shop
Kits and panels are available in my Etsy shop
See you next week for the second part of this series