Hand Embroidery is the art of embellishing or adorning by means of a needle and thread. The variety of fabric and thread suitable for embroidery is unlimited.
WORK IN PROGRESS:
Generally most plain fabrics, such as linen, cottons, wools and wide range of coloured furnishing fabrics, are suitable for free style embroidery.
Threads, like fabric has a grain. If you sew with the thread going against the grain it is more likely to become twisted and tangled.
Needles come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They may be sharp or blunt and with a large eye or a small eye. Always use the correct size and type of needle for the particular method you are working. Embroidery needle are numbered like knitting needles. The correct size needle should be easy to tread.
First, you need to keep the fabric in the hoop drum tight, so keep tightening it up as you work as it will loosen over time. If you need , use a screwdriver to tighten the screw.
When planning about a design, you need to consider what size it should be. Remember that the space you leave should compliment the design, it is just as important as the design itself.
Probably the most simple and successful methods of transferring a pattern is to trace the design directly onto your frame. Begin your work by tracing your design on to tracing paper. Always take two tracings, one to transfer your background fabric and one to keep as a reference.
To finish off, turn the fabric over and weave the needle several times into the threads. Cut off the end. Cut any loosen threads from the back of your work as they may show through when the pieces is mounted. Weave the ends of a new thread under a previously worked area or leave a tail long enough to re-thread and be woven into place.
Basic hand embroidery is inexpensive to undertake and accessible to most economic levels.
