| Jolene Bouchon's Embroidered Napkin |
| Simple stitching outlines a cow design on a cloth napkin. |
From "Uncommon Threads"
episode DUCT-106 |
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Below are a few things you should keep in mind when embroidering.
- You may want to coat the floss with beeswax before embroidering to help prevent tangles. To do so, run the floss lightly over a cake of beeswax. If you coat the floss too thickly, the floss--and thus your design--will look dull.
- Avoid using knots in the embroidery thread. Don't double the length of the floss and make a knot at the ends, as you might with regular hand-sewing: knots can often come through the fabric and make ugly holes. Just pull a bit of the floss through, pulling it through the needle's eye and leaving a tail so it doesn't slip through the needle while you embroider. Don't knot the end either. On your first stitch, pull the floss through almost to the end, leaving a tail of 1" or less. Hold that little tail on the underneath with your finger. When you make your first stitch, make sure it catches the tail as you go along. That way, the floss will not slip out.
- Similarly, when you reach the end of the length of floss, turn the project over so the underneath, or wrong, side is facing you; slip the needle beneath some of the stitches you made and run it under several stitches to secure. Snip off excess. If there aren't a lot of other stitches to run your thread under, then simply make a knot around one of the sewn strands.
- As you embroider, the thread will become twisted. Occasionally, let the thread and needle hang from the project and straighten itself back out. This will help your stitches look smoother and will keep tangled knots from forming as you embroider.
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