TIPS & TRICKS
Add neat and colourful embroidered designs to your work using these top tips and tricks.
1 DIY OR READY-FINISHED?
Embroidered motifs are a beautiful way to add colour and texture to your projects – or to breathe new life into pre-made clothing that could do with a little extra something. If you’ve chosen to make your garment from scratch, you do have the option of choosing a pre-embroidered fabric to create it, rather than using regular plain material and adding your own embroidered designs later on. Stitching your own motif takes time, but it also gives you complete control over the finished look of the project. Using a pre-embroidered fabric allows for slightly less creative wiggle-room, but still looks great for a fraction of the time (and effort!) spent stitching.
2 GATHER YOUR SUPPLIES
Embroidery is a great craft to dabble in as it doesn’t require much in the way of specialist supplies. At the very basic level, all you need is a water-erasable fabric pen (or dressmaker’s carbon paper), a needle, some stranded embroidery thread, a hoop, some snips, and your garment (or the fabric you’ll be making the garment from, if you’d rather add the design before construction). These can all be found at your local haberdashery store and can also be picked up in some major supermarkets and other high street emporiums.
3 ALWAYS USE A HOOP
One of the must-haves for any embroidery project – whether it’s worked by hand or machine – is a hoop or frame. This simple tool holds your fabric taut and even, ensuring that your stitches sit neatly on the material and won’t pucker or pull as you sew. Mounting your work in a hoop also makes it easier to see your stitches up close, and more comfortable to hold.
4 CALL FOR BACK-UP
As mentioned above, it’s all too easy for an embroidered design to pucker or pull at the fabric, especially when you first take up the hobby and haven’t fallen into your groove yet and found the perfect tension. One way to guard against puckering (and keep the work looking neat) is to back your material with an interfacing before you begin. As always, you should aim to match your interfacing to your fabric – for example, if you’re embellishing a medium-weight woven fabric, use a medium-weight woven interfacing. Fusible interfacing is easier to apply than sew-in, and provides all-over coverage – though the adhesive can gum up your needle over time.
5 CHOOSE THE RIGHT NEEDLE
The humble needle is perhaps the most important too
