How to Embroider by Hand

Co-authored by Hoffelt & Hooper

Last Updated: December 8, 2023

VIDEO

While modern sewing machines can embellish garments and products in a number of ways, you can achieve personalized effects when you embroider by hand. There is much to learn about hand-embroidery, but with practice comes mastery of technique.

Part 1

Part 1 of 4:

Choosing Your Materials

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1
Select a cloth. You’ll need to carefully consider what fabric you want to embroider. This can be a complex decision. For beginners, it’s a good idea to start with a basic, white or light colored cotton or canvas fabric. As you learn and experiment with different materials, you’ll have to keep some other things in mind as well:
- Choose a fabric that complements the item that the embroidery will be on.
- Choose a firm fabric with a good thread count (28 or higher), especially if the design will involve heavy items like ribbon or buttons.
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Embroidery Experts
Hoffelt & Hooper is a small family-owned and operated business that was founded in 2016. The Hoffelt & Hooper team creates beautiful, personalized pieces of art including embroidery and DIY kits.

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Embroidery Experts

Sarah Slovensky, from Hoffelt & Hooper, adds: "I recommend using a cotton or linen blend because it's tightly and evenly woven. Loose weave fabrics are better for cross stitch."
2
Select the embroidery floss. First things first, for serious projects make sure you’re getting embroidery floss and not “craft thread” or similar looking products. These are ill suited to embroidery because the thread is much lower quality and the color can bleed. However, for small test projects and learning exercises, it can be perfectly useful and more economical.
- You’ll also want to adjust the weight (thread count) of the floss to the level of detail you’re trying to create. The more detailed the project, the thinner the floss should be. The more bold the design, the thicker the floss should be.
- Don’t worry too much about the type of embroidery floss you buy. There are many types but generally of the thinner threads, the only impact is on the final look (whether it comes out shiny or more matte in finish). Beginners shouldn’t worry about this.
- Be careful not to buy embroidery thread, since this is designed to be used with a machine.
- Embroidery floss comes in a variety of colors and sheens. Some even sparkle.
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Embroidery Experts
Hoffelt & Hooper is a small family-owned and operated business that was founded in 2016. The Hoffelt & Hooper team creates beautiful, personalized pieces of art including embroidery and DIY kits.

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Embroidery Experts

Sarah Slovensky, from Hoffelt & Hooper, gives us this tip: "Embroidery floss is made up of threads twisted together into a skein. The skeins can be separated into smaller groups of thread. It's best to use fewer threads on detailed projects and full skeins for textured or bold work."

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3
Select a needle. For your first, basic projects you’ll want to get a basic embroidery needle. A size 12-18 needle is a good starting point for canvas embroidery. Some needles have sharp points while others have blunt points but for beginners, a sharp point will get you through most starting projects.
- Use embroidery needles rather than sewing needles due to the longer eye on the needle (These are able to hold multiple threads or a full skein).
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Hoffelt & Hooper
Embroidery Experts
Hoffelt & Hooper is a small family-owned and operated business that was founded in 2016. The Hoffelt & Hooper team creates beautiful, personalized pieces of art including embroidery and DIY kits.

Hoffelt & Hooper
Embroidery Experts

Sarah Slovensky, from Hoffelt & Hooper, suggests: "Use sharp needles always. A good beginner size is a 5. The size of the needle should be large enough that it is easy to pull and floss it through the fabric, but not so large that it leaves behind large holes you can see."
You’ll need an embroidery hoop of a reasonable size for your design. You’ll also need a method of transferring your design onto the fabric (discussed in the following section). There are also other helpful extras like thimbles and needle threaders that can make your life much easier (and less painful!).

Part 2

Part 2 of 4:

Outlining Your Design

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1
Choose a design that you want to embroider. When you’re first starting, it’s a good idea to stick to something as basic as possible. Go for clean lines, not too much area to be filled, and larger shapes. It takes awhile to develop the dexterity to do detailed, fine work, so go with these basic designs for now.
- Good beginner shapes include: flowers, stars, and simple line art.
- You can find designs online or you can draw or trace one of your own.
2
Apply your design. You’ll have to decide on a method for applying the design you found or made onto your fabric. For beginners working with simple fabrics, tracing is probably the easiest. You can also get iron on transfers, but beware that these are permanent and cannot be removed if you make a mistake. If you’re brave, you can draw the design freehand.
- You can also try things like water-soluble fabric, which allows you to trace or print the design onto the temporary fabric and embroider directly onto it with the backing fabric underneath.
- Stencils are also a good option when you’re first learning how to embroider, especially since those designs tend to be simple.
- Try using a light box or light from a window to trace designs from paper to fabric.
EXPERT TIP

Hoffelt & Hooper
Embroidery Experts
Hoffelt & Hooper is a small family-owned and operated business that was founded in 2016. The Hoffelt & Hooper team creates beautiful, personalized pieces of art including embroidery and DIY kits.

Hoffelt & Hooper
Embroidery Experts

Sarah Slovensky, from Hoffelt & Hooper, advises: "Use water dissolvable or heat disappearing pens. They are forgiving, and can be completely removed when you are done embroidering. "
Before you can continue, you need to know what goes where in your design. What areas will be filled? What color will they be? What sections are in the background vs foreground? This is crucial in making sure that your project goes smoothly. Not planning ahead is like getting in car without a map and just expecting to end up in New York City.

Part 3

Part 3 of 4:

Getting Started

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1
Assemble your hoop. Embroidery hoops—which you should not skip on—are formed by two wooden circles with a clasp that holds them together. The inner circle goes on the backside of your fabric and the outer circle goes on the front side that you will be embroidering. Fit them together and then tighten the screw holding the frames together.
- You’ll want to be extra sure that the fabric is taut. This is the point of the hoop after all!
- The fabric should feel tight like the top of a drum.
Cut a length of floss to embroider with. The floss’s length will depend on how much area you want to embroider, what kind of stitches you’re doing, and how thick the floss and fabric are. Generally, you do not want the doubled up thread to be longer than your arm, since this will be a pain to have to pull, but you can do it if the project calls for that much continuous thread.

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Hoffelt & Hooper
Embroidery Experts
Hoffelt & Hooper is a small family-owned and operated business that was founded in 2016. The Hoffelt & Hooper team creates beautiful, personalized pieces of art including embroidery and DIY kits.

Hoffelt & Hooper
Embroidery Experts

Sarah Slovensky, from Hoffelt & Hooper, tells us: "Never cut the floss longer than an arms length. When you run out, cut another length and keep going with your design. The longer lengths will knot."
Thread the floss onto the embroidery needle, just like how you’d thread a normal sewing needle. This is why using an embroidery needle is important though: the eye is much longer to accommodate the extra threads. However, unlike sewing, you won’t double up the entire length of the thread. Instead, you will only double up part of it, leaving a long tail to embroider with and a short tail of about 3” that will be extra.
Before you put the thread to fabric, it’s important to understand where the threads are going to go. In embroidery, you generally want to start with background items and move forward, as parts of the design get closer to you. This is so that you can overlap your stitches between colors and sections to create depth.
Before you start stitching, you’ll need to create some kind of stopper to keep the floss from coming right back out of the fabric. When you’re first starting, making a knot at the end of the long tail is probably easiest. As you get more skilled, you’ll want to switch to using a waste knot, since this will keep extra bulk to a minimum.
6
Start your stitches in the right spot. When you do finally start your stitches, it’s a good idea to start at a joint or corner. This will create a more natural, flowing look. Look for spots where one object touches another. If your design is very basic, like a circle, you just have to pick a spot and start.
- Learn to undo stitched mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes when stitching, even the pros. It is as useful to learn how to undo mistakes as it is to learn the stitching. For help on undoing unwanted embroidery stitches, see: How to Remove Embroidery.

Part 4

Part 4 of 4:

Mastering Advanced Techniques

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1
Do test stitches when you can. When you work on projects, you of course want to dive right in and get to the fun! But it’s a good idea to do a test section with the combination of fabric, needle, and floss that you will be using. This allows you to make sure that the final product looks good and you have the size of all of the various parts adjusted correctly.
- Satin stitches make good test stitches.
When you've got down the basics, you want to work towards making your more even, clean, and aligned. Very even stitching is generally considered the mark of a good embroiderer. This is a skill that comes through practice and you will get it with time. Just be sure to pay attention and aim to have even stitches.
Not much modern embroidery calls for small stitches, but older styles sometimes require fine, detailed stitches. You’ll need to work on your dexterity, aim, and eye in order to do the really fine embroidery that the seasoned pros do. Like even stitches, this is a skill that comes from practice, so make an effort.
As with any craft, it’s very important to start slow and really work your way up to more complex pieces. If you try to take on too much right at the beginning, it’s easy to get frustrated or feel like you can’t learn how to do it...which isn’t true. You can do this! Just keep trying!

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Can someone with dyspraxia (a developmental coordination disorder) do embroidery, or are they better off choosing another hobby?

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It would depend on the level of the disability. I would suggest starting with a simple pattern and going from there. The only way to know if you can do it is to try. There are many embroidery techniques, some may come easily to you, some may be too challenging. Give it a try and see how it goes.

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How can an iron be used for making designs on the cloth?

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Purchase iron on transfers. They are available most everywhere embroidery supplies are sold. They have some very lovely designs!

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Can I do this if I'm a tomboy?

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Of course! This is a great hobby for anyone who is interested and willing to learn.

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Tips

Remember when selecting a pattern that if you don't care for the colors it recommends, you can easily customize the palate.

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Wash your hands clean before embroidering; residue from moisturizer or other products can leave residue or spots on your fabric or floss.

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Warnings

If you're working with a stiff fabric, remove it from the embroidery loop when you aren't working on it. This will prevent it from becoming stretched or warped if you are making a piece that will stay outside the hoop when done.

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