Hi !! welcome again.
In this blog I am going to tell you regarding how to do a stem stitch embroidery in few simple steps. To give a better clarity regarding the embroidery, I have added number of working images and finally a video for you.
Stem stitch embroidery is one of the basic and easiest type of stitch embroidery. You can use this type of stitch to create a thin line or to create different embroidered shapes. Stem stitch can be very thin and delicate or it can be bold depending on the thread count. So, In this write up I shall show you the step by step method to make a stem stitch embroidery on a fabric. The steps involved to create a stem stitch embroidery is easy and simple to do.
Before moving further, I want to indicate one of the source from which I have learnt a good deal about stem stitch i.e. https://www.needlenthread.com/2006/10/embroidery-stitch-video-tutorial-stem.html
Now let me give you a description about the material first.
Materials required to carry out Stem stitch embroidery
- Thread- Floss or Thread is the most important material used to do a embroidery on fabric. There are cotton floss and silk floss available in market and here I have used six strands cotton floss by Anchor. Moreover, there are lots of variety of shades in cotton floss as well as silk thread and here I have used three strands of cotton thread for this embroidery.
- Needle- There are lots of variety of needles used in hand embroidery. In the present case, I have used a 2 inch long needle with thin body and sharp edge.
- Fabric- You can use any kind of fabric for hand embroidery. However, among all, cotton and linen are widely used as its easy to handle. I have used white cotton fabric, which I have washed and ironed before use.
- Embroidery Hoop- Embroidery Hoop is the frame where you have to attach the fabric to do the embroidery. Choose the size of hoop in such a manner so that it will not be too large or to small for the embroidery design. Now, hold the Fabric inside the hoop and tighten the screws for carrying out the embroidery, here I have used wooden hoop.
- Apart from the above, some other materials which I have used are scissors, tracing design, yellow carbon paper and pencil.
Steps involved to make a stem stitch embroidery
1. Design Tracing
- To start the stem stitch embroidery, first of all trace the design on the fabric by yellow carbon paper and start the embroidery. For this blog, I have collected the below portrait from Pinterest.
2. Start The Embroidery
- At the beginning, bring your needle up through the fabric from point-1 as shown in the below image.
- Similarly, Now insert the needle down to the fabric at point-2 (suppose at a distance of 2 mm).
- Finally, come back halfway and put the needle up between point- 1 & 2 at point-3.
3. Repeat the above steps
- For next part just repeat the above steps, that is start from point-3 and insert the needle down to the fabric again at point- 4. Note that, the distance of point- 1 to 2 and point- 3 to 4 is same.
- Similarly as pointed above come back halfway and put the needle up through point- 2 i.e. between point- 3 & 4 and again insert it down through point- 5.
- Like this the stitches will be overlapped with each other and also the look of the stitch also depends on this overlapping and it is not necessary that point-3 will be just at the mid point of point- 1 & 2. It may vary.
- So, just repeat the steps as described above to complete the portrait.
4. Types of Stem Stitches
- For tight curve/line do the stitch smaller. If you want to give an open look you can do longer stitch and similarly bold look can be given by taking all the six strands of the floss.
- A Stem stitch can also be used for filling a design, to do the same you have to do the stitches very close and it can also be used to create flowers. To carry out such type of design, you have to make the stitches very loose. For a better understanding about the above types, I will write about these stem stitch embroideries in my upcoming blogs.
- And finally, here is the complete look of the stem stitch embroidery. In this design, only the elephant is embroidered by stem stitch.
Want to have a better understanding of the stem stitch embroidery work, check out the full video below.
Your thoughts,
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See you in my next blog. Cheers!!