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HOWTOl embroidery stitches
Fromeasy, familiar stitches to decorative,elegant needlework,
use this embroidery guide to bring your patchwork to life...
(PåRLGHU\
STITCHES
Runningstitch
Bringtheneedlethroughfrom
thebackandtakeit backdown
a shortwayawaytomakethe
firststitch.Comebackupthe
samedistanceasthelength of
your stitch and repeat.
Crossstitch
Crossstitchis verysimple,
comeupinonecorner,take
a stitchdiagonallydownthen
comeupanequaldistance
above.Makea secondstitch
diagonallydownintheopposite
directiontomake an ‘X’.
Starstitch/doublecrossstitch
Worka singlecrossstitch(as
shownbelow,left)andthenadd
anothercrosswithhorizontal
andverticallines(Aand
B).Theselinescanbeina
di erentcolour.Youcanalso
maketheseadditionalstitches
shorter,sothestitchbecomes
more star-like (C).
Blanketstitch
Thisstitchis a favouritetoedge
appliquémotifs.It’salsogreatfor
decoratingseams.Fora di erent
look,youcanvarythe height of the
vertical stitches.
1
(^23)
4
Backstitch
Backstitchis soversatile it canbe
usedto‘draw’partsofa stitched
motif,toaddsinglestitchesfor
emphasisandtooutlineareas.It
canalsobe‘whipped’withanother
thread,tostrengthenthelineoradd
a secondcolour,inthesame way as
whipped runningstitch.
5
6
A
B
7 8
B
C
1 2
5
3 4
5 6
A B
C D
1
2
3
A
B
Featherstitch
Thisstitchis madeupofa series
ofloops,eachanchoredbythe
followingstitch.Thepatternofloops
swingalternatelytotherightand
lefttocreatea staggeredpattern.
It’smuchmoreeasilystitchedif
youmarkremovablegridlineson
thefabric(showninblueonthe
diagrams). A marked centre line is