Embroidery Tutorial: Getting Started

Once you have the supplies you need (for information on supplies, see A Beginner's Embroidery Kit), there are two things many individuals have difficulty with as they first start to embroider. Whether it is regular embroidery or Counted Cross Stitch embroidery, these issues can exist. The two questions most often asked are how to begin and end the threads, and how to easily get the right number of threads from their skein of floss. This article will cover both of these issues.

Separating your Embroidery Floss

• Cut a length of floss from your skein that reaches from the tip of your finger to just past your elbow.
• Notice there are six threads in cotton embroidery floss. Take the end of two or three threads in one hand and the remainder of the threads in the other. Gently pull your two hands away from each other like you were opening your arms wide. If you let the main undivided strand of floss dangle straight down, as you are pulling the threads slowly apart horizontally, the main floss will have less of a tendency to knot.
• Do not yank the threads. Use a gentle pull. If it starts to twist onto itself, stop, straighten out the all the ends, shorten your grip on the threads and then continue pulling. Once you do this several times, it will become easy for you to do. It does take practice.
• An alternate technique for thread separation which I find even easier is to separate one single thread, pinching the remaining threads between your thumb and forefinger. Pull the single thread straight out away from your pinched fingers. Repeat this for as many threads as you need. Once each thread is removed, even their ends up and smooth them together into one strand. The advantage of this is it helps remove some of the natural twist floss has and your embroidery stitches will then lie flatter.

Where to start and what to do with the ends of the thread?

When doing embroidery, you do not want knots on the back of your work. Because of this, the ends of the embroidery threads are woven back into the stitched threads on the backside of your work so they appear to be part of the stitching, yet are secure enough that they don't pull out.

• Put the exact center of where you wish to start embroidering in the exact center of the hoop and stretch it so it is nice and taut.
• Thread your needle with your 2 or 3 strands of floss, whichever your pattern requires.
• Somewhere just inside the edge of your hoop (I am right handed so I usually do this at the very top left; reverse if you are left handed), push your needle through a hole from the right-side of the fabric (the fabric facing you) to the back-side of the fabric.
• Start your first stitch as if you had made a knot, making sure not to pull hard enough to pull that thread tale out. Leave that tale of thread so you can weave it back into your stitches later.

Ending a thread

When the thread you are using starts to get a bit short, you will also need to end your stitch neatly. The easiest way to do this is to run your needle under a previously stitched series of stitches on the back-side of your fabric (do not do this on the right side; always end your threads on the wrong side). How you weave your stitches in will depend on which stitches you have been creating.

• With stem stitches, weave the thread through each stem stitch, trying to catch your needle between the threads every couple of stitches. Do this for at least eight stitches and clip your thread very close to the last woven stitch. Ending this properly results in the back of the stem stitches appearing like a solid line instead of a series of dashes.
• With satin stitches, simply run the thread under your satin stitches, bring the needle out and then run the thread in the exact opposite direction, again under the satin stitches, catching a couple of threads in the turn of directions. This change of direction makes for a very secure ending.
• For Counted Cross-stitch, run the thread directly under the cross-stitches for a good inch, at least. This straight line is neat and secure.
• Sometimes you will need to study your work to find the best possible angle or stitch to end your embroidery on. Ending threads on lazy daisy or French knots is difficult because there is quite a bit of space in or between the stitches and little to catch. Use your best judgment in order to end in a spot more conducive to hiding the end of the thread. Thread is cheap. It is better to end it neatly than to keep stitching, trying to get every last inch out of your thread and then ending in a bad spot.
• This technique is also how you will go back to pick up your original starting thread. Once you have finished stitching your row, pull the beginning thread tale you created in the very beginning to the wrong side of your fabric. Re-thread the needle with the end of the tale and then run that thread under your stitches just like you did with the end of the thread above.

Both of these techniques take practice. Don't let it frustrate you. As you work with the threads, it will become easier and easier to work with your embroidery floss.