A few months ago I made a controversial statement to my local EGA chapter while I was teaching: there are only 3 embroidery stitches, and everything else is a variation of these.
The three stitches are:
- Straight Stitch – Up from the back of the fabric and back down into it to the back.
- Looped Stitch – Up from the back of the fabric, loop the thread around and secure it with another stitch.
- Knots – Up from the back, make a knot in some way and then back through the fabric.
All the other named stitches I’ve found are changes in direction or some combination of these three.
With this post, I’m starting a weekly beginning embroidery stitch “class.” Every Thursday there will be a new stitch described here, with a link to a new YouTube video from my YouTube Channel, StitchingWithAShimmy. I will likely be uploading the videos on Wednesday afternoons, so if you want the video earlier than the post, subscribe to my channel!
