Beginning Embroidery for Kids! (and Adults)

1. Embroidery for Kids! (and Adults): Hi, I'm Kendra Ortner of by hand at home, and I'm an eclectic artist who sews, knits, crochets, paints, And I like to play with clay too. Today, I'm here to teach you how to embroider. In this class, you'll learn all of the basic embroidery stitches. I've been teaching, this year, a group of fourth graders, so I know this class is appropriate for ages 10 and up. But you could probably do it with some help if you're younger too, and you can definitely do it if you're older than ten. So I hope you'll join me today. All you'll need is some fabric, a thread, and a needle, if you'd like to follow along with my sampler to learn all the stitches and try out my design, you'll need a seven-inch embroidery hoop. So I hope you'll join me today with my Skillshare class and learn how to embroider. Thank you. 2. How to Choose Fabric: So for this project, I'm using a piece of linen that I had in my fabric stash. You can use any piece of cotton, something that you have on hand, anything without a stretch to it. So knit would not be a good choice or Lycra would not be a good choice. If you'd like to purchase one of these samplers that's already preprinted so you can skip the step of copying everything. I do have these printed in my shop at by hand at home.com. So just pop on over there and you can get your own printed pattern. 3. How to Print & Copy Sampler: So if you're making the sampler, you're going to need to print it out. And you'll make sure that it fits in your seven inch tube to make sure the sizing is correct. So you can just line it up right here. That looks about right. That's just what I want. So now what I'm going to do is copy this design onto my fabric. So in order to do that, first, what I'm using is carbon paper on top of my fabric. Just like that. Another thing you can do is use charcoal and color some charcoal on the back of your design to act as the carbon paper, and that can be your transfer. So then I'm going to try to make sure it's centered over my piece. So I can see there's the corner. I'm going to want this. Let's see a little down so that it's found in the center like that. And what I'm gonna do is pin fabric, the carbon paper, and my design altogether so that this won't move. So I'm pinning through all the layers on all the sides. So that's a one side. Another. I'm kind of smoothing it down as I go so that I don't end up with any wrinkles in the design. And then my last pins, this is going to go right here. Good. So now I'll have to smooth it as I trace it. But what I want to do is trace all of the dark black lines. There are a couple circles on here for the sunshine and for the hoop. Those you do not trace. It's better if you just do the black lines. So I'll go through and just go over these. And what that's gonna do is transfer onto the carbon paper all of these designs, and they don't have to be perfect. In fact, I think they look better. You actually add a little more character to your design by making the, the little lines, your own style. So make sure when you do this, don't do the circle, just do the lines. The circles, they're really as a guide. You can kind of see where your pencil has already gone. Some of my students decided not to do shine, and they wrote a different word here instead. And that's an option for you too. I'm going to include that in the class. So if you want to write your own word instead of shine, you're welcome to do so. I would advise that you write something inspiring to you or something that lifts you up. I'm pressing hard here so that I get a nice transfer. If you don't press as hard, you might get kind of a weak transfer. And that's with charcoal or with carbon paper. This one, I'm going to draw the line first all the way across. And then I'll just use these guides is where I'm going to put my couching knots. I think with this blanket stitch I'll do the same thing. And the long line first and then the little lines for this filled running stitch. I'm doing the running stitch first and then I'm going to do this to make sure it's going in my stitch. And again, these don't have to be perfect. You're basically destroying a little loops for your daisy stitch. Hope that one got a little big. No problem. Okay, Let's see that everything transferred. I'm just going to take out the side pens and the bottom pin to check because that way I could still lay it down in the same positioning if there's any part that's not showing up. Look at that and looks like it's all showing up pretty well. So I can go ahead and take this off. And then I'm ready to place it in my hoop. 4. How to Use a Hoop: So to to loosen your Hoople at all, You wanna go lefty, loosey right here and splits it apart. And then this goes behind the fabric, right? Like that. You'll want to try to get it all centered. You can always slip it a little bit. After it's in there. You can wiggle it a little bit so it doesn't matter if it's perfect on this party there. And then you slip your hoop right over that. And it looks pretty good. I might pull it down a little bit. I don't want to pull it so that I'm making the fabric uneven in any way. So I'm just making sure it's nice and tight on all sides. And then what I'll do next is tight my hoop. So righty-tighty. So before we begin, I did notice a little place on my sampler where I missed copying this little star right here, and I just drew it in with pencil. So that's something that you can do to. One other thing I want to mention is if you're planning on hanging this up later, you're gonna wanna make sure the screw is at the top. So maybe try hanging it. See how it looks to you before you start sewing. You can always adjust this later, but it's easier to do it now. 5. How to Prepare Your Floss: I have my beautiful rainbow for my class. And I wanted to show you how I've made this in case you want to make one of your own. You can use just thread-like. As soon as you need it. You can even just use one color of thread. But if you want to make a rainbow like this, I'm using 52 pearl cotton. And this is what a little scheme looks like. So I'll just take the little, you can see how it's twisted together. I'll take the little things off by ripping them. And then what I normally do is I just to go to where the non is and that is where I cut it. So I've got the not here. I'm going to cut it right there. And that kind of provides the perfect length. It's a little longer than might be totally comfortable for you. What I usually say is hand to heart. So you always want to have your thread hand to heart so that it's a comfortable sewing length for you. And this is a little bit longer, but it's just so easy to cut that way. So if you're going to make a whole rainbow, this is what I would suggest. And then to put it on the stick, you'll make both ends match and you'll have the little loop here. And then you'll put the loop kind of at the bottom of the stick and pull it out so it's facing. And then you just put the ends through. And the reason I do it this way is because it's really accessible for all of my students and it can keep my threads tidy. I've asked them to put their little extra pieces on the ends. But then if one student needs to go and get a thread like I'm going to take one right now. They can just pull it from the little lump in the front. So I'm going to choose to work with this orange. And sometimes it doesn't come out easily, but usually this is the way to do it. If it starts to become tangled, you can just hold it while you're pulling the other one out. And now we're ready to begin. Here's another kind of floss that I have. This is the regular DMC Floss that you might find that they happen in all kinds of general stores. And you can also just take out the end of that and do your hand to heart and cut to length of your thread. So both options are available to you and you can work with whatever you have on hand or whatever you choose to get for this project. Now let's begin. 6. How to Thread Your Needle: The first thing you'll need to do is thread your needle. So I've gotten pretty good at those over the years. And what I do is I just pinch the thread are really tightly with my fingers and kind of flip it into the needle. Sometimes I jiggle the needle a little like a saw, just like that. So I can thread the needle. If that is difficult for you. There's a handy dandy tool called a needle thread or, and I'm just going to show you how that works quickly. You just place it inside the head of the needle. Whoops. Now I can't even do it. There it is. And then you can bend it down a little bit too. So you can kind of like make it a little bit bigger so that you can get your thread through. And once you get your thread through, which is gonna take me a second, because I have now bent it a little too far. Come on little needle thread or work with me. It helps if you talk nice to it, be sure you do that. So now all I'll do is pull this little needle thread or, and then I can take it off and I've got my needle threaded. If you don't have one of these on hand, there is another trick that I learned. It's pretty simple. All you do is take a piece of paper and you have to cut a little strip that's smaller than your needle. One I'm using right now is a shinier needle. It's I think it's a size 20. Let me look at the package really quickly and see what it says. Yeah, it says it's a number 20 Chanel need also. I have the gold I needles, um, what you do with your strip as you just fold it in half and then you'll put it right through the needle. And the same way, just like a needle through redder and you'll use it just like a needle thread or so. You can kind of make it a little bigger. Get your thread through there, and then pull it sometimes these break. So this one didn't. That's nice. I can reuse it. And then after I get my needle threaded, another important thing that I'm going to do with my embroidery is I always want a knot in the end. So I just loop it around my finger just like this. And then I tuck it under just like this. Sometimes they do a couple of texts to make the knot bigger. Actually usually do because I don't want to pull it through the thread. So I do a couple of bucks to make my not nice and big. So I won't go through my fabric. You may be wondering why I'm not leaking my thread. When a thread my needle while it's okay for you to do that if you're home and if you're the only one who's touching your project, but when you're in an environment with a teacher or even a parent, you could be transferring some bacteria that you don't want to transfer. And I've heard stories of handwork teachers getting all kinds of bugs from their students. So in general, we just don't lick our thread. And that's why we have all these different ways to thread our needle. So I hope that you'll keep that in mind as we go on with this process. 7. How to Running Stitch: The first stitch we're going to do is the running stitch. And I'm going to start up here on the sun. This was one of the things all of my students wanted to do first was put a sun in the sky. I think it's a really normal. So you bring the thread in from the back. You've got, you're not there. So it keeps it secure. And then all you do is go in and out like this. Sometimes this is called the dolphin Stitch Fix gets caught, you just have to gently work with it. That's why it's important. You have to talk nice to your work so that it'll cooperate. Now I'm just going to go in and out right on top where I put my lines. So you can see why it's called the dolphins ditch. It kind of leaps, does little leaps. And sometimes people use this for base dean or will use it later to finish our sampler. Now you can continue with this stitch without ending your thread. But it makes the back of your work a little bit messier. So like I could just go over here and start my running stitch again, but it would leave a big line of threads. So what I'm gonna do is ended. And my favorite way to end my sewing is to go under a loop I've already made. Like so. Pull it tight enough that it's not pulling your, your thread out. And then what I do is I just go in a loop to make the knot. So there's my knot right there. I'll take my scissors cut and I'm ready for my next stitch. So now I'll show you with the right-hand how I might do it. So I started on the inside and went to the outside. Now I'm going to start on the outside and go to the inside. You could do it either way. You could do it with either hand. So here we go. I brought my knot right in the end. I've got this still threaded. And I'm going to start from the outside with my right hand. You'll have to bear with me because I'm not used to serine right handed. Going in. Sometimes people like to take this thread, take the stitch width without sticking it in each space. They'll go like this and get the fabric all in one go. That works okay, kind of distorts the fabric a little bit. And you can't get your stitches quite as accurate. But if you are really wanting to be speedy or like the way that fields or looks kinda made that a little bit smaller than I would like. I think I'm going to take it out. One way that I take threads out is I use my needle as a little helper. So I just pulled that out. And then I'll redo that one because I want it to be a little bit longer. Let's see if my threading works. Yep. And then I'll just go right to the end of that. So I don't distort my fabric or make the stitch too small. I switch to my left hand. Nobody saw that. Came back to my right hand. And I'll just finish up doing this running stitch all the way around the Sun chain. Just like so. That's that's it. There you have it. 8. How to Tie a Good Knot: One troubleshooting tip when you're tying knots on the back of your fabric is to do multiple loops to make sure that you've actually got a naught because you can just end up slipping it here and not getting it knotted. It might just slip in. And that is actually how some people like to end their embroidery. But I would recommend when you put it through, do a couple of loops around your needle to make sure it's good and tight, tightly knotted. And so one way to do that is to hold the tension in the thread, which you'll, you'll learn for the French knot, you want to do the same thing as hold the tension in the thread and pull it really tight. So you know, you're not secure. 9. How to Spider Web Stitch: Our next stitch is the spider web stitch for the center of our sun. I'm using yellow, but you could choose any color. I have one student who did the spokes of the rays of the sun for her running stitch in red, orange and yellow and another student who chose blue. So it's really up to you what you want in your personal sampler. Now, when I do this, I'm going to take a good look at what I'm doing because I want to make sure it's not going over itself on the backside of this, I trimmed all my ends to because I didn't want them to mess with the with this particular stitch and I'm just bringing my needle through the center. You could do this with your right hand or your left hand. And it doesn't really matter which spoke you choose either. You're going to want to do from the center for all of them. Again, look at the back and make sure you're not getting that not you're not getting tangled. Don't want to go through the thread and bringing your thread to the front. You'll notice that the spokes of this particular stitch, there are seven of them because we're going to weave. Oh, I don't want my thread to go on that side of the spoke, so I may need to make sure it's on this side. We're going to weave in the stitches we make. So that's why we use an odd number. You could do this with a different odd number, like nine or three. And I always feel like it works well to use your fingers to kinda groom the stitches to be how you'd like them. So let me just check. The back is looking pretty good. Oh, my tail is a little stuck there. So I think I might go ahead and tighten up the tension of that stitch because I don't want that to be a problem later with my weeping. There we go. So let's see. I see still seems oh, yeah, it's a loose so I've got a pull them all through a little bit to make sure that I'm getting c. We want them all to be tight so I'll pull through until they all get nice and tight. This one has a little bit off of the spoke, but it won't matter because we're going to cover it up anyway. So it does still doesn't have to be too perfect. Just needs to make sure we're not affecting the tension of the weaving. Check the back. Looking good. Don't want to go through that step which China to leave it too much of a gap in between them either because then you'll have a hole right in the center of your you're weaving your son. Okay. So my last edge, no. Wanna go a little bit closer to the middle than my other ones. There. Now with this stitch, I'm going to continue using the thread I'm using. I won't end it right there. So what I'll do is I'll bring it up in one of the triangles right near the center. And you can go either direction as long as you go the same direction. So check and make sure there are no bumps on either side. And then choose your direction. I'm going to go clockwise. So I'm gonna go over this stitch right here and under here to make my, my weaving. See that I'll go like this and I'll go over and under and over and under. Now you could do this with multiple colors as well. You can end it at anytime. And you can do it with multiple colors. And, and I find it's a good idea to use your fingers at this spot to, to kinda groom what you want the spider web to look like. So if you don't want it to get too bunched up, you need to flatten it. If you do want it to be bunched up, you might want to mold it that way a little bit. Just so you get the look that you like. Over, under, under, over all the way around. So let's say you did want to switch colors. At this point. At any point you can end your thread by going in, into the fabric really close to the v. So if you went like right here and put your needle in, You could end it right here. And then you tie it off in a naught. Let's do more than one loop to make sure that we're getting a not there. Hold the tension like this. There we go. I'm just going to switch to the orange color for a little bit so you can see what that looks like. I barely got a little bit of yellow and you could even leave it like this if you really like the look of the spokes, the rays, you could leave your sunshine like that. I'm going to put a little bit of orange in. I have a little bit leftover. So thread your needle. Oh, this one's not going to cooperate with me. Please cooperate with me. There we go. See, I just had to talk nice to it and tie a knot in the end. And you'll start right where you had finished, right? So bringing this one up, Let's see. I kinda want it to match what I just did. So I just did an over here. I would have done an under here. So if I'm bringing the needle up here, I'm going to then go under. So I'll go under, over, under. And I'm still going in the same direction. I'm choosing to go clockwise. Now you'll be able to see the yellow sticking out a little bit when I'm doing this orange color because that's what color my spokes are. And I think it's going to look really pretty with the sunshine. And you can do this to whatever extent you, you enjoy the lookup for your spider web stitch. And that's, that's basically the essence of it. I'll spend some more time with this and get it fully woven out to the ends. And you can see what it looks like. So I've just finished my spider web. And if you're having difficulty with that, make sure you're not pulling too tight and you can always cut it out without cutting your fabric and try again, It's really easy to do that. 10. More Running Stitch: So now I'm just going to quick do my next running stitch down here. And I'll do a little speeded up version. I know it's gonna take me longer in real life, it'll take you longer to, but here we go. I'm going to use green on my Iranians touchdown here. There's already a stitch. We're done with that part of our project and now we can move on to the next page. 11. How to Star Stitch: So the next stitch we're going to do is called Stars touch. Sometimes it's also called Algerian I stitch because of the way it is found traditionally in embroidery. And I've chosen a blue color and you've already done this and with your sunshine, with your spiderweb stitch. So you'll already know how to do this one basically. From doing that. So you just start in the middle and you go around the spokes of whatever your star is. So I want to make sure I get this perfectly placed almost right. Otherwise my star might go a little bit off my guides. So let's make sure on the back too, we're not having any crisscrossing problems as we go. Take a look at the back, make sure I'm not going in that thread right there. It looks good. So after I finished this one, I'm going to go ahead and go around and do all of my stars. I think I'll just do them all blue to keep it simple for myself design wise, it might look pretty to do them in all different colors, but I'm going to just keep them all blue so that I can tell that they're all the same. And I my eyes won't get distracted. See it right next to that, not when I'm putting my thread through. There we go. So I'll just tie a knot on the back. This time I'll do that. This is what you'll learn about the French knot, where you wrap your thread around and you hold it tight so that you'll be able to tie a knot right on the back. There we go. So I'll just finish up all of these stories. And you did say. 12. How to Herringbone Stitch: So now we're going to do the herringbone stitch. And I'm going to be working from left to right. You could also work from right to left if that feels better for your hand. We'll start just with our thread knotted on one end and throw that on the other. And I'm using a different, slightly different shade of green than I alas, use this one's a little darker, less blue. So you just go in, take a stitch there. Some people, when they're doing this ditch, they'll take the little stitch as one whole stitch. So you could try that if you want. Go from one side to the other, either from right to left or from left to right, depending on the direction you're sewing. Take your stitch and then go down. And you could take the other little stitch in the same way. So I'm doing it still from left to right to take that little stitch. And you'll end up with a crisscross pattern all the way across. You can also just stab every time. So I'll show you what that looks like. Every time I'm just stabbing may need all into one of the ends. Right there, right here. And then I'll do it again for my next one. So I'll stop it right there. Maybe a little closer. Right there. And then right here. So do it whichever way is most comfortable for you, if you'd like the precision of being able to put your needle exactly where you want it each time without doing the small stitch, you can just stab each one. Or if you like, the speed of making the small stitches, you could also rotate your coop and get those small stitches like that. Just make sure you don't cross the thread over. We're going to do that in a couple of our other stitches. But in this one you definitely don't want to make any kind of moves like that. So now I'll just finish this up. And then no, I think we're going to go over to this tiny little hill over here and revisit our running stitch. Um, so I'll see you there. 13. How to Filled Running Stitch: So the next stitches we're going to do are going back to our running stitch for the filled running stitch. And then we're going to do a little of the couching stitch as well. So first what I'm taking is migraine thread and I'm just going to do the running stitch on this tiny little hill on the left. So my knotted thread is going in right here. And again, MOOC. I want to make sure that I don't do these dishes too small because later I'm going to be passing the thread underneath them. So they need to be wide enough. To do that. I wanted these to look like kinda of a scene. So that's why I'm thinking the hills should, should be green. Maybe some of the other features could be different colors. But of course, you're free to choose whatever color you like. When you're doing your own sampler. Or you could be doing this on a piece of cloth just to learn, not in this particular design. So after I get this last one done, I'm going to finish it off by China. Okay, so to make this a filled running stitch, I'm going to take the color I was working with before. Still have a little bit about laughed. This slightly blue, green and thread my needle. Make sure to not the end as well. If you're having troubled threading for some reason and those other tricks don't work, you can always recolor your end to get a nice clean start. Okay, so I'm just going to bring the needle up through right here. And it doesn't matter again, if you work from right to left or left to right, I'm starting down here. And I'm going to go under this stitch this way. And then under this stitch the other way. But not into the fabric. You actually don't have to go into the fabric at all what this stitch. And it makes kind of a cool little design feature that looks kind of like a river or something. I'm putting my finger on the back of the cloth to raise up the stitch so I can more easily get underneath. You don't have to do that, but it might help if you're having trouble. So I can peek under this dish as well and see if I'm really getting all of it because I don't want to go through the thread. I want to go under it. And there we go. That's my filled running stitch. And I'm just going to knot it on the back. And I'll be all done with that one. 14. How to Couched Stitch: So now we'll do our couched stitch. I think I might use that same color again, so I'll just read naught it on the end to make my long stitches. What you're going to do is use a thread to secure your stitches in place. So you'll start out by taking your thread and going from one end to the other. Like back. Sometimes people wait to put that in. I'm just going to leave it loose for right now because I won't want to not until I had figured out exactly what length I need. So I need to get a new threat to do the little stitches on top for my couch stitch. So I'll grab that now. I'm going to go ahead and do yellow again. So starting at this end, you can start at either end, but whichever end you started your other thread, that is where you should start your couching, couching stitch two. So I'm just going to secure this in place. Sometimes I refer to this as tacking something down. So you're just I'm just tapping it down right in place. I'm Nick, go along all of these little marks that I have on tack this thread down. I thought it might look a little bit like something growing in the field. I'm using my thumb to hold that thread in place, right where I want it to follow the curve. Let me look at the back. I don't want to get tangled with the thread I already stuck in. In fact, I could take it out if I wanted to so that I wouldn't wouldn't get in the way at all. And then I can put it in again when I'm all done with the little, the little stitches that go across. I like to think of this as almost like sculpting. When you're sewing embroidery, you get to use your fingers to kinda helped the thread to do what you want it to do. Can't quite see my marks on there, but I know about where they should be. So I'm just kind of guessing a little bit right here. How far apart they had been so far. What is coming? So after I finish this side, I'll do it again on the other side. All right, so now I have to first tie a knot in my yellow and then I'll have to put in that bluey green color completely so that it's staying in place where, where I want it to be. I notice that choosing from, to go from the inside to the outside like I am choosing makes it a little bit tricky to tie my nods. So mine even be more practical to go from the inside, from the outside to the inside to this ending, this right here. So there's my couching stitch, my filled running stitch and my couching stitch. I'm just going to complete the one on the other side and then I'll be array back to teach you the chain stitch. 15. How to Chain Stitch: So the next stitch I'm going to teach you is chain stitch. That's actually one of the first stitches my students learned. And we're going to be doing it on this line. And so this is not the exact pattern will be making. But let's start on the hoop side. Since we've noticed that that helps us a lot. And you just not, you then have your threat again, bring it out. And then when you're studying this ditch, you're going to go back in the same area. And what you're going to do is make a little loop that you'll actually go through. So your needle has to go right back in. I always say just next door to where you put it and then it comes out about here to make the chain. So let's see how that looks like. It got a little twist in it. I think. Oh, no, it's fine. See, I just needed to loosen it a little bit. So there's the chain, right like that. And then when you start your next one, you'll go in the chain and come right back out where you want it to go, make sure your thread isn't getting twisted. You definitely don't want any twists. So I'm going to go right here and come right back out and let the thread go over. But not twisted. Just like that. So when we get to this loop, will have to actually go around. And then at this point we'll end our stitching. So or go basically you take the needle right under and then you come up and start again with your chain stitch. So when we get there, let's slow down. But for now, I'm just going to chain stitch merely away and go around this loop. Okay. When you get to the top of the curve that just make sure not to pull your threads too tightly. Again, you want to kind of think of Skulpt Dina's, you go with this stitch too. Because if you pull it too tight, it will start to bend the stitches towards the bottom of the curve and you really want them to lay nice and flat along the top. So sculpt with your fingers as you go. Don't pull any of your stitches too tightly just to get them right where you want them, like little tug his hearing there is good. If it gets too tight, you can always loosen it a little with your needle. So at this point when I've come right to the curb, when I'm going to do is like I said before, I call this tacky my stitch down. So I'm going to put the needle in right where I want the loop to end. I wanted to end right next to that thread. So I'll put it in right here, pull it through, and tack it right down right there. And then when I do my next stitch, it's like an started over again. I'll have to pull it through this way. And then I'll have to put it right back in the same place or next door. And make my little loop. And that's it. That's how you make your chain stitch. When you come to the end, the very end, you're going to tack it down and tie a knot. So I'll show you that part too when I get to the very end. But for right now, I'm just going to finish this line. And when I come to the very end, all tapped on the loop and tie enough. So there's my last stitch. And what I'm going to do is just tacked down the thread right where I want it to be. So you can sculpt it a little, get it right or you want it and then put the needle through and you'll tie a knot at the back. And that'll hold everything in place with your chain stitch. 16. How to Lazy Daisy: So now I'm going to take the same thrive, the same color and do what is called the Lazy Daisy stitch or the daisy stitch. Basically what you're doing is making the chain stitch for the petals of your flower. So you bring up, bring up your thread through the center. And then you'll sculpt the little petal. Just as you want it. Have your needle go in and out, right in that area. And that'll be 11 pedal of your flower. And then you'll just tack it down. And then you'll do your next flower on. You'll have to, it's like you're starting fresh every time, so you'll go out and then you'll do in it, in and out. Your needle will go in. Make the loop. Put your thread around the needle. And sculpture little pedal. When you come to the end of your petals, you'll just put your needle through the fabric and tie a knot the same as you did with the chain stitch. So now I'm going to finish all my little flowers and move on to the next edge. 17. How to French Knot: So now that we've done our Lazy Daisy stitch, our next stitch will be the French knot. And this leaves a little bumpy not on the surface of your fabric. So all of these dots will be French knots. And what you do is you just take your needle from the back through the fabric. And then you're going to want to go one wrap to wraps, to wraps around. And then you'll need to go kind of to the side right next door to where you started being careful not to cut to the back. And then I'm just going to keep the tension here. Actually sometimes they keep the tension by putting my finger on top and then pull that all the way through. There we go. We have one naught. And I will actually go ahead and do these knots just on the back of my fabric. You might see it a little bit, but the light through it. So if you wanted to tie it off on the back and start again, that would probably look a little bit cleaner. But I think you can see a lot of threads crossing anyways. So I'm not going to worry about that. I'm just going to go ahead and do my next not over here. And it looks like I have six of these to finish up before I move on to the coral knots. So i'm, I'm gonna do that right now. And then we'll see you for the next video, which will be the coral knots. 18. How to Coral Knot: So my next stitch is the coral knots. And I'm going to be working from left to right. It's the slight difference from right to left. You can do it either way. What you'll do though as you make the NADH is take your needle down from the top of whichever direction you are going. So here I go from the left. First, I'm going to take my needle in through the back. And when I get to this little dot, what I'm going to want to do is make a little stitch this way where it might not be. So it's just like this. And then in order to tie the knot, I'll need my thread to go around. So it'll tie the knot itself. You don't have to hold it down really. Although you can always be sculpting to make it look just how you want it. So there's one naught. And again from the top. And take my tiny stitch here and make sure that I'm going to go through in a nods. Um, you don't want to just go through like we did for the chain stitch or the other stitches, this is actually going to make a not so, oops. Let me show you. Right now. I just have it going through, right? But in order to make a knot here, I'll need it to go all the way through and around. So it's tying itself right? Right where the stitches making it not. So again, you go from the top. Take your little stitch. You'll wrap around your needle to make a knot. I think I might have done it wrong on that last one, it doesn't look quite right. So when you do it, make sure to wrap around your needle on the front end and leave this untangled on the backend open. It'll go straight through and make it not just like that. So I'll finish this up and then we'll be ready for our next stitch. 19. How to Blanket Stitch: The next stitch we're going to be doing is called blanket stitch. Now, depending on whether you're going from left to right or from right to left, you're going to need to skip the first spoke that I've drawn. So what you'll do is I'm going from left to right. So I'll show you on this one. I'll go in the first spot at the base right here. And then I'm going in the top right here. And let's leave a little, a little loose thread here because what's going to happen is I'm going to catch that right there for the next one. So I'll put my needle in right at the base again to show you. And it makes the little L shape. So then for the next one, we'll do the same thing. First, I'll go up to the top and put the needle in. Leave this kind of loose. And then I'll put the needle in at the bottom. And some people take this as one stitch. So instead of going out and back to catch it, they'll just go ahead and put the kitchen like this, top and bottom and let the thread go through to catch the bottom of that blanket stitch. And that works pretty well still I'm sculpting with my fingers to make it look how I want it. I'll do again the holding this thread to the right so that it's going to go the way I want it to go. You would hold it to the left if you want to go left. And then I'll take my stitch top and bottom. And want to make sure that threads up the way so I don't catch anything I am, I'm not mean to just just this thread. All right. And I'll do the rest of my blanket stitch and then we'll be ready for the backstitch. Well done. 20. How to Back Stitch: Our next DIC is going to be the back stitch, which is really great for outlining letters or to put around the edges of your sentence ditch. And it's actually our next to last stitch because after this we're going to be able to complete our CME player with the satin stitch. So this, I'm choosing a dark blue and you'll need to put a knot in the end of your string as usual. And then if your thread, and let's get started. So the first thing I'm going to do is the S in shine. And I'm going to just take my needle through the back. Like normal and in just a one little stitch in kinda like running stitch. Right. But I don't want this to be dotted, I want it to be filled in. So for my next stitch, I'm going to go ahead a little bit about as long as I want my stitches to be. And I'll put the needle right through and then I'll meet up with the back. Aware. I just left my needle. So I'm stitching back a little bit. And then my next one, I'll go forward a little bit. And then I'll go backward a little bit. And in this way I can have what looks like little stitches that are going right next to each other from end to end. This is also a sewing stitch that's really good for making a sturdy seem. So we used it earlier in the year in my class to make the seams on our bags really secure and tight. I'll flip this over and you can see that there's multiple stitches on here. And in this case it's okay for your needle to go through the thread on the back. We're not going to see that anyway. As long as it's not lumpy. Whatever you can do to get your letters looking nice. So again, you'll just go forward a little bit and then back to 0, the area where you left off. You could make your stitches a little longer than mine if you want. But the length of mine right now is allowing me to make the curves look really fine. And I think it probably wouldn't matter as much with the H, the eye, the end and the E. But it definitely matters on the S to be able to make it look a little bit tidier. So now I'm going to complete all of shine. And then I'm also going to do a back stitch on the antenna of the butterfly around the butterfly's body. And I'll meet you back here and we'll do the satin stitch on the butterfly's body. 21. How to Satin Stitch: So right now I'm doing the backstitch. I just completed the word and I'm doing the backstitch right on the antenna of the butterfly. I'm going to go all the way around the body with this dark purple color. And then I'm going to fill it in with the satin stitch. Usually when you do satin stitch, you always do a little back stitch around the item that you're going to stitch so that you get the boundaries really well established. So that's what I'm trying to do here. It looks like I'm when I get to the end of the antenna, I'm just going to be doing one stitch instead of two stitches. So I'll just hopped on here. And a one stitch. I think that looks good. So now I'm just going to go around the body with this backstage. Okay, so now I'm ready to fill in the body part. And I think I'll just start at the top, since that's where my thread is. And come up right next to the thread I've already put in. And then what I'm gonna do is since I'm working with my left hand, you probably could keep a right setup a fear of right-handed. I'm going to turn mine upside down. And I'm just putting this on the surface of the fabric and getting my thread kind of underneath it kinda doesn't matter. If it goes through a little bit. For this part, it can go through the thread or under the thread, as long as you're getting sculpted the way you want it to. And this satin stitch will just fill in and kinda make this part a little bumpy to these sticks out a little from the fabric. So I think I want, I want to cover up that white. So I'm going to take another stitch right here. After I do this on the body, I'm going to go ahead and, and backstitch around the wings so that I can fill them in and then I have one last area to do. I don't know if you've noticed, but I've got these little hearts and I'm wanting to do those in a sentence stitches well so they can be filled in tall backstitch around those. And then I'm going to be complete with my starter. That the only thing you might want to consider is if you want to add any extra adornments or you could, you could do more stars, you could do some. French knots on top of your butterfly. If you want it to be a polka dotted butterfly, It's really up to you how you want to do this. So you can make this butterfly stand out as much as you want by making more and more of these stitches on top of each other. Or you can just make it a stripy butterfly instead of filled in all the way. I want mine to be pretty solid. So I'm just going over these areas. And when I'm done, I'll just put my needle right through the fabric close to the thread. I've already got going and time I not say you probably already have decided how you're going to do your sentence. Ditch. I've noticed for the butterfly portion, it works best if I do each section of the wings one at a time. So what I've done here is I backstitch around this wing and then I went ahead and did the satin stitch on top. Now to end, I'm just going to put my needle through. And then I'm gonna come right back up where I'm wanting to backstitch some more so around the bottom LNG. And that way I can continue with the same thread I'm using. And I don't have any problems back continuing to backstitch. So I just wanted to mention that with improbably sure you already know by now how to stop your satin stitch and start again. So just finishing up my last heart. And remember when you're doing this part that you can put the needle wherever you need it to be. Just go through the back of your fabric. If you need more and more satin stitching on one area of the heart, go ahead and jump around the back to find what you need. So I've kind of been doing that with these. I'm going to start on the bottom here to do my satin stitch. And I'll go through these a little bit and then jump around to the different sides of the heart as needed. After this, you have a big choice of what you're going to do with your sampler. I'm like I mentioned in the beginning, you can hang it on the wall or there's different ways of finishing it. So I'm going to show you that after this and talk a little bit about different choices you have. So I'm doing one side of the heart and then I'm just going to go in the back and go over to that other side too. Sculpting. Sculpting all the time. There's that side. Too few top stitches on this side. Maybe just one or two. Yeah. That's looking pretty good. All right. 22. How to Finish Your Sampler: So now we've come to the part where we get to decide we have a big decision to make. So I have before, so a1 panels around my embroidery and made a pillow. You can also finish by gluing. And that's something that people often do, but there is a chance that that glue will not, where well. It can turn brittle or you can lose the tension in your hoop. I've lost tension the whole time I've been so eaten. So if you want to, want it to remain nice and taut. One option is to put a piece of felt in the back or a piece of cardboard in the back. So you can do it like that. Or another way is to so a running stitch all the way along and cinch it really tight. And then you could even put your cardboard or your felt right in the back to hold it in place. So I'm gonna go ahead and do that running stitch all the way around. It looks like I'm a little short on this side, so it might just barely come in right there. So we'll see how it comes out. And I'm going to leave it like that just for hanging. I'm not going to put a piece of cardboard or any felt, just going to finish it off by doing a running stitch. So for this part I'm going to use irregular sewing thread and I have a cotton thread. And then I'm going to go ahead and measure hand to heart. And then I'll double that amount. So I just string them alongs together. Whoop, not off the table. And there, I'll cut my thread. There will use a double thread for this part. So I only have to string 1.5 through the eye of the needle. And then I'll not both ends together to get it even. So there's 1.5. You can do this easily by dangling your needle. Tell it's right in the middle. And if you don't get your ends exact, just trim them, don't worry about it. So my not an exact rate now, when I go ahead and put them right together and even that out on my needle. Perfect. So now I'm gonna do the little knot around my finger that I usually do. And I'll be ready to sell. So this'll be my a limit of about how far I can. So basically you'll want to sell in a circle right at the shortest point of your embroidery. Semi ends about there. And I guess first I want to make sure I can get the thread end. So first I'll just take a tiny little stitch trick that I like to do is to put my needle between the two threads that I've tied together. And that way I am anchored right there. So I've got my little anchor. I can trim the end of that so I don't get caught in it. At any point. And then I'm gonna take our money and stitch all the way around in and out. If you do decide to do cardboard, the trick to getting a piece that will stay really tight is cutting it just a tiny bit bigger than this circle. So like a millimeter thicker. You don't want it to be too big so that it gets all bent out of shape. But you do need it to stick tightly, so just tiny little bits, it'll stick tightly that way. Okay. Now the most satisfying part is coming when I see. Yeah. Okay. So I did that on the inside. It looks like I could go ahead and do one more stitch on the outside. And then I'll be able to tie a knot on the outside more easily. There we go. Make sure that's really as tight as you'd like it to be. And then I would say to keep it tight kinda take a backstitch. So instead of going forward with your stitching, glad and go the other way and pull it really tight on one of these folds. See how that's kind of making more of a fold there. And then I'll go ahead and tie that in a nod underneath one of the other loops using my French knot technique. All right. Now this is ready. I could just hang it on the wall as it is. Or I can put some sort of backing on it. And there's my finished embroidery sampler. Thanks for joining me today and learning all about embroidery and hot and do it just like a fourth grader could do. It was 10 10-year-old could do. It. Doesn't have to be perfect. There are no mistakes, right? As someone once famously said, it's all just happy accidents. So I hope you've enjoyed class with me today. I'm Kendra ordinary from by hand at home, and I look forward to learning with you again on Skillshare. Do feel free to find me on Instagram, look me up, give me a message. If there's anything you'd love to see. I have so many classes and we decided to cheat. And I'm happy to add the list. So let me know what you'd like to see and I'll see you next time. Thanks again.