When you think of art, you might think of the strokes of paint brushes on a canvas, designing intricate patterns on a piece of paper, or photography.
The first thought that comes to your mind might not be embroidery when it comes to art.
However, art is all around us; the pattern of your wallpaper is art, the curtains and each intricate design is art, and the words you read in a storybook are all forms of art.
Similarly, the patterns stitched onto your shirt or jeans are their form of art, especially if they’re handmade.
Anything that has human work done behind the scenes is called art, and embroidery has a lot of work put into it.
You might not put much consideration into the clothing you buy when you go to a store, but each one may have been handmade by a person with time and effort put into it. This is the beauty of embroidery.
Say you’re interested in sewing, you might be attending a sewing class, or you want to modify your clothes and see how your own hands can design creative patterns.
This is the place for you if you’re at that stage of your sewing where you want to learn how to embroider your clothes but don’t know where to start.
How can you start embroidering?
It should be easy enough to assume you have your everyday Singer sewing machine or a manual wheel one.
You’ll need to set up your top thread on the sewing machine and a lower one through the bobbin in your sewing machine.
Grab the article of fabric you want to embroider in, and you can get started.
However, if this is your first attempt, it’s recommended to practice on a throw-away piece of cloth first to leave room for mistakes!
You’ll need to use some of your creative thinking to create the perfect design for your cloth.
It’s best to start with your name because it’s the word you’re most familiar with, but it can be anything.
How can you put the guideline pattern onto your fabric?
Using any fabric pen or friction pen that can be removed with water or heat can be most effective in creating your guidelines for the lettering.
Of course, if these are your first attempts, it would be unwise to freestyle your way through, so a non-permanent guideline is a way to go.
You can write your word onto the cloth and use it as a guide.
Another way to create a guideline is using acid-free tissue paper.
After cutting out a sizeable bit of it, you can write your word on the paper and pin it to your cloth.
This can also act as a suitable guide as the paper can be ripped out from underneath your thread when you’re done, leaving a clean slate.
It’s good to keep your font and pen thick, so it’s easier to embroider over them rather than through tiny slanted writing. Make sure to keep your letters spaced as well.
Setting up your sewing machine
After placing the top and bottom thread into your sewing machine, carefully maneuver your fabric beneath the foot of your sewing machine under the needle.
Guide your threads through the fabric directly over your letter guidelines.
Make sure to keep the tail of your thread out of the way to avoid disorientation.
After setting up the threads and sewing machine, ensure your needle is placed directly over your letters.
The foot of your sewing machine can help keep your needle running in a proper line the same as usual.
Guiding your thread on the right path
Just as you would while sewing two fabrics together, keep one hand carefully on the fabric and the other on your wheel to align your needle along with the guidelines well.
When you bring your needle down, move your fabric accordingly to guide your needle along on top of each letter.
You can vary the thickness of your letters by sewing back and forth along the guideline to fill every space with your thread.
If all goes well, your needle should bring the thread down each place you guide it down to, over your beautiful pattern, and embroider it onto your fabric.
Make sure to cut the thread when separating your words or letters to avoid messy scribbling.
Remove the guidelines
If you used tissue or paper as your guideline, simply unpin it and gently rip it through your embroidery.
It should come off easily past the rips made with the needle through your guideline lettering.
If you used a pen to draw your pattern or name, it should come off easily. depending on the type of fabric pen you used, with water or heat or air drying.
