I have not stitched anything since last posting about my embroidery inquiry. I finished any projects I had on the go and have nothing else in the house I can stitch. I am still trying to avoid ordering off of Amazon, and I had trouble finding appropriate embroidery fabric the last time I went to a craft store. I am itching to get stitching, so my lack of materials hasn’t stopped me from thinking about what I’ll do next and how I want to approach projects for the next few weeks. I’ve done a lot of that thinking, and I’ve exchanged some info on my embroidery experience so far, as well as a few resources and ideas, with some of my classmates who are also doing embroidery.

I have taken the approach to embroidery where I will watch a video or two on how to do a stitch that I need for a project and then try it. If I really have trouble with it, I’ll watch the video again or watch some other videos until I can get the basic mechanics.

I have decided, though, that I should probably, and want to, stick with the more simple stitches — your backstitch, your fly stitch, your split stitch, etc. — before delving into too many more advanced stitches. I think that practicing these simpler ones will help me practice the coordination, stitch placement and execution skills, and finger movement intuition that seem to be required for success in more advanced stitches. Also, I simply enjoy the aesthetic of the simpler, usually line, stitches. I am not looking, at this time, at creating elaborate, realistic tableaux — I’m quite happy creating simple things with clean lines. So I want to focus on making those lines as clean as possible.

I found a really great Instagram account which I think will help me gain more mastery over simplicity. @hopebroidery has a lot of instructional videos on many of the basic and many of the more advanced stitches. I think most importantly for me at this moment, she has videos on how to create different shapes using various outlining stitches, rather than just showing how to make straight lines using them. As I’ve mentioned before, part of my goal is to stitch various spooks — ghosts, bats, monsters, etc. I would also like to stitch space things and anatomy things. For all of these, I need to learn to master basic outlining.

I’m in luck — @hopebroidery has some examples of the very things I’d like to stitch! See her little ghosties, space scene, another space scene,

This account can definitely help me with that and provides some inspiration for making my own patterns rather than buying pre-drawn ones. I’m a little intimidated about trying to draw patterns for myself because I’m not very good at drawing and not a very experienced embroiderer. Kits are quite expensive, though, so I would like to phase out buying them to save money. Seeing accounts like this where simplicity seems to be the goal, I can more easily imagine myself designing simple, cute, and bold patterns that I can actually stitch.

Finding a something like this that can not only provide me valuable stitch instruction but also model what can be done with simple stitches really does give me more confidence in the idea of starting my own pattern-free projects. I was supposed to go to my friendly local sewing shop, the Makehouse (which I mentioned in my last post!), this week to pick up a new kit and maybe some fabric, but that unfortunately didn’t happen over the weekend and I can’t go in the next few days. So, I ordered online from them:

Yes, I ordered some kits, including one “intermediate” stitch sampler set that I’m sure will cause me a lot of frustration. BUT I also ordered plain, blank fabric — I’ll be able to start my own projects once this stuff arrives. I’ve already seen how to draw designs onto light fabric, but I knew that drawing designs onto dark fabric would pose more difficulties, but I really want to stitch spooky and spacy things onto black fabric. So, I checked some articles and videos about how to transfer designs onto dark fabric:

I am definitely feeling more confident about starting on my own designs. What should I stitch onto these fabrics first?