Hand embroidery is the perfect hobby that’s easy + fun DIY project to occupy yourself with a little extra time on your hands. With just a few supplies you can transform anything from denim to linen napkins into a new favorite piece with a little hand embroidered detail.
DIY: Hand Embroidery
Today one of our sweet interns, Holly, is taking over the blog to share one of her favorite craft ideas she has been doing during her downtime. We instantly fell in love when we saw the pictures she shared on Instagram and knew you would do, so we asked her to share the project with us here to inspire you at home.
Crafts have been my go-to hobby during this extended time spent at home. To me, crafting is such a fun task I can do to preoccupy myself and exercise my creativity. I became inspired to try out DIY hand embroidery after finding some items that needed a little updating in a closet I was cleaning out— this is such a great time to go through old belongings and spring clean, and make something old feel new again.
How to Get Started
I have always loved the look of hand embroidery, both vintage and modern patterns. I picked it up quickly by watching a few beginner YouTube videos and pulling inspiration and tips from Pinterest. I happened to have all of the tools I needed to get started at home already: embroidery needle, embroidery thread (from the old days of friendship bracelet making), and old clothes I had scavenged from my closet to use. However, Amazon does have beginner embroidery kits as well!
In some of these pictures, I use a wooden embroidery loom that I recently purchased but it is not necessary to have. Most of my pieces I have done without the help of a loom— just wanted to note that.
On a red Grain Stripe Tea Towel, I traced the shape of a star with a washable Crayola marker. These markers are my personal preference for tracing because they tend to show up well on clothing and the ink easily washes out after you have embroidered your design, but you can also use a chalk pencil as well. To trace items, you can print images to use as a stencil or trace directly from your phone or computer screen.
For the star, I chose to use navy embroidery thread. I pulled the thread half was through and tied the ends together to make the thread thicker and then did a back stitch around the traced star. You can always switch up the stitch pattern to change up the look of the piece or to try different difficulty levels of embroidering. Don’t worry if you aren’t sure how much thread to cut off because you can always cut more and pick back up where your first strand ends.
Personalized Apron
On the olive crossback apron, I added my name with a beige colored thread in a typewriter font. Again, I typed out my name on my computer and adjusted it the the size I desired before tracing it only my apron collar. To give it a more dainty, simple look, I did not double over my thread and just used the single strand while performing another back stitch.
Here are some other embroidery projects I have worked on on a few pieces of my old clothing. Hand embroidering old clothing is an easy and unique way to patch holes, cover stains, or just spice up an old look. I owe my inspiration to Pinterest and to the beautiful vintage pieces my granny used to use.
This could be such a fun craft to do with your kids by allowing them to draw a picture or their name on fabric then helping them embroider the image. Such a sweet craft for them to be proud of and to look back on in the years to come.
If you try DIY hand embroidery out we would love to see how it turns out for you. Share your thoughts + pictures in the comments below.
heirloomed is a lifestyle brand with a mission of “keeping heirlooms around for another generation.” Our blog features stories about my favorite made-from-scratch recipes, creating traditions with your family, farmhouse home decor, effortless entertaining by mixing new and vintage pieces, tips on gardening creating a timeless capsule wardrobe, and small town + historic travel. Our product designs feature a collection of “goods inspired by the past, for generations to enjoy” with an array of aprons, table linens, hand-poured candles and keepsake gifts. Learn more at www.heirloomedcollection.com.
