I’m a beginner, I want to teach my sister/friend, child/grandchild, niece/nephew how to embroider, my mom has done cross stitch for years and wants to try a new style… can you recommend a good pattern to start?
I often get messages like these from those wanting to stitch my designs themselves, pass on their knowledge or buy a pattern for someone else but are either unsure where to start or hesitant to take on too much to begin with. So I’ve gone through my designs and picked out those patterns I think are a good place to start.
This style of creative surface embroidery is all about the stitches. Once you’ve mastered the basics, the fun part is learning new stitches and using them to create amazing embroideries. In light of this, I focused on two things when putting this list together:
Design size – it can incredibly disheartening to feel as though you’re never going to see the end, much better to start and finish a number of smaller designs and regularly feel that sense of achievement and accomplishment that keeps us wanting to move on to the next project.
Number of stitches – it’s easier and more encouraging to learn a few stitches at a time and be able to practise them, building up your stitch knowledge as you move from one design to the next.
Lots of these patterns are available individually as well as bundled at a lower rate. Start with just one if you want to take things slowly, you can always come back for the rest when the bug bites! The idea is to start small, get excited about embroidery and then want to keep stitching for the rest of your life. That said, if you’re feeling confident, jump straight in with any of these designs. They’re all doable for beginners, some will just take longer to do than others.
Little Samplers
These small hoops were designed with absolute beginners in mind. There are only three or four stitches in each design and the patterns include instructions on how to do each of the stitches used in the pattern. They’re the perfect place to start.
Chopped Fruit
These 10 fruit designs, like the small samplers, are reasonably sized for beginners. You’ll learn some different and interesting stitches, but on a “finishable” scale. They’re fun designs for getting to grips with this style of embroidery and are available individually or as a single pattern with all 10 designs, and you’ll find the instructions for all the stitches used in 120 Embroidery Stitches.
Veg Box I
Like the fruit, these five vegetable designs are small enough that they won’t take ages to complete. But some of the stitches are a step up from those you’ll find in the little samplers and fruit patterns, to stretch you and add to your repertoire of embroidery stitches. They’re available as standalone patterns, as well as bundled into a single pattern with all 5 designs, with instructions on how to do all the stitches used in these designs in 120 Embroidery Stitches.
Patch Samplers
These eight embroidery samplers based on embroidered patches are designed to accompany 120 Embroidery Stitches, my how-to ebook of hand embroidery stitches. Each sampler corresponds with a stitch family – for example, back stitches or chain stitches – which make up the chapters in the book. You can get the ebook and sampler patterns bundle, but they’re also available as individual, standalone patterns and the standalone patterns include instructions on how to do the stitches used in that particular sampler.
Puffer Bird and Pot Plant
These two patterns are great for beginners as they have a nice number of stitches in them and are fun to embroider. They’re not too big, either. Puffer Bird and Pot Plant are both available as PDF patterns, with instructions on how to do the stitches in 120 Embroidery Stitches.
Heart Sampler and Wintry Tree Sampler
These two samplers are designed in the traditional sense in that they contain lots of different stitches for learning and practising, but with a more modern feel. Heart Sampler and Wintry Tree Sampler are good choices once you’re comfortable doing this style of embroidery and ready to learn a bunch of new stitches in one design. Both samplers are available as standalone patterns as well as bundled with 120 Embroidery Stitches, where you’ll find all the instructions on how to do the stitches used in the designs.