Let’s Sew 17 – Embroidery 2 – Starting and finishing

Good evening!

I want to show you something that I just found – examples of my work from primary school days (over 50 years ago – but don’t tell! )

Don’t you love it!  A needle case, a draw string bag to hold our sewing gear and a placemat – maybe this was a 50’s mug mat!!

Today I am going to show you how to start and finish your embroidery so that it does not come undone and then you will be able to show it to someone in 50 years time!

The Knot
This is perhaps the easiest way to start any stitching.  With 3 strands, thread your needle and in one end, tie a knot.

An easy way to do this is to wrap the end around your pointer finger until it overlaps

Cover the overlap with your thumb and roll it between your finger and thumb a couple of times

Now holding the twists between your thumb  and middle finger( a fingernail helps), slide them to the left and

Ta da!  You have a knot!

The disadvantages of the knot are that it could come undone and it looks a little unsightly.

One way to make use of the knot is to use it away from your work.  Let me explain…….

I want to stitch on the blue line so I will put my
needle through to the back about 4″ (10cm) away from where I want to start.

Bring the needle back to the front where you want
to start

Stitch to the end and put needle through to the back

 Pass the needle under the last stitch and through the
loop formed to make a knot

Now that’s nice and neat!

 Snip the starting knot from the front

Turn to the back and finish this end off the same way – loopknot, oversew and snip.

Finished back,

Finished front.

This is the method of starting and finishing that we will be using in the making of the Let’s Sew Dolly!

Until next time
Nanny xx