Embroidery basics - Basic stitches

         

Embroidery is an art of surface ornamenting the fabric with beautiful decorative stitches. 

By using a variety of beautiful embroidery stitches, the fabric can be made more attractive. In India it has been practiced since 16th century. 

Hand embroidery could be difficult at the beginning but comes through practice. Nowadays embroidery is used in wide varieties of clothes such as kurtis, western gowns, veils, kerchiefs, dresses, sherwanis, salwars, sarees, lots of accessories etc. 

In the below contents i have written about various stitches used in embroidery, i have also shared with you the images of Lord Ganesha motifs embroidered with those embroidery stitches. 

Classification of Embroidery Stitches 

Basic embroidery stitches can be classified in to 5 groups. 

• Line stitches
• Chain stitches
• Loop stitches
• Flat stitches
• Knot stitches

In this post i will write about basic stitches used in embroidery.

Line stitches

Lines stitches as the name says consists of fine lines. These stitches are very easy to work. These stitches can be used for making outlines, on motifs, for filling complete shapes etc. They can also be used as padding stitches. 

There are different types of line stitches like 

Lord Ganesha Motif Embroidered with Line stitches

Chain stitches

There are variety of chain stitches which can be used to do lot of decorative works. It can be used to fill motifs, for outlines etc. Here is the sketch of different types of chain stitches. 

Lord Ganesha Motif Embroidered with Chain stitches

Loop stitches

These stitches can be used for outlines or to fill the entire motifs. Check the below sketch for the different types of loop stitches.

Lord Ganesha Motif Embroidered with Loop

stitches

Flat stitches

These are the stitches which are used to fill a motif. These are flat stitches which can be used creatively to give various attractive effects. 

Lord Ganesha Motif Embroidered with Flat

stitches

                                        

Knot stitches

There are used along with the other embroidery stitches and gives decorative effects. There are various types of knot stitches such as 

• French knot
• Bullion knot
• Fone legged knot
• Scroll stitch
• Corel knot
• Palestina stitch

Lord Ganesha Motif Embroidered with Knot

stitches

I didn't sketch the knotted stitches as it so messy to sketch a knot. 

These are the few basic stitches. There are other decorative stitches such as couching, bead work, sequins work, wheel stitch, spider stitch, sted stitch, cross stitch,  star stitch, straight stitch etc.