Learning embroidery together

A fun part of homeschooling, for us, is creating practical, interesting, and beautiful things together, also known as handicrafts.  For our family, it is not only enjoyable, but also a way that we mirror God’s image in us by creating in our own way.

A short list of handicrafts can be found here.  We have done (not all at once, but as they show interest, and I have energy and time) hand- and machine-sewing, spool knitting, finger knitting, dyeing playsilks, making kites, photography, and many art-related handicrafts (painting, drawing, collage).  Today I’m going to talk about embroidery.

I’m fairly new to embroidery myself.  In my long list of hobbies, embroidery is a recent one, but one I was interested in learning.  And what better way to learn it, than alongside my two oldest girls.

I didn’t even have to pose this one. They decided to sit next to the window together while they were embroidering.

Embroidery can be for girls and for boys.  A picture in a post I have linked down below shows the author’s young son embroidering.  There are plenty of fun designs out there that I’m sure could interest boys also, or they can draw their own.  Embroidery is great for hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and developing focus and concentration.

B and A have been embroidering since they were around three years old.  Each of them started on burlap secured in an embroidery hoop.  They used a blunt tapestry needle and embroidery floss to make designs on the burlap.  It looked like a bunch of lines just crisscrossing over one another.  It’s what I like to call “freestyle embroidery”.  The purpose of this, besides to have fun making a design, was to learn to poke into the side of the hoop they were on, instead of going around the side of the hoop.  Both girls enjoyed this activity.

B embroidered over a drawn triangle on burlap using a running stitch when she was around 4 or 5.

One of A’s early freestyle embroidery designs on muslin.

Over the past three years, as they were ready, each of the girls has progressed from burlap to muslin; from freestyle line designs to drawing their own design and embroidering it and then to embroidering a traced design from a book; from using a blunt tapestry needle to using a real embroidery needle; from long line stitches to shorter running stitches to back stitches.

This is one of B’s most recently finished embroidery projects. We traced the strawberry out of a book and she did a fantastic job with it. She was 6 and a half when working on this one.

In the past year I too have started embroidering more purposefully.  I picked up a few books from the library and bought my favorite, Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection by Aimee Ray.  I bought plastic hoops that I really like for all three of us and new embroidery needles and an embroidery scissors.  I could do a running stitch and a back stitch already, so I learned the split stitch.  It’s been a fun new thing to learn and an easy activity to take along with me when I have extra time.  It’s been helpful, as I learn new stitches, to have a good book with pictures and descriptions of each stitch.  I recommend the one above by Aimee Ray, as well as books by Jenny Hart, both which I found at the library.

This one makes me happy. She drew the design first. I like the prairie grass, as she called it. I’ll probably frame this one.

Both the girls and I have also embroidered card stock to make into a card for someone.  To do this, you trace or draw your design on the card.  Then place the card over cardboard and punch holes along the design about a 1/4 inch apart with a push pin.  Use embroidery floss to stitch over the design.

A card B was embroidering for her Nana.

A embroidering her card for Nana.

A enjoyed embroidering her very own design on a plastic canvas circle using a blunt tapestry needle and embroidery floss.

A showing her embroidery design on the plastic canvas circle.

If you are interested in starting embroidery with your child, here is what I would suggest:

Around age three: Use burlap and yarn with a plastic yarn needle.  I like to secure it in an embroidery hoop, so they have something to hold onto and a tighter surface to push through.  I’d suggest about a 7-8 inch hoop size.  You could also use embroidery floss and a tapestry needle.  With either yarn or floss, double over and tie the ends once put through the needle.  Nothing is more frustrating for you or the kids than the needle continuing to come off the thread.

When they are just starting, I don’t do any pattern and just let them do a sort of freestyle embroidery.  It’s just getting the idea into their heads to go through the right side and not go around the edge.  If they’d like to use a marker and make a simple picture or shapes or letters to embroider, that would be a good next step to following a line.  A running or straight stitch is the best first stitch.  Here is a site that talks all about all this: Embroidering with Children.

A did these at co-op. She did a backstitch with yarn. She was four and a half when she did this project.

Getting closer to age four you can try embroidery floss and a tapestry needle with muslin cloth on an embroidery hoop.  They can either do freestyle or can use a pencil or a water soluble marking pen, that erases when you get it wet, to draw a picture.  You can tape the muslin down on the table with masking or painter’s tape and let your child draw the design.  Or it might work to draw while on the hoop, since that will hold the fabric tighter.

A said she thought this design she drew and embroidered looked like a pumpkin. I think I’ll frame this one.

A learned the backstitch at age four-four and a half.  I can’t remember when B learned it.  This site has a good way to do embroidery with ages four-five: How to do embroidery with kids.  A and B now use an embroidery needle (a little sharper than a tapestry) and I don’t double over the embroidery floss.  They have mostly learned to hold it.

B did this design in all running stitch.  She was 5.

Lastly, what can you do with finished embroidery projects?  You can give them as gifts (they look nice in a frame), display them in your house (again, frame), sew them into quilts, save them wherever you save your child’s other art projects, or throw them away (Did I say that? Yes, I did.  Depending on how many embroidery projects your child finishes, you might want to throw a few away.  You can take a picture first.)  But what I like about embroidery and many other handicrafts is that they are practical and useful and can be very lovely to give away and have about.

Both of the girls love to give embroidery projects as gifts. Here B is giving a framed one to her Mima as a birthday gift.

A giving her framed embroidery to Mima as a birthday gift.

Happy embroidering!