How to Hand Embroider Letters

If you want to embroider some individual patterns on your clothes to make them look different, embroidering letters is often necessary. Generally speaking, embroidery can be divided into hand embroidery, sewing machine embroidery, and embroidery machine embroidery. These three embroidery methods have their own merits. Today, we have prepared a detailed tutorial on how to hand embroider letters on fabric for you. Hand embroidery can be divided into back stitch, stem stitch, running stitch, split stitch and according to the stitches. We will introduce you to the four ways of hand embroidery one by one.

Preparing

Letter Selection

The first thing to consider is the size of the letters. If the pattern of letters you want to embroider is small, then you’d better choose simple letters. Because the smaller the letter pattern, the more difficult it is to embroider. If you choose a small embroidered pattern that is too complicated, it will easily become a mess.

The second thing to consider is the appearance of your letters, whether you want italic letters, romantic letters, cute letters or something else. In general, choosing changing fonts will make your embroidery patterns look better. Thinking about your favorite letter design in advance will make your embroidery process simple and smooth.

how to hand embroider letters

Embroidery Hoop Selection

The choice of the hoop is usually related to the size of the font pattern you are going to embroider. If the pattern you want to embroider is small, you’d better choose a smaller embroidered hoop. A too-large embroidered hoop may make it difficult for you to focus on the pattern; if you want to embroider a larger pattern, too small embroidered The hoop may not fit your pattern. Therefore, in hand embroidery, it is crucial to choose the embroidery hoop that suits your size.


Four Hand Embroidery Methods

Next, we will introduce you to the four basic ways of hand embroidery. Are you ready?

use hand stitch to embroidery letters

Back Stitch Fonts

At the beginning of the practice, you can choose five or six simple letters, print them out, and then transfer them to your fabric or just draw them on your fabric by hand. Besides, the newbie is best to select a slightly harder material, like linen because fragile fabrics like silk are tough to control.

back stitch font

Back embroidery is a simple type of hand embroidery. Firstly, you need to start from the end of W, puncturing from the bottom of the fabric. After piercing, puncture from top to bottom along the traces you draw, this is the first needle; After completing the first needle, again puncture from the bottom of the fabric. Then turn back the needle into the pinhole at the end of the first needle, and this is the second needle.

sew letters on fabric by hand

Repeat the operation of the second needle until you embroider the entire W.

how to sew W by hand

Then came the embroidery of the font a. Like W, you should also start to embroider from the port of the letter. But the difference is that when you encounter a twist, you can reduce the length of stitches so that the embroidered arc is smoother.

The embroidery of the letter n is similar to the embroidery of the letters W and a so that we will not describe it too much. You can try it by yourself in practice.

sewing letters by hand tutorial

Repeat the above embroidery steps until the entire work is completed.

embroider letters design

Running Stitch Fonts

Running stitch is the easiest and fastest way to sew embroidery. You just need to use the needle to go straight along the traces you draw and then flatten the suture. This way, you can complete several stitches at a time.

best hand embroidery letter designs

Although completing a few stitches at a time will make the embroidery process quick and easy, when you encounter curves, you’d better embroider stitch by stitch, so that your work will be more refined.

best hand embroidery letters for beginners

Repeat the above steps, and you will get a complete embroidery work.

complete hand embroidery letters

 Split Stitch Fonts

Split stitch is a bit more complicated than the first two embroidering methods, but in the same way, the pattern embroidered with this method is more refined and beautiful. Firstly, you need to make a single stitch and then put the thread back in the middle of the same stitch. Basically, you will split the stitches into two parts. Pull the needle completely through and repeat the process.hand embroidered monogram letters tutorial

The final work is as shown in the pattern, is it very delicate and beautiful?

the way of sewing letters on fabric by hand

Repeat the above steps until the entire work is completed.

best hand lettered embroidery font

Stem Stitch Fonts

Now we will introduce the last embroidering method – Stem stitch, whose stitching is screwy, just like a fried dough twist. The first stitch is the same as the first stitch of most basic sewing tasks; starting with the second stitch, it starts to become unique. You need to always embroider in the same direction, from left to right or from right to left. As you bypass the curve, you need to turn your hoop all the time to make sure you are embroidering your work in the right direction.

Although the pattern embroidered by stem stitch is nice, we must admit that it is constrained when embroidering the corner. So I suggest that when you encounter a corner, you’d better end this phase‘s embroidery and then take a stitch.

how to embroidery letters hand

Once again, repeat the above steps and you will get a complete embroidery work.

how to hand stitch letters onto fabric


Some Small Notes:

There are some things that you need to consider when you are hand embroidering.

  • Select the appropriate needle according to the fabric you want to embroider. Remember, the harder the material you want to embroider on, the firmer the needle you choose should be;
  • Every time you are embroidering a corner or a curve, you’d better use shorter stitches so that the embroidered work will be more refined.
  • Think about the pattern you will embroider in advance so that you won’t be confused when you embroider.

Conclusion

After reading today’s article, do you have a deeper understanding of the opponent’s embroidery? Don’t wait, start your embroidery journey now!

By the way, we prepared a small video relevant to hand lettering on fabric, and you can get a more intuitive tutorial.

Image Credit:

wanderingthreadsembroidery.com