Embroidery is something I’ve been meaning to learn for a while. Aesthetically, it just appeals to me. I’m drawn to all things boho and folk art. Technically I learnt to embroider in elementary school. My mother still has an embroidered pillow I made in class to give to her as a present back then! Obviously, I forgot how to embroider in the twenty something years inbetween. The thought that I’d have to re-teach myself (with the help of the internet, of course) intimidated me. That’s why I’d put it off time and again. My Grandma taught me knitting, and my mother taught me sewing, but now I’d be on my own.

When I started flipping through “Der Hände Fleiß” (see the post above or click here) and admired the pictures of beautiful embroidery work in it, I felt inspired to just go for it. Obviously I wouldn’t start with intricate table cloths. Rico Design has a bunch of small, simple embroidery kits with printed lines that seemed like a good starting point. I chose the “Strawberry Wreath” kit because it seemed fitting for the beginning of spring. It comes with the pre-printed wreath design, a hoop, an embroidery needle and the necessary embroidery threads.

Starting Simple

That just left figuring out how to actually embroider. The instructions enclosed in the kit presume you already know the basics of embroidery, which I did not. Cue me frantically googling what a stem stitch is and how to best split the threads! Thank God there’s a wealth of information out there for every craft you can think of and more. I used this tutorial in German, but I’m sure you can find helpful videos and posts in every language:

After I had acquired a faint understanding what I was actually supposed to do, I was soon slowly and carefully stemstitching away. I started with the green line that forms a circle because I figured it’d be an easy enough introduction to this whole embroidery thing. Honestly, I was pretty stoked when I finished the my green line! I guess I was officially hooked on this new hobby.

Embroidery Progress

I’ve worked on the wreath bit by bit over the past week. It isn’t easy to learn a new craft, especially if you have a tendency to expect perfection from yourself from the start. I’ve already made some mistakes and ripped a few threads, to say nothing of the mess that is the back of this hoop. No, I won’t show it! I have a hard enough time to convince myself that it’s okay if a beginner’s project looks like a beginner made it. On the bright side, I can’t wait to start on the cute little strawberries! I’ve saved them for later to keep up my motivation.