Fabric for Embroidery

[natalielowen]

So I was thinking I would like to do some embroidery. What kind of fabric do people use for this? How heavy should it be? Is there anything to avoid (stretch I assume)? If you are embroidering fabric onto a base should they be the same type of fabric or does it not matter?

Thanks for any help.

[blackmageheart]

As far as I know, you can embroider on anything. But if you're starting out, perhaps just some plain cotton or linen would be best? I remember learning embroidery when I was young and only using cream cotton for the longest time!

[Eliste]

What kind of fabric do people use for this?

Usually linens, cottons, sack cloth, wool, leather. Almost anything can be embroidered on.

How heavy should it be

There's no particular weight it has to be, but your choice of needles, threads and how much care you have to take is dependent on what you're using. For instance, if you choose to embroider on chiffon, you're probably best transferring embroidery to it and you have to be very careful about how it will hang and not letting it get too heavy for the fabric. Whereas with heavier weights you can do pretty much anything with it, including not bothering with a hoop/frame.

Is there anything to avoid (stretch I assume)?

You can do stretch, but I'd suggest not doing it with that for your first few embroidery projects. You have to be careful about tension and not stretching things and that's hassle you don't need starting out.

I'd suggest linen or cotton to start with as it's consistent, takes thread well, and washes easy. Make sure what you use has an even weave. Laminates aren't easy options either.

If you are embroidering fabric onto a base should they be the same type of fabric or does it not matter?

If you're transferring embroidery, it doesn't really matter. By that I mean doing the embroidery on one piece, cutting it and stitching it down. You can use just about anything then.

One of the big things about embroidery is making sure its not puckering the fabric once it's finished. You need to make sure your fabric has good tension throughout the process. This is way more important than it is for cross stitch. If you don't have good, consistent tension, it's possible that your stitches will be too loose or too tight once the fabric has normal tension again. This is why transferring is a good option if you're not sure of your technique. It avoids a lot of those pitfalls.

[natalielowen]

Thanks for the info! I don't want to get annoyed with a new craft and then not get into it. Any suggestions for books or ideas for stitches other than the basics?

[Eliste]

Actually, rather than investing in a book just to learn it, I'd suggest just going to read needlenthread.com

She has free patterns, free video instructions, and is terribly nice and will answer questions if you have em.

[Siva]

I actually used needleandthread.com to learn how to embroider last year, and I found their stitch library extremely useful. I reccomend using an evenweave fabric when starting out, it helps keep the stitches more uniform when learning, especially for the satin stitch. For patterns I have found http://www.urbanthreads.com to be a great resource, they have a wide variety of styles and most are pretty simple (but you can choose different stitches to make them complex).