Basic Embroidery Stitches

The art of embroidery is old but still widely practiced today. The best way to start learning is to acquire basic embroidery stitches skills. Five basic embroidery stitches are: splitstitch, stemstitch, backstitch, chainstitch, and couching.

The backstitch is one of the five basic embroidery stitches. It is in an encircling manner where the thread wraps around the fabric during stitching, sometimes going through the same hole twice. It is easy to learn, as you just need to make sure the space between the holes are even and the amount of thread used is sufficient. Backstitches are good for blankets and clothes where edges need to be done. The splitstitch and stemstitch are two kinds of backstitches. With splitstitches, the needle pierces the thread as it comes up through the back of the fabric, splitting the thread.

If you want to do decorative stitching rather than constructive stitching, look at instructions on how to do a chainstitch. Instructions are likely to be found in basic embroidery stitches books or websites. The chain stitch is a series of loop stitches that form a chain.

Couching is a complicated form of basic embroidery stitches. It requires two sets of threads where one set attaches the other set to the fabric. The one that is being attached has to be thicker or heavier than the one that binds the thread and the fabric together. Couching is a method, and it has some specific styles, of which some are: Pendant couching, Bokhara couching, square laid work, Oriental couching, and Battlement couching.

It is highly recommended that a beginner learns how to do a backstitch, which is the most basic embroidery stitches, first before learning the rest.

E-Bay has great embroidery patterns and guides available, be sure to look for sellers with 100% positive feedback or a "power seller".  Read the feedback to be sure you want to do business with that seller before bidding.  Here are a few embroidery stitch items on E-bay: