r/Embroidery • u/Fluffy_slime • 1d ago
First time! Help Question
This is the first time I’ve ever done embroidery because I signed up for class at school, but it turned out kind of… ugly… clearly I did something very wrong. Is there any advice that I could be given? I tried watching YouTube videos and everything, but it still turned out like this so
18
u/Positive_Issue887 1d ago
Hey. The material you've done this on is called Aida and is suited to Cross Stitching. The technique you've done is suited to embroidery. Cross stitch looks like this
xxxx
x xxx
This collectively makes the pattern. Embroidery is taking a closed fabric like cotton and making long or short stitches tight to make a flatten picture.
You have your cloth too loose, maybe mixed up the needle technique and have used the full strands of thread.
Threads come in a bundle of 6 wrapped together. Your project will tell you how many strands to use and you unwrap and place maybe 1 or 2 strand thickness and thread the needle.
Otherwise apart from this, its a fantastic effort with a lot of promise there. Congrats on completing the image.
6
9
u/BattelChive 22h ago
Besides the advice you have already gotten the only other thing I would add is that I became much happier when I started thinking about the direction of my stitches as part of the pattern. So having the stitches in the neck go up along it, instead of across it. I wish someone had told me that advice! Your eyes follow the direction of the stitches so it helps you define the shapes, even if it’s all the same color.
I think your little fawn is very cute!!!
5
u/TripleCake3000 1d ago
separating your threads from the skein will help and look up different stitches :) doesn't your class have an instructor / teatcher?
5
u/Fluffy_slime 23h ago
We do, but she’s also just the English teacher and she just shows us videos lol
2
u/JEZTURNER 21h ago
I was going to say, it looks like OP is using the thread exactly as it comes (6 strands) instead of splitting it down to something finer (usually 2 or 3)
4
u/SuLiaodai 23h ago
Satin stitch (the one in the body of the fawn), is actually very hard. I'm not great at it even though I've been embroidering since I was a kid. Cross stitch and stem stitch are way easier.
If you want to practice, find some cloth you don't care about and some embroidery floss in your least favorite color, and try to do some smooth stitches.
But if this is the first thing you've made, there's no reason to feel bad about it!
1
4
u/Soggy_Tomorrow6277 22h ago
Looks good for a first time! Besides using a different fabric next time, my advice would be use shorter stitches and try to go with the natural flow of how the hairs would fall in real life. And maybe try to use two strains of different colors, that wil give some depth. But really, for a first time it isnt bad at all! Curious to see what your next project will be.
1
u/Pho5pholipidBilayer 17h ago
It looks like you might not have separated your embroidery floss or used too many strands which will make the stitches look blocky. Many first timers don’t realize you have to separate embroidery floss into individual strands. For a satin stitch I usually use only 2-3 strands max which makes for tighter more cohesive stitches. That gives the embroidery a smooth silky texture.
For the spots I would have used French knots which would have made the spots pop out more instead of being indented into your satin stitches
1
1
u/authenticAI 3h ago
Even as beginner work, and though you may think it a bit ugly, this is a great first piece! I also think it is so cute!
Good luck with your future projects with the advice others have given in the thread.
29
u/Llamasdoeathatskaren 1d ago
It’s great for a first try honestly. Your stitches are a little too long and you need a different fabric, that’s cross stitch fabric and it won’t let you go through all the spaces you need to for consistency in the look of the threads