Do you want to make your fabric more beautiful and stylish? You can do this using the embroidery thread, but embroidery with yarn spices up the beauty better than the thread.
Today, we’re going to learn how to embroider with yarn.
Trust me; you’ll have a good time reading this post as we discuss how to embroider with yarn, the benefits that will attract you, and the best types of yarn just for you.
Can You Embroider With Yarn?
Yes, you can. However, a yarn with good tensile strength is required to prevent it from breaking, and a loosely woven fabric that can hold the yarn’s thickness.
Embroidery with yarn is called “Crewel,” a name extracted from a type of yarn known as Krua, which means wool.
Embroidery is done by hand stitching and is ideal for a novice who is newly into needle crafting. It is the craft of fabric decorations using a needle to apply the yarn or thread.
What Are The Types Of Embroidery Processes?
There are two types of embroidery processes: hand and machine embroidery. Hand embroidery uses needles and yarn or thread to stitch designs by hand onto your fabrics, textiles, or other materials. In contrast, Machine embroidery is the computer-generated process of sewing to create patterns on your fabrics, textiles, or other materials using the sewing machine or embroidery machine.
Machine embroidery makes your patterns more professional with uniformity in stitches, unlike hand embroidery, which is, however, the most common, and that is what I prefer to do often as well.
What Benefits Do You Get From Embroidery With Yarn?
Do you want to know what you get to benefit from embroidery with yarn? Do not be in a hurry. Kindly come with me slowly as I unveil these benefits.
Like I said earlier, I prefer hand embroidery, which I recommend for you too.
Hand embroidery,y also known as “surface embroidery,” is one of the most common forms or types of embroidery. It is the art of embellishing your items, fabrics, textiles, or other materials with embroidery stitches (there are plenty of these stitches, and keep up and get notified on the next article).
Embroidery with yarn using the hand embroidery process has many benefits, classified into two categories: mental and physical health benefits and crafting benefits.
1. It Alleviates Stress and Anxiety
Are you going through stress and anxiety? Then, embroidery is an excellent therapeutic solution to get you out of that state. Embroidery releases “Serotonin and Dopamine hormones” – a neurotransmitter that makes one happy and promotes well-being.
The act of embroidery is a form of deep focus which helps to forget about worries, stress, and anxiety and reduces the stress hormones.
In addition to that, the use of colors helps to reduce stress and anxiety as well. Soft and neutral colors are widely known to help people relax. It aids Self-expression
You overcome emotional barriers when you allow yourself to express how you feel. It gives you the privilege to communicate your feelings via various parts of your brain, which is ideal for helping loosen the mental grip on your emotions, unlike when you communicate via words.
2. It boosts confidence
When you allow yourself the strength to tackle your work, irrespective of the result, getting there boosts your confidence.
When you have completed work, it helps to generate a feeling of success and achievement, which helps to boost confidence. Embroidery comes with an unfolding pattern of having one stitch at a go, and each stitch helps to remind you of having control of whatever you’re set to do.
3. It lowers blood pressure and reduces the heart rate
Embroidery helps to calm the mind and minimizes stress; this is an ideal way to fight depression. However, the Home Sewing Association conducted a study, and the result was that people who are into cross-stitching enjoy physiological changes. The decrease in blood pressure and heart rate is one of them.
It helps to take one’s mind off other things and focus on the task. For your very own body, embroidery is relaxing!
4. It quickens recovery and heals the brain.
Besides stress, embroidery also helps fight addiction and unhealthy behaviors and heal the brain of damage or injury. It stimulates the brain and allows it to form pathways that repair the damage.
It also activates neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to modify, change and adapt to structure and function in life and response to experiences; just like stroke victims, embroidery helps them to heal.
5. It helps to gain control over your body and visual perception
When you get hold of paint on a paintbrush, it allows you to gain control of your hands and fingers, which reflects in other life skills and activities.
It also helps to improve the eye-coordination and helps to demore vital visual perception skills – the ability to identify the environment through the eyes.
6. It is an environmentally friendly (eco-friendly) hobby
The materials or fabric used are eco-friendly. They contain no chemicals or toxins, which makes them harmless. However, Hand embroidery requires no electricity, gas, or water consumption. It is an ideal recommendation that you should learn hand embroidery!
7. It is unique and distinctive.
Embroidery has become versatile because of its uniqueness. An embroidery design is always based on your preference. Whether you’re the embroiderer (the creator) or a customer, there’s often the opportunity to have your personality reflected on your items, which has a high market value.
8. It helps to advertise and promote your business.
An embroidered item is an ideal and easy business strategy that helps to promote your business. It can serve as a gift or souvenir for families, friends, partners, customers, clients, employees, and team members. It can as well help build good relationships.
9. It is durable
Embroidered materials or items are durable because they are made to withstand high temperatures and are heavy-laundering resistant. Apparels that are embroidered are easy to wash.
The stitches are sturdy, so the designs do not get damaged or tear. The sewing and knitting process also helps to retain colors.
10. It is attractive
Embroided items or apparels are of high-quality and different varieties of colors, which creates a significant and memorable first impression because they are eye-catching.
Embroidered designs are perfect because they have professional looks and a professional appearance.
What Materials Do You Need For Embroidery With Yarn?
Now that you know the benefits you derive, let’s go through the material list of items needed for your yarn embroidery. Hand-embroidery doesn’t cost much (not expensive)
| MATERIALS FOR EMBROIDERY WITH YARN | |
| Pattern or Drawing | A fabric, material or item |
| A pen, pencil or marker | Assorted color of ply wool yarn (depends on choice and project ype) |
| A tracing paper | An embroidery hoop or frame |
| A crewel or embroidery needle | A visualizing template |
| Scissors | Light Source (if you’re working at night) |
What Are The Best Yarns To Use?
There are various types of yarn or thread in the market, but we shall first discuss the major and common ones: wool, cotton, and silk.
1. Cotton Embroidery (Stranded Cotton/Embroidery Floss)
Cotton embroidery is the most popular and preferred choice in embroidery work. It is a fine thread that comes in skeins of 6 strands which can be used as whole or divisible, which, however, depends on the work effect or work material. Each of the threads has two smaller plies that are softly twisted together.
You will use a strand each on your needle for presentable work and lines. Note this: if it is a needle painting, it requires one strand; if it is a cross-stitch, you use two strands; and if it is a needlepoint, the full strands of 6 are required.
2. Pearl Cotton (Perle Cotton)
This is a non-divisible thread that is much heavier than a strand of cotton thread, and line stitches sit higher on fabrics or materials.
It is a single strand of two fibers or piles twisted together and should not be divided or separated. It is of four sizes or weights: #3, which is the heaviest; #5, #8, and #12, which is the finest.
3. Crewel Yarn (Wool Yarn)
This is a 2-ply acrylic or fine natural wool. Like other embroidery threads, the wool is threaded on the needle to give textures to materials or fabrics that require thickness, as just one strand is as thick as two strands of cotton thread.
4. Paternayan Persian Yarn (Persian Wool)
This comprises 3-strands with two piles each and a loose twist. Its thickness can be fit to the size of the canvas and the stitches by increasing or decreasing the number of strands. The plies are, however, not generally separated.
5. Tapestry Wool
This is a 4-ply non-divisible wool twisted into 1 thread. It is a thick and smooth yarn, making it easier to handle and stitch. It is, however, durable and colorfast.
6. Silk Yarn
This is a heavy yarn. It is available in various attractive shades and often used in fine embroidery, but they bleed i.e. the colors get extracted from the material and fade very quickly.
However, combining the above will go well for dimensional and textured surface designs.
Conclusion
Embroidery is one thing I love doing, especially with my hands, as it keeps me busy and my mind focused on just one thing leaving aside stress and anxiety.
I hope this article has inspired and motivated you to save yourself from mental and physical health challenges.
Are you ready? Of course, you are. Get yourself a needle, and yarns, and get to work now!