by: Jaylyn R. and Maia G.
In this article, Jaylyn and Maia will walk through their favorite DIY activities.
How to Embroider
Materials:
-Embroidery Floss
-Needle
-Scissors
-Measuring Tape
-A piece of clothing, or anything you want to embroider
Have you ever wanted to customize you wardrobe, or spruce up your backpack? Embroidery is a great way to do that! You may be thinking “What is embroidery?” or “How do I do that?”, and that I’m going to tell you. Embroidery is when you use a thread called embroidery floss to create a design by weaving thread in and out of a piece of clothing or fabric. This thread has 6 individual, and very small pieces of thread combined, but a lot of the time people split the thread in half, or remove some amount of the small threads. This helps when you fold the thread in half, so it isn’t to thick. Today I will be showing you two different stiches that will brighten up your style.
Running Stitch: This stitch looks a little bit like dotted line, and is pretty to learn. Every time you embroider, you should probably draw your design with a washable fabric marker, or lightly with a pencil. To start this stitch off, you are going to split your embroidery floss in half like we mentioned earlier. This can be any length, depending on what you are embroidering. Now, cut the floss off the roll, and the needle. Make sure it is doubled up, or folded in half, and tie a knot at
the bottom. You are now ready to start embroidering! First, grab your material, or what you are embroidering. Then, stick you needle in, from the inside of the material, at the beginning of the design you created. Now with your needle choose a point to put it back in. This point should be about ½ of a cm away from the starting point, stick you needle into the place you choose and now it should be on the inside or back of your material. Like you did with you last stitch, stick your needle the front about ½ of a cm away from where it just came through the fabric. Continue to weave your needle from the front to the back until you have finished you design. Finally, to finish off, stick your needle into the front, so it ends up on the back. Now, tie a simple knot and make sure it will block the embroidery from unraveling. If it doesn’t prevent this from happening, double or triple know it to make sure the design will stay in place. And now, you done!
Split Stitch: This one is a little more complicated, but you can handle it. It’s exactly how it sounds, you split between the threads of your previous stitch. Like we did in the last stitch you are going to split the floss in half, thread it through the needle, and tie a knot at the bottom. Now, stick your needle into the back so it ends up on the front. Next, also like we did one our previous design, insert you needle through the material about half a cm. from where you originally came through. This is where it gets a little tricky. On the inside, or back, look for the knot that blocks the thread from coming through, and the point where you just came through the fabric. Stick your needle through, between these two points. Make sure that the needle splits through the thread on the first stitch. Now, with your thread through the previous fabric, about ½ a cm. from where it is right now. Continue to do this pattern until you complete your design and tie a knot like the one in the running stitch.
This is a great way to learn some new skills that you use to teach others, spruce up your own style, or even to solve boredom! Hope you liked this, and if you need some more information on how to do these, and other stitches, go to this link.
Crocheting 101: Get Your Hook On!
During the pandemic, thousands of people have been taking up crocheting. You may have seen a crochet video come up on your recommendations for YouTube. Crocheting has even made its way to TikTok and Instagram. It’s given different people hobbies, jobs, and entertainment during quarantine. Crocheting is so fun because you can create so many different things. It requires a lot of time, patience, and practice. It’s the perfect activity to do when you are killing time in quarantine. I’ve crocheted for about 6 months, and I’m still learning. However, my skills have gotten a lot better. Yours will too! You just need to practice, and everything will be ok.
To crochet, you’ll need a crochet hook. You’ll also need yarn, scissors, a yarn needle, and basic sewing by hand skills. I will put links to the hooks I use at the end of the article. Then, you’ll need to learn some basic stitches. I won’t be able to teach you stitches because that would take pages and pages. However, links to tutorials will also be at the bottom of the article.
Now that you know what you need to crochet, I’ll be sharing tips and tricks that I’ve picked up.
- Practice, practice, practice! If you want to be good at something, you definitely need to practice. You won’t grasp anything if you don’t try or even practice. Oh, did I mention that you need to practice?
- Read the instructions and watch tutorials all the way until the end. I’ve made this rookie mistake before and it still terrorizes me. Just don’t skip any sections of the video, even if it’s long. I know it’s hard, but it’ll be so rewarding in the end.
- Make sure you have all the materials before starting a project. Running out of yarn is my biggest fear, and most likely will become one of yours. Buy all the yarn you need, and extra. You may mess up, and that’s just fine.
- Have fun! Crocheting is supposed to be fun and relaxing. Even though you can’t run off and do whatever you want during the first months, try to enjoy it.
Finally, here are my favorite crochet YouTube channel and resources!
Well, what are you waiting for? Get your hook on!
