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Tutorial: Hand Embroidered English Paper Piecing

January 31, 2018 4 Comments

HELLO!!!!

It's been so long since I've posted on my blog. I'm sure it's been feeling quite lonely and neglected. I have a lot of fantastic things in the works for 2018, and plan to use my blog to share them with you. I hope you'll come back soon, and be sure to sign up for my newsletter to find out when I add something new.

I have something super fun to share with you! I have always loved hand piecing and hand embroidery. When there's a chance to combine the two, my heart leaps for joy. A few years ago, my mom, the amazing Sharon Schamber, and I were playing with sewing some hexagons for English Paper Piecing with embroidery floss. We thought that maybe the whipstitch would look prettier with the floss. We discovered that sewing the hexagons from the front with the floss looked UH-MAZE-ING!!

I recently started on a new English Paper Piecing project and felt it really needed a little extra "sparkle", so I pulled out some of my favorite colors of Soie Perlee (like perle cotton, but made with gorgeous silk) and started sewing them together from the front with a combo of a whipstitch and a blanket stitch. Let me tell you - it looks fantastic! And it's a lot of fun ;).

I posted a picture on Instagram and Facebook and asked if anyone would be interested in a video tutorial. The feedback that you all gave me was an overwhelming YES. So, without further ado, here's my video showing you how to use hand embroidery for English Paper Piecing (scroll down a bit for the video). I've also listed the supplies I used with links where you can find them in my store.

Hand Embroidered English Paper Piecing Supplies:

Soie Perlee - I have it available in thread sets and indivdually
Milliners Needles for hand embroidery - I used size 8 in the video
Elmer's Washable School Glue Sticks
Art Gallery Fabrics - I used Fresh Water in the video

Hand Embroidered English Paper Piecing Video:

Happy Sewing!!

Lots of Love,
~Cristy

4 Responses

Teresa Atkinson

April 22, 2020

When I saw that my whipstitch was showing frequently on the front, I thought about using decorative thread. Didn’t like the look of that. This is so much better!

Pat Anderson

April 22, 2020

Very clever! If you have to stitch all those stitches, why not have them show and be pretty! Thanks!!

jeanne e.

September 02, 2018

what a cool idea! i have been doing epp for a while now and it never occurred to me to us a decorative stitch on the front! up until now, it has always been “how do i hide the stitches best?” thanks for sharing. :)

Sharon

February 15, 2018

What a great way to add some color and texture to EPP. I’m just starting a new project & will consider adding the embroidery. Thanks so much for the tutorial!

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