Embroidery is the art of embellishing fabric with designs that are sewed with strands of thread or yarn using a needle. Embroidery makes use of other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills and sequins as a means of further ornamenting a fabric. There are several classifications of embroidery deigns.

Embroidery design can be classified according to the basic foundation fabric used by the embroiderer. For example, free embroidery is one design where stitches are made without taking into account t the knit of the basic fabric. Crewel embroidery and traditional Chinese embroidery are in this category.

Palestinian embroidery design requires one stitch after another in succession with tremendous skill and accuracy. It takes a lot of free time and patience, always with an eye of the final product. Its like building a house, as the embroiderer has to take time to make the stitches, and it is not complete until the last stitch is embroidered.

Probably the most elaborate and wearying form of embroidery is the Zardosi workmanship that originated in India. It uses metal thread instead of the customary silk or rayon. The fabric which is usually silk or velvet is marked with the pattern and then the artist covers the pattern with metal thread embellishing it with stonework beads. Another form of embroidery is the Ari work — also form India. This work is done by stretching the fabric on a frame and creating the stitches with a needle. The needle also carries tinsels, beads and other trimmings to decorate the pattern. India is a country rich in embroidery with almost seventy two forms of embroidery unique to every region.

Many new home embroidery machine owners have to learn on their own with little instructions and thus have to resort to the “trial and error” methods to get satisfactory results. One can certainly learn to embroidery this way but it takes time, money and patience. I have found that one gets better embroidery results consistently in direct proportion to using the right methods and good supplies and eliminating all unknown variables that may cause a problem. The key is to consistently use good embroidery products that won’t cause problems with quality embroidery designs.

The problem is to know what the bad variables are, and how to eliminate them. Here is an example of what I am saying – for this example, we will assume that your embroidery machine is in good working order, that you have learned the embroidery basics and are using the correct embroidery stabilizer methods and have good quality polyester embroidery thread and stabilizers. So you sew out a design and the results aren’t too bad, an outline that is off a little and there are a few parts that don’t line up exactly. So what now? Do you add stabilizer or adjust the tension or just settle for good enough? If you knew that all was right, as we assumed, then you would know that it was an embroidery design problem – because we eliminated all the other variables for our trial. With one variable, it is easy to know and correct the problem, with two it is much harder and with three or more it is very difficult to get the right combination for good results.

There are a lot of lessons about many embroidery subjects available on our web site and even some free tutorials to download.

Terry Carter is the webmaster and author of embroidery articles at

embroidery designs by Thread Artist. He has an article about embroidery software for digitizing and lettering fonts at embroidery software. There is free embroidery digitizing Tutorial at this web address – embroidery by Thread Artists. You can email Terry at this address – ThreadArtist@qx.net

Many new to embroidery have experienced numerous problems because of the inferior quality of free embroidery design files that they downloaded over the internet. One of the biggest mistakes that many new sewists make is using free designs patterns that have problems built in. Even if you are lucky enough to do everything else right and use inferior designs, results will probably not be good. Many of the free embroidery designs files that one can download are the first efforts of someone that has just begun to digitize and thus are not very well made. Many new to this great hobby use these because they are free and easy to download without using a credit card, but this is where the trouble begins. Then when outlines are off or there are gaps in the sewing and poor results are evident, how does one know where the problem lies? Is it the designs or the stabilizers or even worst – Can it be the new embroidery machine? We have a test so one can determine if the design is at fault or if the stabilizer is the problem. We make available free designs, free sewing lessons, free thread color charts and info that you may need to learn so you can get great results with your embroidery designs projects.

There is a big difference in the way embroidery designs patterns sew out because of how the designs files were digitized. All designs should have a foundation, underlayment stitches that sews before the design itself, to help stabilize the fabric. These underlayment stitches are put in so that the stitches on top have a minimum stretching effect on the fabric, so stabilizing will be easier. – this takes careful planning as one needs to know what top stitches are needed to make the design and what stretching effect this will have on the finished design pattern and fabric. The goal is to put the underlayment in so that the thread art designs on top will have no or very little effect on the fabric. (no puckering, no cupping or off outlines or miss-aligned parts) Without proper underlayment, it is almost impossible for a design to sew out well, even with the best of stabilizing. Another important consideration for sewing ease is thread changes and jump stitches. Skill and careful planning is necessary to eliminate all unnecessary jump stitches and thread changes. So choose your embroidery designs well and avoid the disappointment and frustrations of trying to use poor designs. Even free designs can cost a lot more in time, garments, frustrations and disappointment that a purchased quality one – there really is no comparison in the pleasure you will have while sewing quality embroidery designs patterns.

Terry Carter is the webmaster and author of embroidery articles at
embroidery designs by Thread Artist. He has an article about embroidery software for digitizing and lettering fonts
at embroidery software. There is free embroidery digitizing Tutorial at this web address – embroidery by Thread Artists. You can email Terry at this address – ThreadArtist@qx.net