Cover Image: How to Embroider Almost Everything

How to Embroider Almost Everything

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Member Reviews

How to Embroider Almost Everything by Wendi Gratz

A Sourcebook of 500+ Modern Motifs + Easy Stitch Tutorials - Learn to Draw with Thread!

This book has hundreds of ideas for anyone interested in embroidering something unique. Perhaps you want to decorate a pair of jeans or a dishtowel or a handkerchief or baby outfit. Simple line drawings are turned into interesting stitched creations that can embellish any fabric from stretchy to fine to heavy.

This book took me back to times my mother would drive us to snow ski then sit in the lodge stitching fabric to pass the time and then later she and I embroidered a pair of bell bottom jeans and a work shirt with mushrooms, mice, flowers and more.

Stitchery and handcrafts are not as often seen as they once were and this book could easily be used to teach young girls to stitch as part of a badge for scouts or just for fun on a rainy day.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Quarry Press for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4-5 Stars

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This book is such fun, with lots and lots of simple designs ready to be transferred to garments, gifts, or everything, and then stitched. The book illustrates 6 simple stitches - straight stitch, cross stitch, backstitch (with simple variations), lazy/chain stitch, French knot and satin stitch, that can be used to embroider the designs. They are categories including succulents, animals, space, cars, alphabet, trees, fish and so very much more. A lovely book for some very pretty, easy embroidery works. One can do lots or just one -whichever it will be guaranteed to be a winner.

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This is a pretty comprehensive guide to embroidery, and includes sample designs as well as stitch instructions. The images are cute but feel a little generic, like clip art, but are a good, easy place to start. I don't know how well they would appeal to an experienced embroidery enthusiast, especially when the book mentions printing out designs and how easy embroidery can adapt to images you pick up yourself. The stock images aren't really the draw, although they are perfectly serviceable for projects. Instead, I was interested in the more modern approach to image transfers and techniques the book delves into. I use erasing markers that sometimes refuse to erase and sometimes I resort to miserable tracing at a window which is terrible for complicated pieces. There is the tactic of printing on fabric with a printer and some ironed freezer paper that I resort to too, which still is too much effort for too little result. I was really interested in the pattern transfer stabilizer the book mentions, as I haven't heard about it before and it sounds really uncomplicated. I was impressed that the older methods are mentioned, as well as something new that I had no idea about. The book really does give the impression that indeed almost everything can be embroidered and shows how to do it well, making the clip artish images seem unimportant to the overall enjoyment of the book.

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This is such a lovely and beautiful book. These designs are so unique easy to recreate.
This is perfect for beginners, all the stitches used are explained in detail and are simple.
Even as an experienced embroider myself I did appreciate the numerous tips and learned new things.

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This book stands out because it offers more than 500 stitch motifs based on sketches. From flowers and insects to fairies, unicorns, monsters and snowflakes.

Materials and fabrics are explained, as well as basic stitches and trouble shooting.

I had to laugh at the first part of the book, I carry my embroidery kit in an old Altoids tin, too.

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This book provides a huge range of images, from people and animals, to buildings and flora. Also included are simple borders and an alphabet. I appreciate that it provides you with everything needed to create lovely embroidered designs, including instructions and advice on fabric, basic stitches and more.

I have not yet used the designs, but I plan on embroidering a hoop using the dinosaur images because they are so sweet! Although, my favourite design was the jellyfish.

I only wish that some final designs were also given, laid out as to how you would decorate a hoop. I'm not great at envisioning final products, so I would have liked to see the combinations of borders and designs together in a completed layout.

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There are 126 pages in this book, minus the credits and ISBN stuff. 25 of them are about materials and how to sew.

Thankfully the rest of the book is very cute and informative, there are some lovely things to embroider especially the space creatures and the dinosaurs. They do all use one kind of thread which the author tells us is DMC6 strand but I suppose you could use a different type if you didn’t have access to that.


Cute and fun, I think the designs look easy as well as would work for beginners as well as the more advanced and, despite my annoyance at the Materials section it did give some handy hints on transferring your designs.

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How To Embroider Almost Everything is going to be a really useful book in my craft book collection, one that I’m sure I’ll use often. This book would be great for beginners or even more advanced embroiders. The layout is great, it’s easy to follow and it has A LOT of stitch patterns! I would definitely recommend!

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I loved this fun book. I’ve just started embroidery and I loved the easy quirky designs which would be useful in many creations.

I loved the illustrations which included a outline of each design along with a colour finished project with thread suggestions.

I definitely want to put this little book on my Christmas wish list , it will be a great reference book to hopefully progress my embroidery skills . Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for my chance to read this lovely book.

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I have been looking for an embroidery book for a long time that has patterns in it that I would actually use. This book is what I have been looking for! These patterns are practical and easy for a beginner to use plus it describes how to do all the stitches that you would need to do the patterns with.

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I think this book would be great for beginners! It is very straightforward and helpful on how to get started.

The patterns and illustrations are very simple and do not require any difficult stitches. The book doesn't lie - she provides patterns for lots of items (almost everything!)

However, I think for the more experienced embroiderer, this book would not be for them.

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Absolutely amazing! I loved every minute of it. It was so informative yet fun. As someone who loves to embroider, it taught me things even I didn't know. Great job. 5/5 stars

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What an awesome resource!! As someone who has been wanting to learn to embroider, this book was extremely helpful in this process. I love how the pictures and explanations make the new learner feel like they can accomplish learning how to embroider.

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I must admit I expected something else from this book. I thought it was going to be about embroidery in different kind of materials, like paper, for example. But it actually was about different shapes and objects. Which is not something bad, just not what I was looking forward to when I requested the book. I highly recommend this book for people who want to lear embroidery but are afraid by the different stitches. In this book you have the basic stitches well explained and there's A LOT of different templates so you can embroider different motifs on blankets, pillow cases, and so on. It's a really good book if you want to start trying your hand at embroidery and has very diverse patterns.

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This book is full of easy to follow instructions and many cute patterns to help you learn to embroider.

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This was a fantastic book! Very easy to follow instructions with clear pictures to walk you through things step by step. There were also lots of very cute examples and patterns to help get you started. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking to get started embroidering and is looking for simple and easy instructions and inspiration.

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Just got started in embroidery and am always looking around for cute doodles that I can turn into stitch art. This book looks perfect for that. Lots of variety (animals, plants, pirates, space) and easy shapes that still come out nicely. Some good tips for beginners at the front end of the book as well!


I received this book in exchange for a free review, but all opinions are my own.

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This book has an abundance of cute whimsical doodles turned stitches. The layout is pretty simplistic.
There is a very short section with a few basic stitch examples ( a very small section, making this more of an inspiration book over instruction) This makes the book more appealing for seasoned crafters because most of the space is dedicated to ideas rather than a re-hashing of technical stuff. There is enough info on the basic stitches, and it may be all that is needed for the ideas in the book.

Each page of examples is followed by a black and white page with the designs. This allows you to copy exactly or use as inspiration and do your own thing! The book includes examples of techniques the author uses to transfer designs but many are simple enough to freehand with a water soluble pencil if you are a doodler. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a digital ARC to review.

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I received a free digital advanced review copy through NetGalley. A comprehensive, visually appealing, and easy to follow guide.

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This is a perfect beginner book for anyone wanting to start embroidering their own designs. The projects consist of simple pictures based on a subject and there is a good variety of ideas mainly in a fun simple style. It is a very inviting book and will encourage lots of people to have a go. Different stitches and methods are introduced but all the designs and ideas can so easily be adapted or added to. I think this is an excellent resource that makes embroidery accessible.

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