Embroidery Tutorial: 3 Basic Freestyle Embroidery Techniques

Get into freestyle embroidery with Andrea Orue’s three essential techniques for beginners

The ancient art of embroidery has been passed down from generation to generation since time began. It all started with a stitch... or perhaps a few stitches.

Andrea Orue (@primaverade83) is the woman behind Primavera de 83, the brand with legions of social media followers. She is a freestyle embroidery specialist. This tutorial teaches you her key steps to start creating gorgeous embroidery.

Discover her tips in the video!

3 basic steps to start embroidering

1. Insert your fabric in the frame and sketch out your design

Unscrew the frame so that it opens and you can insert the fabric between the hoops. Check the hoop with the fastening is on top.

Then use a heat-sensitive pen to draw the designs you want to embroider.

2. Start embroidering

Push the needle through from beneath the fabric and create a straight stitch to connect the far ends of your design.

Repeat the same movement from to the right and left of your initial stitch, making sure you always come back through the same hole at the bottom.

It’s best to use backstitch for straight shapes: insert the needle ahead of yourself and then come back to fill in the gap with thread.

3. Fasten off

Insert the thread behind the stitches and tie a knot to finish. Now use an iron to remove your heat-sensitive ink sketch.

Trim any excess fabric, making sure you leave a margin of about 1 cm around your design. Then go around the edges of your fabric with white glue to finish the hoop.

Love these tips? Learn the basic stitches you need to do freestyle embroidery, and create an artistic design that unites your hands, mind and heart in Andrea Orue’s online course: Portrait Embroidery with Botanical Elements.

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