Review: Creative Embroidery and Beyond by Jenny Billingham, Sophie Timms, Theresa Wensing (Non-fiction, 8/10E)

 

                     June 2023, Walter Foster Publishing, 144 pages, Paperback, Review copy 

Book Summary from Quarto 

 Practice the mindful art of hand embroidery with 18 gorgeous projects you can use to create home decor, upcycled clothing, and personalized gifts.

Creative Embroidery & Beyond expands on the best-selling Creative...and Beyond series, which includes Creative Lettering & Beyond, to focus on one of the most popular crafting methods out there: embroidery. In this visually stunning book that presents hand sewing as accessible and fun, three talented, on-trend artists—Jenny Billingham (@flynn_and_mabel), Theresa Wensing (@get.stitch.done), and Sophie Timms (@mindfulmantra_embroidery)—each present six designs. They are ideal for embroiderers of all skill levels, from total beginners to more advanced. You will find:
 

• Step-by-step embroidery projects featuring flowers, animals, insects, and more
• Instructions for how to embroider on denim, hats, and t-shirts
• Primers on essential stitches, including whipstitch and satin stitch
• Information on embroidery tools and how to use them
• Advice for threads and brands to use
• And so much more

Embroidery is a fun, accessible art medium that’s proven relaxing and mindful for millions of crafters around the world. Make your own embroidered gifts and more with Creative Embroidery & Beyond.

Nayu's thoughts

I've been doing cross stitch, a form of embroidery, since I was 7 or 8 years old, yet it's only in the past 2 years I've started to dabble in what I call 'proper' embroidery, every stitch that isn't cross stitch. It meant that the request to review Creative Embroidery & Beyond was well received and I was delighted to check out the book. There are so many beautiful designs, mostly what I call classical looking embroidery style but used in interesting ways (such as on clothing and household items). I had never thought of using fabric pen to colour in the centre of a design instead of stitching it, something I may try in the future. I liked most of the designs which made choosing just one a little tricky In the end I opted for Cup of Planets by Theresa Wensing. 

 

Design in the book

As you can see it is a beautiful pattern...however I'm not mad about hands so I removed them. I needed some fabric so I decided to put the design onto a spare hijab I had. Let's bypass the unorthodox methods I used to get the pattern onto the headscarf, here is it on me. 

 

And here it is as a full hijab. 

 Now, while the book does do some diagrams for most stitches, there was one stitch, reverse chain stitch, which was not explained in the book so I had to Google it as I had no clue how to do it. Given how many other stitches are explained I felt this was a bit of a let down as beginners will not have a full library of stitches in their heads. I also had to watch some videos of the stitches that were given diagrams, whipped backstitch,  as I didn't fully understand exactly how to do it from the diagram which used a really dark thread which is not the best for when stitches are displayed. Again this was a bit of a let down as I had expected the book to explain all the stitches required for every pattern. 

Stitch explanation aside the pattern was a delight to work. I didn't use the recommended 6 threads for the french knots so had to do many more than the pattern indicates, but I rather like French knots so I didn't mind. Please ignore the pink planet: again I didn't do the recommend number of threads for the planet rings, so I unpicked it but it wasn't easy to unpick, resulted in holes and um yes moving on from that! 

I love how the planets turned out overall, I made do with what thread I had, whch is why the green dots are green rather than white, so I like to think of them as little aliens floating around space. I loved doing whipped backstitch, it gives a pretty looking effect on the cups. 

Apart from not having all the stitches explained in the book, or explained clearly enough for a beginner, this book is full of great designs to use. I'm already eager to use some planets on the bottom border on my hijabs, as well as some of the flower designs as they would look good since they are mostly plain. I like how Creative Embroidery & Beyond sparked my interest in using embroidery on clothes I own to make them unique, and will share my progress as I slowly do more.