Embroidery on clothes: a personal way to decorate, repair and tell stories
Embroidery is one of the loveliest ways to decorate our clothes. It can be subtle or eye-catching, simple or detailed, but no matter the style, embroidery always adds something personal. It makes a garment feel special.
I love all kinds of embroidery. It does not have to be perfect, neat or planned down to the very last stitch. In fact, I often embroider quite intuitively. I begin with an idea, and then I just go with the flow and see where it takes me. I never really learned how to embroider. Well, perhaps a little cross-stitch from my grandmother back in the 1990s, but apart from that, embroidery is something I have taught myself. I have watched videos on YouTube, looked through books and experimented. And that is one of the things I love most about embroidery: you are allowed to try things out, it is a playground.
This hand embroidery was something I made during the covid lockdowns. I stitched it onto an old shirt because I wanted to cover a stain on the front. Instead of throwing the shirt away, or letting the stain bother me, I chose to decorate over it.
“…you are allowed
to
try things out,
it
is a playground”
That is one of the beautiful things about handwork. We can repair, extend the life of our clothes and make them even more personal at the same time.
Since then, I have received so many comments on the embroidered hand. I have also repeated the motif on the back of another garment, this time with a small variation where the hands reach towards each other. I made it on one of my favourite sewing patterns No. 27 Berlin
Perhaps you would like to try decorating your own clothes with a beautiful hand. That is why I have made a small template for you to print, along with a list of the things you will need.
The embroidery is made using a technique called couching stitch. It may look advanced, but it is actually very simple. Yo simply stitch the ribbon in place by making small stitches across it. I have also found a lovely guide from RSN Stitch Bank, one of my favourite embroidery resources:
https://rsnstitchbank.org/stitch/couching-stitch
You can use the embroidery to cover a stain, mend a hole or simply add a little poetry to a piece of clothing. Perhaps on a shirt pocket, the front of a blouse, the back of a garment, a sleeve or the hem of a skirt. I hope it inspires you to try. And please share it with me if you use the template to decorate one of your garments. Send me an email, or tag me on social media.
I would love to see where your hand ends up.
L O V E
Nanna