Ribbon Embroidery Stitch Guide • If there are stitches you have never done before you may like to practice them first. • You will get a much better tension on your stitches if you work with an embroidery hoop. Use a hoop larger than the image area for ribbon embroidery as pushing a hoop over the stitched areas can spoil them. • If you are left handed a good tip is to photocopy the stitch diagram onto tracing paper and turn the paper over - this makes it the right way round for you. • To begin you can either tie a small knot at the end of your ribbon or leave a short tail at the back of the work which can be carefully stitched to the back of the work using a fine needle and cotton. • To finish off your ribbon you can either weave your needle over and under a few stitches on the back of your work, taking great care not to pull on the existing stitching, or leave a tail of ribbon and stitch it to the back of your work. • When the ribbon is pulled through the fabric note how it has emerged. One side of the ribbon will look more puckered than the other. If you try to keep the puffy side uppermost when forming your stitch your petals and leaves will have a fuller, more three dimensional appearance. • Pull the ribbon through using your fingers close to the fabric, rather than pulling on the needle, as this gives you more control when forming a stitch. • Try to keep the ribbon untwisted on the back of the work for a neater finish. Avoid pulling on existing stitches as you work the next stitch, as this can distort them.
Threading the Needle To avoid the ribbon coming out of the needle while stitching and to get maximum use of the length of ribbon, it is attached to the needle as follows: Step 1: thread enough ribbon through the eye of your chenille needle to enable you to pierce through the end of the ribbon with the needle tip. Step 2: hold the tip of the needle and pull on the long end of ribbon to secure it to the eye.
Lazy Daisy Stitch Bring your needle up at the base of a petal. Push the needle back into the fabric close to where it first emerged. Pull the ribbon through to create a smooth loop of the desired size. Bring the needle up through the loop at the tip of the petal and back over the loop to anchor it to the fabric.
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Loop Stitch Bring the needle up where you want the loop to be and back through the fabric close to where it emerged. Pull the ribbon through to create a smooth loop of the required size (to unify your loops you can insert a round object such as a straw through the loop before pulling snug). Take care not to pull out the first loop when forming the next!
Ribbon Stitch Bring the needle up at the position for the base of your leaf or petal, note how the ribbon has emerged (see Stitching Tips). Lay your ribbon on the surface of your fabric and insert the needle through the ribbon at the point where you want the tip of the leaf or petal to be. Pull the ribbon very gently through itself until the tips of the ribbon begin to curl inwards to form a point. Don’t pull too tight or the curls will pull through completely.
Modified Ribbon Stitch This is worked in the same way as ribbon stitch, however you don’t pull the ribbon completely through. Leave a loop of ribbon at the end of the stitch.
Straight Stitch Emerge at the base of your stitch noting how the ribbon looks (see Stitching Tips). Re-enter at the tip of your leaf or petal, pulling the ribbon through until the stitch sits gently against the fabric. Don’t pull too tight or the stitch will shrivel up. To “couch” a Straight Stitch emerge at the base of the stitch and lay the ribbon in the direction of the bottom section of the leaf or petal. Using one strand of matching stranded cotton stitch over the ribbon to attach it to the fabric and fasten off securely. When you then finish your ribbon stitch by re-entering the fabric at the tip of the leaf or petal, it will fold at the point where it has been stitched over, or “couched”. This creates natural looking leaves.
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Silk Ribbon Embroidery
We have covered the stitches planned for this class. In this lesson and Lesson 8 we will learn some basic combinations, specific flowers and critters. These are just some of the ways to form the different designs but by no means the only way. As you learn and grow you will come up with different combinations for some of these designs and may even devise a totally new stitch.
Bows:
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The bow is a combination of Loop, Japanese Ribbon, Cascade and Straight Stitches. It can be used in your design any place you want a bow.
Lightly mark four dots in a square fairly close together. Make two Loop Stitches, one in each of the top two dots with the loop facing away from the center on each. From the bottom two dots make your tails using either the Japanese Ribbon Stitch or the Cascade. Bring your needle up between the two tails and make a soft Straight Stitch covering the center where all four stitches meet. This will form the knot of your bow. Be sure the Straight Stitch is kept loose and full.
Butterflies:
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The butterfly is a combination of the Loop, Pistil Stitch and Curved Whip Stitch. For a side view of a butterfly place two tiny dots either beside each other or on top of each other. Begin by making a Loop Stitch wing beginning at each of the dots. The upper loop should be slightly longer than the lower. These will form the wing on one side of the butterfly. Add a Curved Whip Stitch to form the body. This should come just over the bottom edge of the two Loop Stitches. Using embroidery floss make two Pistil Stitches from the top of the Whip Stitch body for the antennae.
To show the butterfly with both wings extended place four small dots in a square. Make two Loop Stitches in the top two dots for the upper wings and two slightly larger loops in the second pair of dots for the lower wings. Place your Curved Whip Stitch in the center between the two sets of loops being sure to cover the bottom of each for the body. Apply the Pistil Stitch antennae.
Ladybug:
The Ladybug is a combination of the Straight Stitch and French Knots. Make a Straight Stitch or a Padded Straight Stitch for the body of each bug. With two strands of embroidery floss make a Straight Stitch line dividing the wings. Add French Knots in either narrower ribbon of floss for the spots on her back and two French Knots for her eyes. Make six Straight Stitches, three on either side of the body for her legs. RangaRakes
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Fargo Rose:
Bring the ribbon up through the fabric. Hold the ribbon on top of the fabric and insert the tip of the needle one and a half to two inches from where it exits the fabric pointed back toward the exit. Make four or five Running Stitches in the ribbon. Insert the point of the needle into the fabric a thread or two past where you originally brought the ribbon up. Pull the ribbon through to the back and a small rose will appear right before your eyes. Using narrow ribbon this rose can be used as a filler flower, on rose bushes or anywhere you need a small rose.
Sunflower:
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The Sunflower is composed of French and Montano Knots, variations of the Straight Stitch and the Japanese Ribbon Stitch.
Lightly draw a circle and fill the interior with French and Montano Knots. The petals are formed beginning at the edge of the circle extending out like spokes on a wheel. Use Straight Stitch, a Twisted Straight Stitch, Japanese Ribbon Stitch, Curled Japanese Ribbon Stitch, Twisted Japanese Ribbon Stitch and Side Japanese Ribbon Stitch to completely encircle the center.
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You may choose to make your petals all one stitch or a combination of any and all of the Straight and Japanese Ribbon Stitches.
A different center for the sunflower can be stitched by the use of Ribbon Weaving to fill. Place Straight Stitches from left to right, side by side, almost totally covering the circle. Beginning at the top with your brown ribbon threaded on a tapestry needle weave over and under crossing the circle. Completely fill the circle with this weave alternating from under and over the next row, the next row would be over and under. For added decoration you may decide to place a bead in each square formed by the weave.
Lotus (Water Lily):
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The Lotus or Water Lily like the Sunflower has petals made from Straight and Japanese Ribbon Stitches. Any variation can be used but they look particularity well done with a number of Twisted Japanese Ribbon Stitches.
Draw a curved line similar to a bowl. Begin at the center of the line and add your petals going out toward the edge of the bowl shaped line. As you reach the edges the petals will be shorter so that the top of the flower is almost straight across.
The petals to the sides will be leaning toward the right or left with their beginning toward the center of your bowl so that the outside most petal will begin toward the center of the bowl and end on the outside edge of the line. You can add yellow Pistil Stitches between and above the petals to show the center of the flower.
The Lily Pad can be a single wide Straight Stitch when using wide ribbon. With a narrower ribbon it is Satin Stitched beginning at the center of the pad and going to the outside edge forming almost a full circle.
Fuchsia:
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The Fuchsia is begun with two green Straight Stitches that form a ninety deg ree angle. A lighter green Lazy Daisy Stitch is placed to the right of each Straight Stitch. In a matching light green begin between the right hand Lazy Daisy Stitch and the first Straight Stitch and form a hooked stem in either floss or silk perle.
Make three Japanese Ribbon Stitches beginning away from and ending the stitch at the point where it joins the Straight Stitch and Lazy Daisy Stitches. Make five Straight Stitches beginning at the base of the Japanese Ribbon Stitches and fanning slightly. Below the Straight Stitches make five Straight Stitches in the green floss or silk perle. These five stitches are varied in length. The two outer are the shortest and the center is the longest and the two left over are longer than the outside but shorter than the center stitches. A seed bead is added to the end of each stitch with a second bead added to the center stitch. As an option you can use Pistal Stitches in place of the Straight Stitches and beads.
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