Music by: Adam Vitovský, used under CC 3.0  license without changes.

Needlepainting for beginners overview

This course is heavily concentrated on practice.

Since it is relatively easy to grasp the concept of long and short stitching in theory, from books and diagrams, but only actual practice will help you develop necessary habits.

We practice a lot but on rather small shapes overcoming a new challenge every time. That way we train our hands and mind without overworking it. And also, we don't get tired from doing the same thing. Each of the shapes can be worked in 1 day but, naturally, if you want to take more time, you can take a pause or split working one shape in a couple of sessions.

The order of the course is as follows:

Module 1: Learning about materials and instruments, how to start and end thread and some general tips relevant for hand embroidery. I'm not going in too deep here, no story-telling and no reciting encyclopedias. Just all the necessary information for you to start - what kinds of fabric and needles you need and how to get started.

Module 2: We will talk about 5 main tips for succesful long and short stitching and then take a look at the common beginners' mistakes, solution to which you will find in the previous video about the tips. You might be surprised at the order and why I didn't start with mistakes. But I want you to work the exercise first being mindful of any confusion that you have so that in the next video, when we talk about mistakes, you could recognize your potential problems.

Module 3: Heavy practice here. We work 8 shapes in total, each time taking it a little step up and bringing a new challenge to the table. We will learn about specifics of blending, try different outlines and see if you need them at all, try various direction of stitching and also learn fluffy effect in the end! The last exercise in this module is about extra stitches that you might need in needlepainting: stem stitch, satin stitch, french knots, bullion knot etc.

Module 4: The part where you get to put in practical use everything you've learned before as we work a beautiful Peony flower. You will get a PDF pattern with marked direction of stitches and color placement, but minimal instructions. Instead you have 90+ minutes-long video material covering each step!

I'm excited to see you among my students! :)