SIMPLE PLEASURES: EMBROIDERED NAPKINS

A step-by-step guide to creating beautiful hand-stitched designs

A LINEN napkin is such a simple way to make an ordinary meal feel more special. And even more so with a hand-embroidered design. These flowers are quick to complete and you could vary the designs with different colours or by adding more petals.

YOU WILL NEED

Flower template (see diagrams)

Pencil, tailor’s chalk or dissolvable fabric pen Small sharp scissors

Dressmaking pins

4 napkins

Small embroidery hoop

Base yarn: embroidery thread (floss) in your choice of colours

Large embroidery needle (with a large eye to fit the base yarn through)

Standard embroidery needle

Top thread: complementary or matching sewing thread

1. To create the first flower (Fig 1), start by transferring your pattern onto the fabric, drawing the flower on one corner of a napkin using a fabric pen. You can trace it using a lightbox or window

(or you could draw it freehand). Place your drawing on a lightbox and trace over it with a fabric pen, or tape up your drawing to a sunny window – this is the simplest way to do it and works best with a thin to medium weight cotton or linen. Using masking tape, tape your drawings to the window, then tape your fabric over the top of the drawing and trace with a fabric pen.

2. Put your fabric into your embroidery hoop

– the whole flower should fit inside the hoop.

3. Hide the end of the base yarn in the fabric at the end of an outer edge of a petal. To do this, thread the base yarn onto a needle with a large eye. Put a knot in the end of the thread and feed the needle through the fabric from the back at the end of a drawn line. Leave your needle on the end of the thread and pin it into the fabric somewhere out of the way.

4. Thread a needle with a length of top thread – I have used two strands of a six-strand embroidery thread (floss). Tie a knot at one end of the thread.

5. Stitch down the base yarn on the first petal with a basic couching stitch (see opposite page), with small stitches 5mm apart.

6. When you get to the end of that petal, take the thicker needle, still threaded with base yarn, and push it through from front to back at the end of the drawn line, then bring it up to the front of the fabric at the start of your next petal line (Fig 2). Continue along your petal edges like this until you have completed them all. You could add more rows to this or finish it here.

7. To create the inner edges of the petals, change the base yarn on the bigger needle to the relevant colour and hide the end in your fabric as in step 3. Thread a needle with a new top thread to match. Stitch the inner line in the same way in one long thread without breaks. Hide the end of the base yarn as before.

8. To finish this flower centre, stitch three small French knots (see opposite page) in a yellow embroidery thread (floss).

9. For the filled petals of the second flower (Fig 3), start from the bottom left side of your petal, hiding the base yarn in the fabric as in step 3. Thread a needle with the top yarn in the same or different colour thread and use basic couching stitch to work your way along the outline of your petal. Continue filling the petal in a clockwise direction (Fig 4).

Lay the base yarn parallel to your first outline as you work your way around. Finish in the centre of the petal by hiding the end of the base yarn in the fabric and tying it off there.

10. To stitch the centre of the filled-in petal, change your base yarn and top thread again and start in the centre of the flower, working your way around the circle and out in a coil using basic couching stitch, finally hiding the end of the base yarn in the fabric when you have filled the centre and tying it off at the back.