Practical Embroidery Newsletter: My Favorite Decorative Stitches & Where to Use Them ✨🧵

Decorative Stitches

Hi, Reader,

Happy Valentine’s Day!

My latest embroidery tutorial – 13 Ways to Stitch a Heart – allowed me to revisit some of the stitches I do not use daily. The research guided me to some nice decorative techniques, and I want to share some of these embroidery stitches with you:

Palestrina Stitch

The Palestrina Stitch is an excellent option if you love a robust, bumpy, rope-like texture. It’s fantastic for bold outlines or textured letterwork.

I used it in my heart embroidery project to outline the shape of the heart.

Bullion Knots

A little patience goes a long way with Bullion Knots! These beauties are stunning for roses, daisies, textured borders, and intricate surface filling. If you’ve been avoiding them, trust me—it’s worth learning!

Six Bullion Stitch flowers – Video tutorial

Check out my “Six Bullion stitch flowers. Step-by-step hand embroidery guide” for inspiration and ideas.

French Knots

French Knots may seem tricky initially, but they’re irresistible once you get the hang of them! Use them for flower centers, textured fur on animal embroidery, filling, or to create a whole field of tiny blossoms.

Pro tip: If you want to change the size of the knot – use a various number of floss stands. Besides that, you can play with a number of warps. The more wraps around the needle – the bigger the knot.

French Knots of various sizes for filling – Video guide

Grape hyacinth – French knots with seed beads

Blanket Stitch

Blanket Stitch is not a decorative technique, one might say. But it depends on how you use it. I like the look of the net that filling in circles with Blanket stitch creates.

Another highly decorative variation of the Blanket Stitch is the Scallop Stitch for edging.

Zipper pouch embroidered with Blanket stitch

Triangular Turkish Stitch

Another filling stitch that creates a gorgeous pattern on the surface – a Triangular Turkish Stitch. I mostly use it for mending, but it can also be a part of decorative embroidery. The best part of this technique is that it looks the same on both sides of the fabric.

If you haven’t tried some of these yet, I encourage you to pick one and add it to your next embroidery project! They bring so much character to a piece and are a joy to stitch!