5 Embroidery Supplies To Help Simplify Your Stitching

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I orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished this in my newslet­ter, Orts. Sub­scribe to read my essays and get inspir­ing links to you sent every oth­er week.

Late­ly, I’ve been think­ing a lot about the things I own. I’m hav­ing a low-buy year, which means tak­ing stock of every­thing I use and how it’s serv­ing me. This includes embroi­dery and craft­ing sup­plies. Some things, while great, aren’t must-haves for me. But oth­ers are; they make my embroi­dery a lit­tle easier.

Here’s my list of five supplies that I use regularly. To me, they’re the best hand embroidery supplies!

A nee­dle min­der. I stepped on a nee­dle last sum­mer and it’s not some­thing I’ll soon for­get. I now use a nee­dle min­der when I’m stitch­ing to hold my nee­dle in place when I’m tak­ing a break. It stays put thanks to a strong mag­net. This way, it does­n’t fall out of my hoop and I won’t step on it again! (I sell a few nee­dle min­ders in my shop, Bear&Bean.)

A sharp pair of scis­sors. This might seem obvi­ous, but until I invest­ed in a sharp pair of scis­sors, I did­n’t know what I was miss­ing. My favorites are Fiskars brand. They’re great for thread and for cut­ting around fab­ric. I also use them to rip out stitches.

Thread gloss. I like to use thread gloss to tame unruly pieces of thread. It’s a wax that coats the floss to make it straighter and smoother to stitch with. It also smells real­ly good. I have a cou­ple by Pon­derosa Cre­ative, and they smell great!

Plas­tic bob­bins. Anoth­er obvi­ous pick, but when they work, they work! Plas­tic bob­bins are great for orga­ni­za­tion and effi­cien­cy when stitch­ing. I make embroi­dery kits and stitch a lot of cus­tom pet por­traits, so hav­ing every­thing neat and labeled with a thread num­ber is key. They also store nice­ly in plas­tic bins or cute ves­sels. (See my per­son­al rank­ing of thread stor­age!)

Wash-away sta­bi­liz­er. I’m a fan of wash-away sta­bi­liz­ers. I print all of my pat­terns on Sulky brand Stick N Stitch sta­bi­liz­er. It’s a real­ly easy way to trans­fer pat­terns. I print the design on my laser print­er and stick it on my fab­ric. It wash­es away when I’m done stitching.

If you’re on Insta­gram, I made a video detail­ing these sup­plies. Fol­low me there and save the video for lat­er when you’re ready to up your craft stash!