Learn ‘Foolproof Freeform Embroidery’ With the Help of Jennifer Clouston’s New Book

This post con­tains some affil­i­ate links. If you make a pur­chase, Brown Paper Bag may earn an affil­i­ate com­mis­sion. Learn more here.

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What’s your cre­ative style? Do you fol­low a pat­tern or do you like to work freeform? I love a pattern—even if I’m the one cre­at­ing it. But there is incred­i­ble free­dom when you break out of a pat­tern and just let your­self play. But that, in and of itself, can be daunt­ing, and it’s nice to have a lit­tle guid­ance. Enter the book Fool­proof Freeform Embroi­dery: Explor­ing Your Cre­ativ­i­ty with Fab­ric, Threads, and Stitch­es by Jen­nifer Clous­ton. Through guid­ance and a step-by-step demon­stra­tion of tech­niques, she will help you devel­op a cre­ative process and cre­ate work that reflects who you are.

Learn more about embroidery artist Jennifer Clouston’s new book, Foolproof Freeform Embroidery: Exploring Your Creativity with Fabric, Threads, and Stitches, and how you can win an e‑book copy!

Embark on an embroi­dery adven­ture learn­ing 45 basic stitch­es to ignite your cre­ative process. Dis­cov­er Jen­nifer­’s organ­ic approach, inspir­ing you to forge your path in embroidery.

“To many,” Jen­nifer writes, “the word embroi­dery evokes visions of pre-print­ed pat­terns, threads cho­sen by oth­ers, a paint-by-num­bers approach with neat and uni­form stitch­es. To me, embroi­dery means a blank page, a new begin­ning, and oppor­tu­ni­ty to cre­ate freely with­out rea­son or purpose.”

Fool­proof Freeform Embroi­dery pre­pares you to stitch with­out a plan by first prepar­ing you for your cre­ative jour­ney. This involves gath­er­ing sup­plies, cre­at­ing a stitcher’s can­vas, deter­min­ing the stitch­es you’d like to use, and more. From there, Jen­nifer goes over the necessities—aka tools—to think about using, and she lat­er demon­strates a range of embroi­dery stitches.

One of my favorite things about this book is how Jen­nifer shares that com­bin­ing stitch­es leads to fan­cy organ­ic motifs. She shows eye-pleas­ing com­bi­na­tions that you can incor­po­rate into your embroi­dered pieces. It high­lights how embroi­dery is a choose-your-own-adven­ture. When you find tech­niques and approach­es that speak to you, doing so can set you on a path to cre­at­ing and exper­i­ment­ing with your work in a way that’s deeply fulfilling.

Freeform Embroi­dery: Explor­ing Your Cre­ativ­i­ty with Fab­ric, Threads, and Stitch­es is avail­able on June 25, 2024. To cel­e­brate, I’m host­ing a give­away! Win a free e‑book copy of Jennifer’s book when you leave a com­ment on this post telling me your favorite embroi­dery stitch (or stitch­es). The give­away dead­line is June 14, 2024, at 11:59 PST.