Thanks for trying a Hoops & Dreams needlecraft kit!
Let’s get started.
Prep your Hoop
Your hoop has two parts. Loosen the screw at the top of the outer ring and take out the inner ring. If you are going to be cross-stitching, fold your Aida cloth in half and half again to find and pinch the midpoint of the square. Place your fabric centered over the inner ring and return the outer ring over top, which will hold the fabric in place. Tighten the screw again and pull/adjust the fabric edges and corners until your working surface is taut and smooth. (Can you tap it like a drum? Perfect!)
Thread and Needle
Your embroidery floss (thread) is sorted by color and pre-cut to 18” lengths. Each length is made of 6 smaller strands you will need to separate!
If you have a cross-stitch kit, you will want to start at the center of your design and count outward as you make your stitches. Look at the center point of your chart and start with a color at or near that point. For an embroidery or appliqué kit, look at the stitch guide for any notes or instructions and choose a starting color.
Tap or twist the end of the floss until you see the strands separate, then pull one strand at a time away from the rest. It will bunch up, but shouldn’t tangle; smooth it back out and pull the next. The guide or chart for your kit will tell you how many strands to stitch with, usually 2 or 3, and you will hold them together again when you thread your needle.
Your needle packet comes with a needle threading tool! Poke the wire loop through the eye of your needle, feed a few inches of the strands you will be using into the loop, and gently pull the loop and threads back through the eye. To thread a needle without the tool, I like to fold the ends of my thread around the eye-end of the needle and pinch to make a clean point that is easier to push through the eye than just the raw ends held together. Feel free to look up even more ways to do this if it’s giving you trouble!
To begin a new thread in cross-stitching, hold down about an inch of the tail of your thread at the back of your fabric so that your first row of half-stitches are worked over it. The bars created by these stitches as you go will “lock” the tail in place.
To embroider or appliqué, make an overhand knot near the tail end of your working thread. Repeat twice more, stacking the knots directly on top of each other so that the thread will not pull through the fabric.
Time to Stitch!
The Embroidery Stitches reference card found in your kit provides diagrams of the many types of stitches your design may call for. (There are MANY more needlework stitches than these!)
Start from the back of your fabric and push the needle through to the front to begin. As you go, try not to “travel” your thread on the back more than a few inches if the color you are using needs to be worked somewhere else in the design, instead, finish the thread (see below) and start again in the new location. Long threads along the back of the fabric can tangle with your working thread.
Embroidery and appliqué designs can usually be started with any color anywhere on the pattern, but check your stitch guide for any instructions.
To cross-stitch, start at the center point of the design and fabric. You’ll generally be making rows of half-stitches, worked bottom left to top right of each square that slant to the right, then complete those “X”es by working the other half-stitches, from bottom right to top left, slanting to the left back across your row. What’s important is to stay consistent with which directional-leaning stitch is on “top” of your “X”es, as you may end up working the stitches coming from other directions!
When you reach the last 3–4 inches of your working thread, for cross-stitching, push your needle and thread underneath the backs only of nearby stitches and pull through. When embroidering, knot your working thread in place snug to the back with three stacked overhand knots. Use small, sharp scissors to trim any remaining tail of thread to 1/4 inch or so.
Repeat and continue with new working thread of the same color or choose another! Your stitch guide has instructions for finishing your hoop with the circle of felt when your project is complete.
Have fun and reach out to hello@hoopsndreams.com with any questions!