21 Jul Craft Blending: Embroidery
A trend we’ve seen take hold over the course of the pandemic is craft blending. Specifically, we’ve witnessed embroidery elements spilling over into other craft spaces, whether it’s knitting, sewing, crocheting, or even weaving.
Blending crafts together is fun (and useful!) for a lot of reasons. Introducing a craft that differs from your particular focus can broaden the scope of your business. If you’re a yarn store that centers around knitting, creating small embroidery kits that use yarn could potentially entice embroiderers to learn how to knit, or knitters to learn the basics of embroidery. It also opens up the opportunity to host make-alongs and virtual or in-store classes. Suddenly, you’re attracting more than one type of customer without alienating your base.
Embroidery was one of the hottest crafts during the pandemic year, and it’s easy to see why. A simple embroidery kit is a no-brainer for a newbie—and there were many craft inductees over the last year. Those who had never approached embroidery picked it up to try something new and flex their muscles, and practiced embroiderers were looking for new ways to expand their skills outside the hoop. Knitters and sewists refreshed older garments and accessories and. we’ve seen embroidery tacked on to all manner of crafting. We hope this post will inspire you to blend embroidery with your particular craft, expanding your audience and branching out into new and exciting craft territories!
Knit & Crochet
© Carina Spencer
Embroidery blends beautifully with knitting. All it takes is a few yarn scraps (every knitter has scraps in their stash!), a tapestry needle, and a little design work. Carina Spencer embroidered her knit sweater (above) with some very simple (and easy to learn) french knots and lazy daisy stitches, creating a patch of flowers around the neckline of her sweater. She used the same yarn she knit with and worked with a tapestry needle.
©Julie Crawford
Julie Crawford also added a little springtime garden to her knit hat, but went one step further, using a dissolving stabilizer and embroidery floss.
Embroidered crocheted slippers © Bola & Crumb
Embroidering knits is a fantastic way to differentiate a newly-finished sweater or accessory, but it’s also a great way to refresh a knit that’s been sitting in your wardrobe for awhile so that it feels new.
Embroidered knit sweaters and crocheted coasters © Bloom Handmade Studio
If you own a yarn store, creating small kits focused on easy embroidery designs that can be added to any finished piece is a smart and approachable way to incorporate the craft. You can also hold in-person and virtual classes and make-alongs to teach new stitchers embroidery techniques. Modern Daily Knitting recently posted an informative blog all about embroidering your knits with confidence.
Weaving
© Weaving Daydreams
The weaving world also jumped on the embroidery trend last year, embellishing wall hangings and other woven projects with embroidered details.
© What Knot Fiber Art
Embroidery works extremely well with weaving because woven pieces create a firm and stable canvas for all kinds of embroidered details.
Quilting
© Sally Eagleman
It should come as no surprise that embroidery lends itself so well to quilting. Machine embroidery is huge in the quilting space. However, we’ve also seen a lot of thoughtful hand embroidery that utilizes quilt blocks like miniature canvases. Sally Eaglement hand embroidered each individual teapot in the quilt above.
Arthur + Martha, a group that works with marginalized communities, is creating a quilt from embroidered blocks collected from the elderly housebound community in Derbyshire, England. It’s a great way to bring people out of isolation to craft together. It’s also a great idea for a communal crafting project! Quilting stores could host a make along with themed embroidered blocks for charity baby blankets, for example.
© Arthur + Martha
Paper Crafting
© La Mamola/Martina Buiat
If you can pierce it with a needle and thread, you can embroider it. Embroidered paper crafts are everywhere right now. From gorgeous embroidered photographs like the floral vista from Martina Buiat seen above, to simple greeting cards like the Mother’s Day card from Threaded Letters below, embroidering paper and cardstock is hot right now.
© Threaded Letters
Stitchers are embroidering paper bookmarks and ornaments, upcycling cardboard storage boxes with embroidery, embellishing plain notebook covers, and more.
As you can see, embroidery is easy to blend with any number of crafts and we hope we’ve given you some great ideas on how you can add embroidery (or other blendable crafts) to diversify your offerings. Need help incorporating craft blending into your business strategy? Contact us today!
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