How to Make a French Knot Embroidery Stitch

A French Knot is a great embroidery stitch you can use to add details to fabric piece work such as the center of flowers, berries, eyes etc. Add some French Knots into large areas of cross stitch to add texture to your work.

Follow these simple how to instructions to learn how to stitch a French Knot in Cross Stitch.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Embroidery Floss
• Embroidery Hoop
• Embroidery Needle
• Scissors
• Piece of fabric, clothing, pillow case, blanket etc. that you'd like to embroider

1. Gather your supplies. Decide where on the fabric you'd would like to stitch your French knot and insert the fabric area into your embroidery hoop.
   
   Thread the needle with 3 strands of embroidery floss. Knot the end.

2. 
    
   Wrap the thread around the needle to make a French Knot

   Bring needle up through fabric. Hold the thread taut.
   
   Depending on how big you’d like French knot to be, wrap the thread around the needle two or more times and tighten the thread.

3. 
    
   Securing the French Knot onto the fabric

   Once you've wrapped the embroidery floss around the needle put the tip of the needle very close to where you first pushed the needle through the fabric.
   
   Hold the thread taut so the embroidery floss you've wrapped around the needle won't come undone and push the needle back through the fabric, forming the lovely French knot.
   
   To keep your French knot from coming unraveled do one or two tiny straight stitches underneath the French knot to secure in place.

Resources

• Handmade quilted items and craft patterns
• Go Green and Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Fashionably
• New England Based eco-friendly blog with crafting how tos and more