This week in The Happy Stitch Project, we’re learning long and short stitch. It’s a beautiful stitch for shading, so you can achieve an ombre effect with different shades of the same colour, or blend different colours together. Our project this week is long and short stitch lettering, and I’ll show you how to stitch long and short stitch in blocks and around the curves. Yay!

Long and short stitch lettering: materials

A piece of patterned fabric, roughly 22 x 22cm 

A 12cm (5″) embroidery hoop

An aqua trick pen

Templates – click here for the free download!!

DMC thread in shades 3845, 3843 and 3842

A needle

Some small sharp scissors (I use these Fiskars ones and they’re fab!)

Some perle thread to finish the back (although I haven’t finished the back yet )

Watch the long and short stitch letting tutorial

You’ll find the stitch tutorial video here, and I quickly talk you through the basics of the stitch:

The full tutorial is here:

https://youtu.be/ZajU3HOJBYA

It’s a slow stitching video this week, which I haven’t done in a while! So make yourself a cuppa and I’ll talk you through the lettering. Feel free to pause and go back, or stitch along with me! I stitched the first letter before filming so that you can use it as a guide. If you have any questions along the way, do ask in the comments below or get in touch via Instagram or by email.

If you use Anchor thread instead of DMC, no problem! I’ve got a conversion chart right here.

You may also like…

This Crafty Colour Palette for some colour inspiration!

Crafty Colour Palette #4

These fabric covered letters:

Fabric covered letters

Read all about the magic of the to-done list:

The magic of the to-done list

Stitch some alternative lettering with this design from earlier in The Happy Stitch Project:

Do your thing embroidered hoop

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