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Home » Embroidery » How to Embroider a French Knot – Back to School Apple
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August 21, 2017 by: Olivia

How to Embroider a French Knot – Back to School Apple

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How to Embroider a French Knot – Back to School Apple

Happy Back To School!  Olivia here from Pumpkin Hollow Quilting and today I’m sharing with you a sweet little Back to School Apple embroidery project, stitched up using French Knots. Don’t let the French Knot part scare you!  Once you’re finished stitching up your apple, you’ll be a pro at making and adding French Knots to any project.  Also think how cute this apple would be as a Christmas Ornament for a special teacher.  So grab your stitching supplies and I’ll show you How to Embroider a French Knot and make a Back to School Apple.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

How to Embroider a French Knot – Back to School Apple

Supplies:

Click the supply to be taken to the supply listing on Amazon.

3 inch Wooden Embroidery Hoop

5 inch square of white fabric

Size 9 Embroidery Needles

Micron Pen

Scissors

3 inch scrap of felt

Glue

Back to School Apple Pattern

DMC Floss needed for our project

Apple – 304 (You’ll need a whole skein of floss for your apple)

Stem and Book – 433

Leaf – 704

Label on Book – 727

ABC letters – 3810

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

How to Embroider a French Knot – Back to School Apple Instructions:

First thing you’ll want to do is print out your apple pattern.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Center your pattern onto the backside of your stitchery fabric and pin in place, then using either a lightbox or window you’ll trace the pattern onto the fabric using a Micron Pen.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

After your design is traced onto the fabric it’s time to stitch!  Load the stitchery into your embroidery hoop and thread your needle.  For this project we are going to be using 2 strands of embroidery floss.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

We are going to start stitching our apple on the stem, make sure your thread is securely knotted at the end before you take your first stitch.  Pick where you’d like to start stitching on your stem and bring your needle up from the back,  go over a smidge and drop your needle back down through your fabric.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Go over a smidge more and bring your needle up from the back.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Then you’ll take the needle back down through where your first stitch ended, completing your back stitch!

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Continue on until you’ve stitch up the stem.  When you get to the end of your stem, make sure to securely knot your thread on the backside and snip your threads.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Repeat the steps above for backstitching your leaf. You might have noticed I added a little vein in my leaf,  but not to worry as I made sure to add it to your pattern.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

When I got to my apple, I went ahead and back stitched around it first before adding my French Knots.  It helps to cover up the drawn line and just adds a little definition.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Time for our French Knots!  I love the look of filling in my stitches with these little knots, they make your design pop right out! For this project we are going to do a Two Wrap French Knot. First thing you’ll want to do is knot the end of your thread and bring your needle up from the back.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Make sure the knot catches in the back.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Hold your thread in one hand and your needle in the other.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Make sure to hold your thread securely and wrap it twice around your needle. Don’t let go of your thread!

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

While holding onto your thread, put the needle back down into the fabric.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Grab your needle from the backside and start pulling…Keep holding onto your thread until the last second and let it go.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Ta-Da, your first French Knot is finished!

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Repeat the French Knot process and start filling in your apple.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Make sure those stitches are tightly against each other.  Don’t worry if a few of your French Knots are wonky looking because once you get to filling up your apple, those wonky knots will disappear.

 

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Just keep adding those French Knots!

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Its looking cool so far!

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

If you find any areas where you can see the background fabric, just pop in a knot or two and fill it in.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

How cool does our apple look!  I love how it turned out! It takes a little bit of time, but the results are awesome!

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Now all that’s left is stitching up our book! Once it’s done, I popped out my stitchery and gave it a nice pressing.  After that I centered it again and locked my hoop down.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Using a pair of sharp scissors, cut as close as you can to the embroidery hoop.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

With our piece of scrap felt, I cut it into the shape of a circle.  Then applied glue around the perimeter, not too much as a little goes a long way and I don’t want any glue to pop through to the front.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

It should look a little something like this.

How to Embroider a French Knot: This fun back to school ABC apple is the perfect project to learn how to embroider french knots. Click through for the tutorial and free pattern. | www.sewwhatalicia.com

Now you’re finished!  Give yourself a huge pat-on-the-back because you know how to embroider a french knot! Thank you so much for following along with me today, I had so much fun creating this fun Back to School Apple tutorial for you.  You can always find me over on the Pumpkin Hollow Quilting blog stitching up something fun!

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Pumpkin Needle Minder // Insulated Lunch Tote // Autumn Blessings

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About Alicia

Hi I am Alicia thanks for taking some time out of your day to be with me! I am crazy about sewing and blogging! I love creating tutorials and patterns and sharing ideas with people! Read more...

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Comments

  1. Emma Craig (@Whimsical_days) says

    August 30, 2017 at 1:02 pm

    I bet this takes awhile (especially for a newbie like me) but it came out awesome!

    Reply
    • sewwhatalicia says

      September 1, 2017 at 9:52 am

      The french knots can definitely take a while! But the great thing is you won’t be a beginner at them for long with this tutorial!!! <3

      Reply

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