The French Knot | Embroidery Stitches
A french knot is a simple twist knot that is good for making spots, dots, or small eyes.
You’ll start with:
- blank piece of fabric (cotton is best)
- embroidery hoop, if you have one
- embroidery thread
- needle
- scissors
Thread one end of a length of thread through your needle. Knot the far end and trim any excess. It’s helpful when first beginning to draw on the fabric with a fabric pencil, and then trace those lines or fill in those shapes with your stitches.
How to do the French Knot:
Start by threading your needle up through the fabric where you want the knot to be. Wind the base of the thread around your needle two or three times and start to poke the needle through the fabric right next to where you came up from.
Be sure to keep the loops in place. Use your other hand to pull the string next to the loops tight, so that they tighten up and shift down to the base of the needle into what looks like a knot.
Poke the needle the rest of the way through the fabric and carefully pull the thread through, all the while keeping the other end of the thread taught to keep the knot in place. When there is not enough thread left to do both, place one finger over the knot and use the other hand to carefully pull the remaining thread through. Don’t pull too hard—you’ll undo the knot.
That’s the french knot, the period of embroidery stitches.
More Basic Embroidery Stitches:
How to Back Stitch
How to Cross Stitch
Hand Sew The French Knot
Hand Sew The Running Stitch
How to Satin Stitch
How to Split Stitch
How to Stem Stitch
