Geometry of Hand-Sewing

A Romance in Stitches and Embroidery

From Alabama Chanin and The School of Making

This wonderful book is a comprehensive guide to hand-stitching and embroidery. Focusing solely on the stitches themselves rather than projects or garments, it takes embroidery stitches and breaks them down into different geometric grid systems that make learning even seemingly elaborate stitches as easy as child’s play.

The Geometry of Hand-Sewing presents this breakthrough method and features illustrated instructions for more than 100 stitches—from the most basic straight and chain to the more fanciful feather and herringbone—photos of both right and wrong sides; and guidelines for modifying stitches to further increase one’s repertoire. To simplify learning, the book also includes two plastic stitching cards die-cut with the grids on which every stitch in the book is based. These reusable cards can be stitched through for practicing or used as stencils for transferring grids to fabric.

• Instruction for more than 100 embroidery stitches
• Plastic stitching cards die-cut with the 7 grids shown in the book
• Labeled illustrations of each stitch for both left- and right-handed stitching
• Photographs of both the front and back of each stitch

Abrams, 2017, softcover, spiral bound, 9 x 11 inches, 144 pages.