Embroider Everything Workshop: The Beginner’s Guide to Embroidery, Cross-Stitch, Needlepoint, Beadwork, Appliqué, and More

Rupp (Sew Everything Workshop) presents a beginners’ guide to embroidery that replaces granny and aunty, or mom and dad. Usually one relative can teach one or two forms of embroidery glory, but this spiral-bound book, which includes a “practice stitch card” and iron-on transfers, proves its middle name by teaching everything. The first half, “The Basics,” covers equipment, from a gallery of needles to a discussion of weaves; preparation, including proper lighting; stitching—freehand, needlepoint, monograms, etc.; and transferring designs onto fabric with pencils, heat, carbon paper, painting, etc. Jim Franco’s photos and Sybille Schenker’s illustrations beautifully augment the text. Tucked beside text are tips, such as using lip balm to re-marry separated threads, and history (Coats and Clark’s “ONT” means “our new thread”). Rupp’s enthusiastic, colloquial writing style unfortunately includes limp puns and cutesy titles (“The Scoop on Hoops”). The second half presents Rupp’s original projects, ranging in degrees of difficulty from a simple cat toy to a tricky family-tree album cover. (Dec.)