How to Make Paper Embroidery | 4 Types Discussed 

Embroidery, often regarded as a delightful and rewarding pastime, provides an avenue for both leisure and creative expression. This age-old craft, featuring the meticulous art of stitching, offers a soothing and meditative experience that can be immensely satisfying.

Serving as a rewarding and relaxing pastime, it provides a space for unwinding, fostering concentration, and translating creative visions into tangible art. One intriguing type of embroidery is paper embroidery, a unique offshoot that allows you to experiment with unique designs and colors on paper. 

Continue reading to know everything about embroidery on paper, like the type of paper suitable for embroidery, and the step-by-step guide!

Types of Paper for Embroidery 

Here are some common types of paper that are useful for paper embroidery:

1. Cardboard:

Cardboard is a robust and easily accessible choice for paper embroidery. Its thick and rigid nature makes it an excellent backing for embroidery work. This sturdiness ensures that your project maintains its shape and structure throughout the creative process.

2. Paper Ephemera:

Paper ephemera are vintage or collectible paper items like postcards, book pages, or old letters and can be repurposed as unique backgrounds for your embroidery. When using paper ephemera, you infuse your projects with a sense of nostalgia and history.

3. Tracing Paper:

Tracing paper is a lightweight and translucent option crucial in paper embroidery. Its transparency allows you to easily transfer intricate embroidery patterns onto your chosen material. 

4. Brown Kraft Paper:

Brown kraft paper, celebrated for its innate rustic charm, serves as an ideal option for paper embroidery. It particularly excels in enhancing embroidery projects that seek an authentic and earthy visual appeal.

How to Make Paper Embroidery: Step-by-Step Guide

The steps to do embroidery on paper are:

Step 1: Gather All the Supplies 

Here are the supplies you need to get started with your embroidery on paper adventure:

• Design or Sketch Template
• Sharp Needle
• Cardstock or Any Other Type of Paper 
• Scissors
• DMC Floss
• Washi Tape
• Pencil (Optional)
• Rubber Eraser (Optional)

Step 2: Affix Your Template 

Start by affixing your template to the cardstock. To do this, craft four adhesive loops from the washi tape. Cut four pieces of tape, each approximately 1-¼ inch (3 cm) in length, and then fold each piece back on itself, creating loops with the sticky side facing outward. Position each of these looped tape pieces at the corners of the cardstock. Gently lay your template on the cardstock, ensuring it stays securely in place.

Step 3: Puncture Holes in the Template 

Utilize the sharp needle to puncture holes at regular intervals along the lines of your template. Ensure you carefully handle the needle to protect your fingers and maintain adequate spacing between the holes to prevent tearing while sewing. 

Step 4: Draw Your Own Design (Optional)

As an alternative approach to designing the card, you can use a pencil to draw your design directly on the card. Afterward, follow the hole-piercing process as outlined in Step 3. Finally, erase the pencil marks to achieve a clean and polished look.

Step 5: Start Stitching

Next, prepare your needle with the thread and commence your stitching process. Crafting the wreath involves a straightforward running stitch, while the flowers take shape through gentle lazy daisy stitches.

Ensure you don’t exert excessive tension on the thread, as it might lead to the card’s tearing. To maintain a tidy rear side, secure the thread by creating a single knot.

Step 6: Stitch the Letters 

When incorporating lettering into your design, employ an evenly-spaced running stitch that spans from the initial letter to the last letter. After completing this pass, reverse the running stitch to fill any gaps in the letters. This running stitch method, as opposed to a backstitch, ensures a cleaner appearance on the reverse side of your work. 

Conclusion

Paper embroidery is a great way to unleash your inner artist and experiment with new things. Embroidery on paper requires high-quality papers that are easily available at Paperpapers. We are affordable and offer various types of papers that cater to all your artistic needs.  So, get in touch with us today and get the chance to work with top-notch papers.