Everything You Need to Know About Embroidery Journals
I discovered embroidery journals in late 2022, when I saw a journal by Sophie of TheStirCrazyCrafter (Sophie actually credits Sam Gillespie of ThreeSixFiveStitches as her own inspiration). The timing was extra convenient for me because I had just the right amount of time to prepare for a 2023 journal. Since then, I have been slowly creating a piece of art that I know that I am going to cherish for years to come. In this post, I’ll share all about what an embroidery journal is and some of the most common questions that I get!
What is an embroidery journal?
So what exactly is an embroidery journal? It’s actually pretty straightforward. It’s simply a journal comprised of embroidery! Embroidery journals can be anything you want them to be. It can represent a single month or show an entire lifetime. They can be made of icons, words, squiggles, and shapes! There is so much freedom and room for creative expression when making an embroidery journal which is one of the reasons that I think it is a wonderful medium.
What is the timeline of an embroidery journal?
There are no rules! Your journal can represent days, months, years, decades… whatever you want! I chose to do a journal for 2023 with sections for each month. I loved this because it perfectly segmented a circle into 12 parts and was a great way to visually see the year pass by. I’m also making a 52 week embroidery journal in 2024!
How many icons do I need?
That’s up to you! I originally started the year by doing an icon for every day. Eventually I decided to move to just filling the space with icons that represented my year. Some months have more icons than others. I do highly recommend keeping some sort of key that will tell you what each icon represents; it’s easy to forget!
Is it necessary to include icons?
Nope! You are the artistic director! I love mixing words in with my icons. I’ve also seen some embroidery journals that only feature words.
What if I’ve never embroidered before?
I had barely embroidered before starting my own journal!I often redo icons, and some turn out better than others. I almost exclusively use backstitches and french knots on my piece which are both basic embroidery stitches. With a little bit of patience, I think anyone could start their own embroider journal!
How do you think of all the icons?
As the month goes on, I typically will write down ideas to refer back to. I’m often a bit behind on my journal so it’s nice to have a list to go back and reference. I also use The Noun Project for icon inspiration.
What materials do I need to start?
Lucky for you, I wrote an entire blog post about this! Check it out here. You can also find a list of materials that I have used on my Amazon Storefront.
Resources and inspiration
There are a ton of incredible examples of embroidery journals online. I highly recommend following @TheStirCrazyCrafter and joining her Facebook group. From my research, it seems as though the original idea for embroidery journals came from Sam Gillespie (@threesixfivestitches). Lastly, I think Pinterest is a great resource for ideas; here is my embroidery journal Pinterest board.
You can now also purchase my embroidery journal templates from my Etsy store!
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