Long and short stitch strawberry tutorial

As you all know, I’ve been experimenting with the long and short stitch direction, which I’d discussed here.The method can be used for flower petals and leaves which are flat but to use this for rounded (3-D) objects a little bit of adjustment is needed.Today, I’m going to share with you a long and short embroidery tutorial for strawberry from my understanding of the long and short direction rules.

O is the point of attachment of the strawberry and it’s stem.Stitch direction rules state that you’ll have to embroider from the tip towards point O.But my view is that you’ll have to consider the distance between the tip and point O on a real strawberry.Imagine in your mind that you’re measuring the distance of a real fruit using a thread and when you place the thread flat, you’ll get a point below O.Here, I’ve marked the point as O’, which is 5mm below O (the height of the strawberry is 3.5cm). Work a small stitch to mark this point.You can remove the stitch after the embroidery is completed.

Split stitch or outline stitch the pattern with 2 strands of thread.Embroider from the tip towards point O’, from the middle, all the way down to the left or right.Just hold the thread towards the small stitch and stitch into that direction, alternating long and short stitches.

Continue on the other side.

The second row is worked in the same manner.Always hold the thread towards point O’ and stitch into that direction.

 The final row is completed. 

Start embroidering the calyx.

Complete the calyx and work french knots on the strawberry using 2 strands of thread.

  (Attn : This tutorial is my creation from my understanding of the long and short direction rules.Please don’t try to copy the tutorial in any form, on your website, printed materials, youtube etc.You can show the finished work but please link it back to my blog).