Embroidery How To: French Knot

For my second embroidery tutorial, I decided to go for the gusto and tackle the French Knot. Once you get in some practice, this is actually really easy. However, a lot of people tend to recognize this not as the french knot, but as the dreaded french knot. The key for me has always been keeping your thread tight while making one.

French knots are mainly used for things like eyes, polka dots and the like on your patterns. If you are just practicing you won't need to draw yourself a bunch of dots as a pattern isn't necessary.

Start by pulling your thread through your fabric from back to front. Pull your thread tight, then wrap your thread around your needle as shown below (notice you are wrapping the end of the thread that is coming out of your fabric around your needle, not wrapping the end that is right by the needle). I typically wrap my thread around twice, but if you want a larger knot you can wrap three times.

The picture could be a little better, the pointy end of my needle is on the left of the frame in case you were wondering. Make sure to keep your thread tight around your needle as you go back through your fabric. You will want to get the needle close to the original point it came through, but not in the same hole.

Then, pull your needle all the way through and make sure you keep your thread tight while you pull it through to finish your knot. As I mentioned, keeping it tight is key, otherwise you get a sloppy knot.

Then, sit back and admire your knot. Isn't it cute? Here is a picture of two knots I made, the one on the Left was made by wrapping the thread around my needle three times.

If you missed it, go check out my tutorial on the back stitch here.