HOW-TO

Embroidery Made Easy: Botanical Bliss

by Stephanie Carswell

David & Charles. Apr. 2025. 60p. ISBN 9781446315330. pap. $12.99. CRAFTS

COPY ISBN

Founder of Hawthorn Handmade, a company that creates and sells craft kits, Carswell (Embroidery Made Easy: Awesome Animals) has written an easy-to-follow book teaching crafters how to stitch nature-inspired embroidery designs. She begins by describing the tools and materials needed to embroider the book’s 12 projects and explains how to use the book and the transfers. A stitch guide describes and illustrates how to create the 10 stitches used in the projects, which are seven-inch, round projects with names such as Blackthorn Bramble, Fields of Provence, Forest Ferns, and Wintertide. Each project includes a key to the stitches used and a color photo of the finished work to use as a color key for the thread. Projects use five to seven colors and three to seven stitches. Carswell includes a transfer for each project on a perforated page meant to be removed from the book and used as an iron-on template or traced on the fabric.

VERDICT An accessible title for the beginning embroidery student who is interested in learning basic embroidery stitches and sewing lovely, whimsical projects with botanical motifs.

Reviewed by Sue O'Brien , Apr 01, 2025

Comment Policy:

Be respectful, and do not attack the author, people mentioned in the article, or other commenters. Take on the idea, not the messenger.
Don't use obscene, profane, or vulgar language.
Stay on point. Comments that stray from the topic at hand may be deleted.
Comments may be republished in print, online, or other forms of media.
If you see something objectionable, please let us know. Once a comment has been flagged, a staff member will investigate.