Doodle Stitching: Fresh & Fun Embroidery for Beginners

by Aimee Ray

Asian-inspired lampshades embellished with flying fish. Canvas sneakers decorated with pink and white swirls. A pretty pillow adorned with a sleeping bunny, sweetly curled up. All it takes to create these appealing projects—or add charming embroidered touches in no time at all—are a few simple stitches, some easy techniques, and the nearly 30 projects in this book. Begin by learning several styles for outlining, filling, decorating, and appliqué. Find out about floss, fancy threads, fabrics, and needles. Get the scoop on hoops, and the lowdown on transferring your very own designs onto every type of fabric. The fresh ideas, witty patterns, and clever color illustrations take stitchers from novice to accomplished in a blink of the eye!

Genres: Crafts, Nonfiction, Sewing, Reference, Art, Adult, How To

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

Aimee Ray is an artist, graphic designer, illustrator, and author of craft books.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent enough introduction to embroidery, I suppose, but I wasn't wowed by any of the projects. Perhaps it's just that I have no need for embellished napkins, pillowcases, and bath towels . . .
Anyway - this one is headed to the library book sale. Maybe its next owner will find satisfaction.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had patterns but I was inspired to doodle my own thing for stitching by reading this book.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is pretty nifty. Ray gives you templates for a bunch of projects, but the spirit behind it is really to encourage you to "doodle" your own designs. Ray's artwork and embroidery are very pretty (although she has a very specific style and the designs never deviate far from it), and she has great ideas and patterns for creations you can embellish -- sleep masks, book marks, lampshades, etc. The stitch diagrams and photographs are really clear and useful, too. There's a lot of inspiration here for those who'd like to design their own creations ... or if you like Ray's style, you could stitch for quite a while and embellish all your worldly goods with little birds and paisleys and curly tendrils.

[Mary Frances · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite craft book of the past few months. I bought it for my nieces, and then bought it for myself. For some reason, I never realized embroidery could be so free-form. It's a cool craft that requires very few supplies/room/instruction, and I'm enjoying it. The Sublime Stitching books left me cold- the patterns were so 50's "hip" that they were really boring to me. Doodle Stitching is a silly name, but this book reveals that you don't need a pattern to embroider! That being said, the projects and patterns included are cute and approachable.

[Espera]

Skimmed the book in the bookstore. No patterns/instructions for the elaborate doodles shown on the cover. Some simpler patterns/instructions are given (the paisleys were my favorite). The author mentions keeping a doodle sketch book and translating those doodles to stitches. Cute book, but the long term benefit seemed minimal.

[Kel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad this book was half off because it wasn't what I expected and I wouldn't have wanted to pay full price for it. It's an okay book, but if I didn't already know a little about embroidery this book wouldn't have helped me at all despite it claiming it's for the beginner.

Like many people have mentioned in their reviews, nothing you see on the cover except for the little bird by the author's name is in the book. Ray encourages readers to get creative and stitch like they're doodling, and yet none of the projects are doodle projects like the piece on the cover.

The photos are very nice, but there need to be more. Having one photo of a finished stitch and one illustration of how to do a stitch isn't enough. The only step-by-step the reader gets is via text and often it's very confusing. Multiple photos would definitely help.

Additionally, the explanation of the stitches is lacking extra instruction. For example, the book shows how to create a Scallop Stitch but then doesn't explain where to start the next stitch nor how to create the look shown in the example. It felt like many of the stitches were given the least amount of instruction possible and then left hanging. Seeing that this is a beginner book, that seems silly to me. Much more detailed and instructional tutorials for these stitches can easily be found for free on the internet.

[Carleen Huxley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to follow instructions. Especially good for beginners and people like me who prefer the "coloring outside of the lines" type of philosophy when it comes to crafting.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great and it taught me a lot about the basics of embroidery.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The mother of Sumpter aka owlie!

[Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

Truthfully, I'm a bit disappointed. I suppose the very nature of doodling is that it's somewhat free form and how can you teach someone to do something free form? Ray has made as good a job as anyone at it, but I can't say I'm feeling terribly inspired by anything included herein. I might try crayon tinting my fabric and perhaps the scrap floss art. The stitch a day sampler is the closest to what I consider doodling, but I doubt I'd have the fortitude to persevere with it. The other projects are OK, but nothing I haven't seen numerous times before.

[Jacqueline M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I guess the introduction section was thorough, but I didn't care for any of the projects. The author suggests keeping your own doodle journal and embroidering those designs, but my doodles of penguins and cubes isn't really something I'd want gracing my napkins. I was attracted by the detailed designs on the cover, but these aren't something that have instructions in the book itself. Glad I got this at the library instead of purchasing it. Won't be adding this to my collection.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book for learning embroidery. Lots of basic stitches explained with easy to understand instructions and great photographs. Lots of interesting patterns and sewing ideas to use your newly learned embroidery skills.

[Aseel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Try it at once with the aid of YouTube

[Tressa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doodle Stitching has beautiful embroidery. The book explained basic stitches, how to start, and where to find inspiration. It was also an encouraging book.

[Holli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun projects and ideas. Whimsical and simple.

[SassieMolassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t care for any of the projects or patterns.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a book on embroidery - a very easy read!

[Kelly (Maybedog) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is trying to do two things and accomplishes neither. First, it's trying to be a simple embroidery instruction book to make it seem less daunting. But there are insufficient diagrams for that. It only explains a stitch well enough for someone with some experience with stitching already. Then the actual projects don't explain much at all.

Secondly, it tries to make stitching young and hip and fresh. Again, it falls flat. The colors are mostly drab, seventies browns, creams and pale pinks. The stitching is mostly flowers and birds in very abstract "mod" seventies styles. Many projects are little more than a few stitches on something that you sew. While I love to sew, that's not why I looked at this book. (My favorite project, a cute little monster with a pocket containing a baby monster, is only pictured and not even given instructions for.)

There are some semi-interesting patterns here if you adapted them to your own style but if you are a beginner who needs a step-by-step project book, this is not it. If you are an advanced stitcher, this book will bore you.

Update 3/7/2016
On second read, I didn't dislike it as much. The designs are cute and whimsical and modern, the projects aren't particularly miraculous but they're cute, and the instructions are very good compared to the other pattern books I've been looking at which is sad. I like the koi and Japanese inspired lampshade project. Overall a decent book which is saying something about the embroidery books I've been looking at.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me just say: I am NOT a crafter. I'm notoriously unskilled at things like knitting and origami. So I'm not sure what made me think I might have any hope of learning hand embroidery-- but you know what? This book makes it easy! The clear introduction to the basic stitches had me well on my way within hours of picking up the book. I have a long way to go before I can say I'm actually "good" at hand embroidery, but this book makes the craft approachable and easy to learn. I've become comfortable and confident with several kinds of stitches, and am looking forward to trying the very cute patterns included in this book.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adult nonfiction; embroidery/sewing. Another embroidery primer that encourages modern girls to take up this lost art. The cover illustration is perhaps the best part of the book--the technique instruction is good but many of the projects themselves are uninspiring (and often not very attractively packaged). I would recommend Jenny Hart's Sublime Stitching instead.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book on freestyle embroidery. The designs are great, but the author also encourages you to try "doodling" and creating your own designs. The instructions for the stitches look good. Each project lists the needed stitches, so you can choose based on stitches you are comfortable with. The diagrams are clearly marked. I especially like how some of the projects are unusual medium: a lampshade, sneakers, etc. Great inspiration!

[Scottsdale Public Library]

Calling all embroidery lovers! Aimee Ray’s Doodle-stitching: fresh & fun embroidery for beginners offers an upbeat contemporary take on embroidery. It’s all here from basic stitches, to threads, needles and how to transfer patterns. All beautifully illustrated. Aimee shares some wonderful and whimsical ideas on how to create fun projects from café aprons, to headbands, bookmarks to zen lampshades that will inspire you and leave you itching to grab needle and thread!

-Amy O.

[jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the project ideas in this book were only so-so (sew, sew?), but, if I were a beginner, I probably would have given the stitching diagrams 5 stars - these are some of the best stitch diagrams I've seen!

Overall, I'm glad I received this as a gift, because I like Aimee's aesthetic, and I can share it with new embroiderers. But I'm not sure I'll get much use out of it other than that.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for embroidery inspiration; however, I don't think I'll make many of the projects. Great, easy-to-follow directions for stitches.

The cutest embroidered things in the book don't have instructions - the gnome in the stitching instruction pages, the cat-thing at the end of the book. I made my own gnome using the photo as a guide pretty easily, though. (He's really cute.)

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clear, inspiration book. Since I already know how to embroider and I always use my own patterns, this book wasn't very useful to me. But I loved her project ideas and the instruction and stitching diagrams were really well done. I would recommend it to someone new to embroidery who is looking to branch out from store bought transfers.

[j.elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun, fast read with easy projects. The funny thing about this author is I saw the book and really liked the style of her doodles so ordered it from Amazon... After it arrived I realized this was an artist who I had downloaded some screen-savers from online about 2 years ago and had really loved her work. Funny how certain likes don't change that much over time....

[Cami · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book. I've always loved doodling stuff very much like the embroidery for the projects in this book.
So...now that I've been having so much fun with embroidery and stitching lately, this book is perfect for me. Giving me permission to think outside the traditional stitching box and expand my crafting horizons.

[Kate MacKinnon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book - very clear & helpful diagrams on how to do each stitch. I also found it very helpful as a means of inspiring your own style or patterns rather thanl just giving your theirs. Most embroidery books are old-fashioned granny stuff that is not appealing to me. However, this is a fresh perspective of a centuries old past-time.

[Breanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always found cross-stitching or embroidery kind of boring, but this book takes more of a free-hand approach which I find very appealing. I also like the patterns provided. The instructions are very simple and easy to understand, and resources have been provided if you want to duplicate the author's examples to the letter.

[Audra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an awesome book! I have never seen a large variety of embroidery stitches explained so well. The photos and illustrations were simple enough for a beginner, which is good because I only knew two stitches before getting this from the library. The biggest bonus is that I have finally mastered the french knot!! Definitely recommend for novices and beyond.