French Knots can be tricky - but once you've got the knack, they're a gorgeous stitch for decorative fillers, outlines, adding texture, and flower blossom effects.
This tutorial will take you through each of the steps to perfect your french knots. If you're looking for some inspiration as to what you can do with French knots once you've mastered them, check out my article on 10 creative ways to use French Knots!
Instructions (given in video):
- Come up through the fabric, and take hold of the thread with your non-needle hand.
- Hold the needle horizontally, and wrap the thread once around your needle - going up and over from the bottom.
- Re-pierce the fabric, right next to your original hole - but only push the needle halfway through!
- Holding the needle halfway through, tug the thread - then let go of your thread as you pull the needle through.
- Repeat - bring your needle through, and wrap the thread up and over. Then put your needle halfway through the fabric; tug the thread tight; then release the thread as you pull the needle through. Tugging the thread helps you keep your knots nice and neat - solving one of the most common problem with French Knots!
French Knots can be made bigger by the number of times you wrap the thread around the needle - in the second row, the thread is wrapped twice before re-piercing the fabric. The third row has 3 wraps, to make the knots slightly bigger again.
The top 3 rows here all used 2 strands of thread from the skein; this bottom row uses a full skein (6 strands) with 1, 2, then 3 wraps, to change he size and effect of the knots again.
I tend to use 2 strands, with 2 wraps - but it depends on the effect you want!
If you've got any questions, add them below and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!
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