Weekend Review: Embroidered Lettering

Embroidered Lettering / Debra Valencia
Mount Joy, PA: Design Originals, c2019.
176 p.

This month I'm all about lettering. I was looking forward to this book on embroidery, as I really like lettering and the cover example is really nice. I found it a good read, with some useful tips, but it's really more of a project book than a technique book.

The lettering is almost entirely done with the same techniques; primarily stem stitch outlines with various fill stitches. I also like - and often use - this combo, so I don't feel anything new or groundbreaking was learned here -- for me. That said, this book does include various alphabets for you to use for your projects, which you can incorporate into anything you please, not just the ideas given here. And there are a number of simple sewing projects, so those new to both sewing and embroidery won't feel overwhelmed by complexity. 

There are 25 simple projects -- zipper pouches, coasters, tote bags and the like -- and 7 full alphabets. Unfortunately they aren't to scale so you would have to photocopy to scale if you wanted to follow these patterns exactly. There are fairly solid instructions for the stitches she uses to embroider the lettering, so if you haven't tried this before you might find it helpful. Overall, a pretty book with nice photos, entertaining to look through but unlikely to be a keeper for me.