Easy embroidery: how to stitch stars

Today's tutorial is VERY beginners-friendly! So if you are still a little nervous to take up stitching, this little project would be a great start :)

It is also not tied up to a pattern. On the contrary, you can build this starry sky yourself in a way that you like the most. Or use any of these stars as a doodley motif in another project.

And if you are a beginner and want to know the basics first, you can start with the following posts: how to start thread, how to end thread and others in the “Guide to embroidery” tag!

And without further ado, let's start. There will be lots of pictures ahead!

So, the first star is this easy 5-point star. I quickly doodled it up on the fabric with a chalk pencil. And to work it you just need to make straight stitches for all of the edges.

As easy as it can be. And it looks kind of cute, doesn't it? :)

Now, if you want to fill it in, you can do that with parallel stitches slanted in the same angle as one of the edges.

You can place these stitches as densely as you want. In my case, I decided to take it easy and leave some space between them.

If you want to add an extra “tail” to the star to show that it is moving, you can use one of the line stitches to do that. I used split back stitch here when you come up through the fabric a step down the line and then insert the needle in the previous stitch.

Alternative stitches that you can use for these lines: stem stitch, back stitch and regular split stitch.

At the end of the tail, the lines interrupt so you can leave some space between these tiny stitches. I'm actually still moving in a “back stitch” way here, moving backward, but you can work it as a running stitch.

Falling stars, falling stars everywhere. And we have a rising star! :)

Another easy way to stitch a pentagonal star is to make longer stitches connecting the five points.

The finished one!

There are also 4-pointed stars with soft, bending sides. They are easy to work too, we just need to use fly stitch technique.

Make a stitch at one of the peaks and end it in another peak, then come up through the fabric in between these two points while tucking the working end of the thread under the needle tip.

Pull the needle through and anchor the stitch.

Repeat for the other sides to get a star like this :)

Now, a criss-cross star! Make a vertical stitch, cross it with a horizontal one, and then add two diagonal stitches.

Doesn't it remind you of the northern star?

In fact, you don't have to make the first two stitches so long, If you make all of the stitches approximately the same length, it will look very cute too!

Lastly, you may want to add just little dot-like stars, which are also a very pretty way to work starry skies. For that, you can use french knots. For a very small dot use 1 strand of thread and 1 wrap around the needle. For bigger knots, you can make 2 wraps (3 wraps is usually too much), and the more strands you use, the more dimensional will be the knots.

And if you want to create a scattering of little stars, use seed stitch. You can grab even just 1 fiber of fabric with your thread if you want to make these little guys extra tiny.

And that's about that! Now you can make your own starry sky using these tutorials. Isn't that one of the easiest ways to make a decorative hoop for your home? :)