Mary Thomas's Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches: The Classic Guide

I'm an intermediate embroiderer. I was looking for some new, unique, different stitches. This book has that. There are stitches in here that I've never heard of and love. As the cover says, over 400 stitches.The first 120 pages are hand embroidery stitches, then it moves on to needlepoint/bargello/canvas stitches, and then a small amount of insertion, pulled fabric stitches.The book is in full color on nice paper. The stitches are shown in a photo and then there is an illustration/diagram on how to stitch it.My problem with the book is that there is only one diagram per stitch, despite how many steps may or may not be in that stitch. This makes following the more complicated stitches nearly impossible. For me, 50% of the stitches I've tried I have not been able to learn from just that one diagram and have had to resort to googling to learn. I'd find stitches that took seven steps/photo's online to teach you, would, in this book, have just that single diagram. There is also a few sentences that explain how you're suppose to work the stitch. Look at my photo and you'll see that the only written directions are the last paragraph and you get just that one illustration despite all the steps needed for that stitch.My next problem with the book is how it's organized. The embroidery stitches are organized by how (supposedly) someone would use them. For instance, one chapter is Outline Stitches while another is Border Stitches. For example, someone has decided that chain stitch is for outlines while broad chain stitch is for borders. So these two very similar stitches are found in two different chapters. If, for instance, I know a chain stitch would work on what I"m doing, but am unsure which chain stitch variation to use, I have to literally flip through almost every single page of this book to see all the chain stitch variations. Even the index is not organized in a way that I find helpful. You can't look up "chain stitch" and then see all the variations listed under it. The index is alphabetical by stitch name, so chain stitch is in C, while Broad Chain Stitch is under B.Because there's so many stitches in the book, it gives me lots of new stitches to try and for those that are too complicated for me to figure out in one diagram, I at least have a stitch name that I can google and learn.

The book is very comprehensive and contains many uncommon stitches, but the directions on how to do the stitches is really lacking. The diagrams are not labeled with entry and exit points and to complicate things even further, the print is so small in the E-version that you struggle to figure out the text. I'll use the book as a reference to look up directions from another source.

The book is in better condition than the seller claims. it is really an excellent guide for to embroidery. I love it!!

Just got this and I’m so glad it’s the one I picked! It has far more stitches than other books I saw. The pictures are beautiful, so you really get a good sense of what the stitch will look like, including a variety of positions (curved, straight, etc) for outline stitches. No, the directions aren’t always super detailed, but there’s simply no way any one book will explain every stitch in a way everyone will understand. You will always have to hunt down more directions on a stitch that’s giving you trouble. Once you identify a stitch from the beautiful pictures that you want to try, there’s a name, including alternate names, so you can look it up online, as needed.

This is an excellent reference for novice or experienced stitchers. Decided to try it on my 13 inch iPad tablet. Works very well, although text is a bit fuzzy.Looked on my kindle. Terrible on kindle. Puts 2 pages on screen at a time and text was completely impossible to read. Kindle’s black & white images would also be a problem. My objective was color images on iPad, so it meets my need for lightweight reference while traveling. Great embroidery inspiration. Five Stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I owned a copy of this book for years prior to this one and sadly lost it. It's one of the best embroidery books available full of great color photos of every possible stitch. Whether you're a beginner or an advanced stitcher, you'll love this book!

I love this book. I've embroidered, but it's impossible to remember all of the stitches & this book does a wonderful job of showing the stitch & explaining clearly & easily how to do the stitch. There are over 400 stitches included & around 100 are new stitches! One chapter covers pulled fabric stitches, another art form of embroidery. She teaches you about what kind of fabric/canvas to use as well as what kind of thread/yarn to use. I found myself reading this book & will continue to do so. The Photography is gorgeous. While showing how to do the stitches, there's quite a few pictures of vintage pieces that are exquisitely shot by the photographer. I wasn't paid for this review & if I had been, I don't believe I would have said one thing different, cause if you love to do needlework, you're short changing yourself if you don't get this book. You will miss out on a treasure.

If you’re looking to start embroidering, or brush up on your skills or learn new stitches, this is the book for you!! Clearly labeled with lovely pictures, very user friendly. Mary Thomas’ book has been brought up to date in a beautiful way. Highly recommended!!

Comprei esta enciclopédia porque sei da qualidade dos trabalhos de Marie Colbert, quem fez a revisão e atualização, e tem muitos pontos novos para mim, em especial os de cobertura de superfície, treliças com diferentes cores. Será uma fonte de inspiração e consulta! Recomendo pra quem já borda.

Just what i expected

Excelentes ilustrações e explicações dos pontos. Mesmo se você não entender inglês, pode compreender o conteúdo.

Adorei esta publicação, pois, apresenta trabalhosmuito lindos. Espero bordar assim em breve.Recomendo a quem queira realmente aprendera bordar bem.

It good but a little dated now. Good to have in your library to learn how to do stitches though