The Left-Hander’s Embroiderer’s Companion – book review

Yvette Stanton, Vetty Creations, 2010 ISBN 978-0-9757677-3-3

Like the author, I’m left-handed and a stitcher. And, no doubt like the author, I’ve struggled to learn stitches when the diagrams seemed wrong. And, like many other embroiderers who are also lefties, I’ve longed for a book like this.

Written to cover all kinds of embroidery, both on cloth and on evenweaves (including canvas), this is a detailed stitch dictionary covering how to stitch many basic stitches and variations with your left hand.

The stitches are described and then detailed instructions with both pictures and text show you exactly how to do the stitch, For every stitch there is also a photo of it used in embroidered pieces.

Even more helpfully there is often an additional illustration showing how a right-handed stitcher would make the stitch. These are easily distinguishable by the pink background. If there is no illustration, there is a short note in italics, explaining the difference. This is there for every stitch in the book, even when there is no difference.

For every stitch I know I checked the instructions and they were exactly the way I do these stitches. I also checked several of the stitches against the ones in The Embroidery Stitch Bible and, sure enough, the illustrations in that book matched the right-handed illustrations in Stanton’s book.

I am so delighted with the care and attention to detail present in this books. It’s beautiful, but very practical. With it I feel more confident to try stitches and techniques that have eluded me in the past.

If you are an embroidery teacher or if you are a left-handed stitcher, get this book, it’s an essential.

Please note in the US the book is distributed through Dinky Dyes. I received a complimentary copy of this book for purposes of review.