Hand embroidery thread – how to blend custom thread colors


If you do a lot (or even a little) hand embroidery, over time you can accumulate quite a collection of embroidery floss and yarn. But doesn’t it always seem that you simply never have the right color hand embroidery thread to finish off a sewing project?
The color thread you use for hand stitching can sometimes be important to the overall design, so choosing the right color is important. You could of course overdye your floss to get the color you need, but in this tutorial I’m going to show you a much simpler, and less messy way.
For this project I printed an image onto fabric and planned to add some hand embroidery embellishment using variegated thread. But of course I didn’t have quite the right shade of embroidery floss.
Hand embroidery thread - how to blend thread colors
However it’s easy to make your own custom thread colors by combining single strands from different color threads. Although it’s not quite a variegated color, it adds highlights and depth to your hand stitching which makes it more interesting. I’ve chosen to begin with a soft green, yellow, and beige.
Hand embroidery thread - how to blend thread colors
I’ve used one strand from each color to make some french knots but I can see that it looks a little pale and washed out to me.
Hand embroidery thread - how to blend thread colors
So I added in an extra strand of dark brown.
Hand embroidery thread - how to blend thread colors
And this has made all the difference. I really like the way this turned out, don’t you? And how easy was that!
Hand embroidery thread - how to blend thread colors