Mary Thomas's Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches: The Classic Guide Revised by Jan Eaton

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!!

Unfortunately the kindle version of this book is virtually undeciferable. The text is tiny, even when expanded, and fuzzy. This makes using it when not wanting to carry the printed book around impossible. A decent editor would, one hopes, have picked up on this. The content is excellent, of that I have no doubt. Shame the same cannot be said of the kindle version. Although I have seen reviews saying this with regard to other kindle versions of reading material. Whoever has oversight of kindle should get a competent person to look at kindle and solve this issue.I am now highly delighted I ordered the printed version as well. That should be readable, one trusts.

I am a keen embroiderer and once again I bought this book. The other one I gave it to a friend and she as well enjoys it a lot. Large and beautiful photos of traditional and historical pieces as heads of chapters. Clear illustrated explanations in colour of many, many techniques. Leafing through it makes you want to take a needle and start.No projects but good examples of what can be embroidery.this is a book for dreaming.

This was a replacement for an original copy of the book which somehow got lost. (Loaned and never returned?). Not disappointed with this updated version with its superb illustrations. Consider the book is good value and, as it was promptly delivered, pleased with this purchase.

This book is ideal for both novice sewers and more accomplished ones who may need a reminder or want to try different techniques and need a library of stitches to fall back on. The instructions are clear and the drawings aid understanding of how to carry out the stitches. It is not necessary to use it just for normal embroidery purposes - I used it to help me complete a free form piece of work using different techniques and the book gave me ideas on how to use stitches "outside the box" in order to portray different things. Worth the money whether new or second-hand (which mine was but you would never be able to tell!)

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