Stitch with One Line: 33 Easy-to-Embroider Minimalist Designs

Graphic designer Unterfrauner and tailor Hatun’s winsome debut shows how to embroider simple line drawings onto clothes, cushion covers, and other textiles. An overview of materials recommends using embroidery floss or crochet thread on cotton or linen, warning that “knit and stretchy fabrics are a bit trickier.” To transfer the designs to fabric, the authors include all the line drawings on dedicated pages at the back of the book that can be held up to a window or other light source and traced onto cloth. The projects show how to adorn various fabrics with stylized images of “animals, plants, and people” made to look as if they were created with a single continuous line, inspired by some of Pablo Picasso’s early-20th-century sketches. Designs for cushions include a scraggly eucalyptus branch, an eye, and abstract faces, while clothing projects include poppies on a summer dress, a house cat on a sweatshirt, and a pair of koi fish chasing each other’s tails on a denim jacket. The spare, minimalist designs are simple yet stylish, evoking foxes, flamingos, and other forms with economy and elegance. This is a great starting point for beginner embroiderers. (Feb.)