A Chance Find and a Long-Awaited Return to Hand Embroidery
There are discoveries you make in charity shops that change things. For Elaine Fraser, it was a partly finished embroidered linen tea tray cloth, its original threads still neatly bundled alongside it, waiting for hands confident enough to continue the work. Elaine paid for it, took it home, and looked at it. Then looked at it again. She knew she couldn’t do it justice, not yet. That small linen cloth, quiet and unfinished on a shelf, became the spark that sent her back to hand embroidery after a lifetime away from it.
Elaine’s connection to stitching began long before that charity shop visit. As a girl of thirteen she was already sewing motifs onto classmates’ school shirts for a box of Maltesers a time. Life, as it tends to, got in the way. But the desire to create never quite disappeared, and when that unfinished cloth crossed her path, it reignited everything. She enrolled on SST’s Hand Embroidery Skill Stage 2, a City & Guilds accredited home study course designed precisely for students ready to return to their craft with structure, support, and serious intent.
What followed was, in Elaine’s own words, not just a course in hand embroidery but a journey to success and belief in herself as a creative person.
Inspired by Elaine’s story? SST’s City & Guilds accredited Hand Embroidery Skill Stage 2 is designed for stitchers returning to the craft or building on early skills, with expert tutor feedback and a structured learning programme you can complete from home. Find out more by visiting our beginner level Hand Embroidery course.
"It is so much more than a course in hand embroidery. It is a journey to success and belief in yourself as a creative person."
The Course That Made Her Want to Know How They Did It
I had been aware of SST for a long time, but this was the first time I really looked at what it had to offer. I looked at all the beautiful work that students had done and was so impressed. I really wanted to know how they had produced such stunning pieces of work, so I enrolled on the Hand Embroidery course, Skill Stage 2. It had to be Skill Stage 2 for me as I had not stitched any embroidery since I was a girl.
I wanted a course which was well structured and could support me through the learning process. It didn’t really matter to me that it was accredited, but it was great to receive a certificate at the end of the course, which gave me a real sense of achievement.
From Nervous Beginner to Confident Stitcher: What the Course Taught Me
I have learned so much more than I expected to on this course. Apart from all the different kinds of hand embroidery you are introduced to, which was exciting but also daunting at times, at the end of each unit I always felt I had learned a lot, about the stitching and about myself. I was terrible at making decisions, keeping notes, and keeping to time constraints, but I worked on all of these as I progressed through the course.
My confidence grew with support and encouragement in feedback from my lovely tutor. My old unused skills were being reawakened, and once I finished one unit I couldn’t wait to move on to the next.
Where Hand Embroidery Is Taking Me Next, and That Tea Tray Cloth
Now I have completed this course, I do miss the structure and support it gave me. I miss the challenges and learning new skills. I would like to do another course with SST in the near future. I might do more as they all look great to me. I am not looking for a career in textile arts, just a joy in learning new skills, being creative, and feeling proud of my creations.
I don’t know where it might take me or what I will do with these skills in the future, but I might try doing voluntary work that involves creativity. I hope my experience can motivate others to have a go at this course, especially if they have been hesitating. And I might also have a go at the tea tray cloth!
Elaine’s story is a reminder that creative skills, once learned, are never truly lost. They wait, patient and quiet, for the right moment and the right course to bring them back. At SST, that kind of return journey is at the heart of what we do: structured, supportive learning that gives every student the confidence to pick up where they left off, and go much further than they imagined.
