Embroidery for Lefties
March 5, 2009 by Chloe Findlay-Harder
Filed under Home & Living
Ah, the life of a left handed crafter…. Scissors feel weird, your sewing machine seems backward and even patterns are designed for right handed people!
Okay, even though I’m a lefty, I can’t use left handed scissors, and I’ve never actually had problems with my sewing machine, but there are lots of lefties who have real problems learning embroidery stitches.
The stitches slant the wrong way or the needle placement can feel awkward. Luckily, there are smart, creative left handed stitchers out there – like Jenny from Sublime Stitching! She has created an in-depth how-to guide to left handed embroidery. As a bonus, she’s even created a left handed French knot tutorial.
I speak for my fellow lefties, as we say “thank you” to Jenny 
image: Stock.xchg
Diagrams are easy to deal with. Just hold them in front of a mirror or against a light source (window, glass table, light box) so you can view them in reverse; or scan and print them in reverse.
It’s the words that are tricky. Right is left and left is right – sort of like Alice Through the Looking Glass. LOL.
So true – trying to follow instructions as a left-handed crafter is certainly not impossible but can definitely be frustrating. I often re-write my patterns and create a mirror image of diagrams/charts before I start.