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I'm absolutely rubbish at French knots can anyone please give me some advice? Every time I attempt a French knot they end up like a normal stitch. I've tried everything I can think of to try and find out how to do them. I've even watched clips on YouTube but still no joy.

At the minute I'm using small beads to replace where a French knot is supposed to go.

I find Mary Corbett's videos very helpful, and she's got one for Colonial knots as well, which are a similar stitch to French knots but easier (I used to use them all the time until I finally managed to get my head [and needle!] around the French variety).

You can find them here:

French knot
Colonial knot

HTH!

Thanks Mabel that's really helpful.

I'm not sure if its the same person, but the Victoria's samplers Stitch animations are pretty good.

I never used to be able to do French knots but I kept practising and one day it all fell into place.

The biggest tip I can give is to make sure you keep the tension even. I find it easiest to bring the needle through the fabric, then using my left hand, needle in my right, wrap the thread around the needle while keeping the thread a little taut. Push the tip of the needle through your fabric where you need to go down and pull the thread slightly tighter before pulling your needle the rest of the way through.

The other tip I would give is not to take your needle down through a 'hole' in your fabric. I find that taking it down in a hole makes it more likely that the hole won't 'hold' and will come undone.

Hope that makes sense!

I think the trick to making a good french knot is to make sure your tension is tight befor the needle goes through the fabric.

I also agree with all the ideas that Arianwen has given.