If you’re looking for some cheap or free ways to get supplies for your hand embroidery projects, I have some new ideas for you to try.

Free or Inexpensive Hand Embroidery Supplies

Auction houses are a terrific place to buy old embroidery kits, embroidery floss, and material. Quite often auctions go for a dollar or two for entire kits. Use what you can from the kits, save or give away the remainder to others.

Rummage sales are great places to find leftover quilting fabric to use for your embroidery projects. Also, look for kits or interesting items to embroidery on.

Thrift stores are some of my all-time favorite places to get big bags of embroidery thread, often for pennies of what the original items cost.

Craft stores that are going out of business. While it’s unfortunate that these awesome places end their businesses, it’s a great place to pick up the floss, fabric, hoops, etc.

Grandma! Chances are there is someone in your family who use to love crafts but can no longer do them for one reason or another. Many times, older folks give up sewing due to not being able to see items close up anymore. More often than not they will gladly pass on their vintage treasures to you in hopes that you’ll finish where they left off.

Cut up some clothing that no longer suits your life or needs to be repurposed. Do you have a shirt that has a stain? Cover it up with a cute pattern. Or cut-up dress shirts that no longer get used. Fabric to stitch on doesn’t have to be brand new.

Think outside the box, try embroidering on paper, leaves, cardboard, plain note cards, photographs, felt, lampshades, umbrellas, etc.

How about embroidering old items you have laying around the house such as napkins, tablecloths, an apron, dish towels, curtains, jeans, hats, sneakers, coin purses, etc.

Dollar stores have fabric and embroidery floss. While their floss isn’t the greatest to work with, it’s certainly cheap if you can’t afford a name brand.

Watch for embroidery kits that go on clearance sale at local stores. Just because you don’t like the pattern that is meant to be put onto the fabric doesn’t mean you can’t change it or make your own pattern in its place. It’s fabric, thread, and maybe some other embroidery essentials in those kits, use what you need and set aside the rest for another project.

This is my favorite tip… Fabric stores have remnants for sale, cheap! I often walk out with slightly less than one yard of fabric for a dollar or two. When I see fabrics that I like, I buy all the remnants that I can use within in a few months time.

Holiday clearance sales. Plain Christmas stockings can be embroidered with names during the year and given as a gift for the next season. Holiday ribbon can be embroidered on and used for decoration around the house or to make presents look extremely fancy. Also, watch for clearance sales on fat quarters when the seasons change.

Frames for your completed projects don’t have to cost a fortune. Get frames from thrift stores, then spray paint them outdoors to avoid fumes. Or think outside the box and buy some Mason jar rings and hot glue the fabric inside them to use as mini frames for ornaments or interesting refrigerator magnets.

Plain white painter’s canvasses contain not only the fabric that you need for your projects but the hoop too. Trace your pattern onto the canvass and go, the stretched fabric will stay taut. If you buy canvasses in bulk at craft stores you can get them for a couple of dollars each.

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