Needlepoint and tapestry: a beginner's guide
Small slanted stitches on stiff open canvas, covering it completely. Painted canvases make it easy to start.
Needlepoint (often called tapestry in the UK) is canvas work: yarn is stitched through a stiff, open-weave canvas, usually covering it completely.
- The basic stitch is tent stitch: one small slant over each crossing of canvas threads.
- Most designs come painted or printed on the canvas, so you stitch each colour where you see it. You can also count from a chart onto blank canvas.
- Canvas is sized by mesh: holes per inch. 13 mesh is a friendly first size.
- Tent stitch can be worked three ways that look the same from the front: continental, basketweave and half cross.
- Learn continental first, then basketweave.
Watch
How to Needlepoint for Beginners - Step By Step Easy Guide (7:23)
By Unwind Studio · Open on YouTube
Chosen from its title and channel: a 7-minute video from Unwind Studio on the same topic as this guide. Embedded from YouTube with credit; we don't host it. It only loads when you press play.
All guides ›Needlepoint and tapestry
Sources
All checked 1 November 2026. We read these; we did not test the products ourselves.