Tatreez for beginners — the base cross-stitch and first border
With Rania Barakat · Ramallah, West Bank
A digital course for people starting tatreez from nothing. I will teach you the base cross-stitch correctly — direction, tension, and how the back should look. Then we will work a simple border pattern from the Ramallah region. By the end you will have stitched one complete border and understood the counting system that makes every other tatreez pattern accessible.
- Lessons
- 5 lessons
- Total length
- 2 hours
- Format
- Self-paced video
A stitched border sample you made during the course. The ability to read a simple counted tatreez pattern. An understanding of the village-pattern system and how to research the origin of any piece.
Complete beginners. Also suitable for embroiderers from other traditions who want to understand the specific counting and counting logic of tatreez.
5 lessons · 2h total
- 1Materials — linen, thread, and the needle that matters15 min
- 2The cross-stitch — direction, tension, and a clean back35 min
- 3Counting — how tatreez patterns are read without a printed guide30 min
- 4The Ramallah border — working the first repeating pattern40 min
- 5Village patterns — how to identify a pattern's origin20 min
Rania Barakat
Tatreez — Palestinian cross-stitch · Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine
A cooperative or artisanal ministry has vouched for this artisan. The institution stakes its reputation on the introduction.
I do tatreez — Palestinian cross-stitch. My mother taught me using thread and linen she kept from before I was born. Every village has its own patterns. Mine are from Beit Nuba, the village my grandmother left in 1948. The patterns are how we remember a place we cannot visit. I work on commission pieces and I work on thobs — the traditional dress. I will not make tatreez that is not rooted in a real pattern from a real place. If you want something decorative but invented, I am not the right person. If you want something that means something, send me a message.
In the archive
Rania has documented this tradition in detail in the Amussu Archive. It is free to read.