04.02.10
Posted in Free Patterns at 6:06 pm by deRomilly
The finished embroidery
Welcome back! Hopefully the videos helped those of you trying this who were a bit confused about the needlelace leaves. Now that the leaves and petals are finished, we can put it all together!
Step 7 – Completing the Embroidery
- First things first. We need to get those detached lace leaves off our muslin and Free!!! Turn the work over so the back is up, and carefully clip the couching threads, gently pulling them out to remove them.
- Now go back to the front and clip the threads close to the away waste knots. The leaf should now come off of the muslin pretty easily.
- Clip the dangling green threads close to the stitching. You should have secured them when you covered the wire with buttonhole stitch. You did do that, right?
- Now clip the fabric around the blue petals. I like to do this in two passes. One to separate the petals, and another with very very fine, sharp embroidery scissors (I use the same ones I use for hardanger) to snip the fabric off very close to the stitching.
Note: At this point I should have taken my navy blue Sharpie and colored in the white muslin fringe and a bit of the tips of the wire. I didn’t. I KNOW this is going to haunt me. I may even end up going back and re-stitching the petals because of it…
- Put the actual embroidery back into a hoop. Make sure it’s taut.
- Using an awl, or the points of your sharp scissors, poke a small hole where two of the red petals come together, right down by the base of the french knot center. The hole should be large enough for the wires to go through, but not easily. We don’t want them swishing around wherever they want to go when we’re done!
- Poke the wires from one of the blue petals through the hole.
- Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the other three petals.
- On the back of the work, interlace the petal wires together and secure them by stitching over them. I made a cross and then secured each pair of ends with a few whip stitches. Using your wire cutters or the pair of scissors you don’t care about, clip the wires about a sixteenth of an inch away from the stitching.
- Referring to the pattern or photos below for location, poke holes next to the stem and poke the leaves’ wires into them. These holes need to be even smaller than the ones for the petals, simply because they aren’t going through stitching as well as the fabric.
- On the back of the work, secure the wires with small whip stitches and trim them as you did the petals.
- Congratulations! Your stumpwork is finished! You can bend the wires on the raised portions so that they lay the way you want them to, and then you can now frame it, or finish it as you like. (I’ve got a finishing suggestion in mind for these little pieces coming up soon!)
-
-
Remove couching threads on needlelace leaf.
-
-
Cut off the waste knots
-
-
The leaves are free!
-
-
First cut on petals
-
-
Poke a hole for the petals
-
-
The hole for the petal wires. Keep it small.
-
-
Poke the wires for the blue petal through the hole.
-
-
Attach all the blue petals.
-
-
Interlace the wires and tack them down.
-
-
Poke a slightly smaller hole for the leaf.
-
-
Securing the leaf wire.
-
-
All the wires secured on the back.
-
-
The finished embroidery
-
-
Wires can be bent for effect.
-
-
The side view!
Permalink
03.26.10
Posted in Free Patterns at 4:47 pm by deRomilly
I am currently fighting with technical issues with the promised video. As I am having a horrid time getting them uploaded to any of the sites with embeddable viewers right now, I thought I’d go ahead and post a link here for the time being. Unfortunately, I can’t do that either, because the video is too large.
Hang tight. I’ll get it sorted as soon as possible. And tomorrow I will try to post the next step for the stumpwork!
Thanks for your patience! Darn technology!
Permalink
03.19.10
Posted in Free Patterns at 3:37 pm by deRomilly
Note: There are a couple of things in this step I would have done differently if I were doing this again. And will, next time I do stumpwork! And as I wrote this up, I realized that I can’t find video or photo tutorials on working these stitches over a wire frame, so in the next few days expect a video here, technology permitting.
Again, the images are in a gallery at the bottom, with descriptions. Click on them to enlarge.
Step 6 – Wired needlelace leaves
The finished leaf, from an odd angle.
- Start in the same way you started the small petals: couch the wire down along the muslin pattern. Note: This is where I would have done something different: You will be pulling these couching threads out in step 7. I’d suggest using contrasting thread to couch with, rather than something that will blend in, like the blue I used.
- Using 2 very long strands of green floss and the tapestry needle, secure the thread at the FRONT of the work, a bit away from the leaf, and bring your needle up about halfway down one side. Wrap the thread around just the wire up to the point. This will secure the thread when we are finished with the leaf.
Note: This is another thing I would have done differently: I would have used one strand of fine perle cotton, maybe a size 12 for the leaves. (and maybe for the stem, too…) Needlelace is much easier to work with a thread with some body.
- Starting with one buttonhole stitch at the tip of the leaf, work detached buttonhole downward, filling the leaf. This is detached from the muslin, not from the wire. Make sure you wrap each row of buttonhole stitch around the wire at the sides. I can’t find a tutorial for this. Near the beginning of next week I will try to video one and get it posted, if I can figure out the technology!
Note: I wanted a lacy look to this leaf. If you are just trying out this technique, you might want to work a Corded Brussels stitch (with a returning thread bar for stability) instead of the Brussels (just buttonhole) stitch. The corded stitch is easier to maintain tension and make even stitches with. I’ll include both versions in the video.
- When you reach the bottom of the leaf, wrap the thread up around the leaf edge and park it to the side of your work.
- Start another length of thread, again 2 strands, and as long as you can work with: I find that 24-30 inches is about as much as I can handle without it becoming a mess. Secure it using the same method, but this time, come up on the left side of the leaf, 1/2 way up and wrap it to the bottom. Buttonhole around the wire and the wrapped threads all the way around the leaf.
- Secure that last dangling thread by switching to your thinner, sharp needle and running it up under the last few buttonhole stitches you have made, between the stitches and the wire. Clip the dangly green threads and your leaf is finished.
- Repeat for the second leaf.
-
-
Start the needlelace at the tip of the leaf.
-
-
The lace 1/2way into the leaf.
-
-
Cover the wire with buttonhole stitches.
-
-
Stitching finished!
-
-
The finished leaf, from an odd angle.
-
-
Couch the wire using a contrasting color thread.
Permalink
03.13.10
Posted in Free Patterns at 5:16 pm by deRomilly
Into the fun part of wired elements today! YAY! I’m starting with the small blue petals around the red ones. Mostly because they’re smaller, and they’re satin stitched rather than needle-lace. Again, images are contained in the gallery below the instructions, and you can see more detail by clicking the thumbnail.
Step 5
- First things first. Trace the leaf and small petal shapes onto your muslin. Make sure they’re close enough together that you can fit them all into the hoop, but you want them far enough apart that the wire and prior stitching doesn’t get in the way as you move through them. You will need to amend the shapes a little so that they come to points on both ends.
- Taking one piece of wire and one strand of blue floss, couch the wire down using small tacking stitches. I started the couching thread with three very very small backstitches in the middle of the petal. They will be hidden by later stitches and won’t be an issue. You don’t want to use a knot here because it will leave a lump in your petal, making it look like your plant has parasites! Hide the stitches under the wire, keeping in mind that the back of the petal will show as well as the front. Leave about a 1-1 1/2 inch tail at the bottom of the petal, and when you have completed couching it down, cut the other wire off to the same length.
- Using one strand of floss, either use encroaching satin stitch or long and short stitch to fill the petal, stitching over the wires as well as the muslin. Remember that the back of this will be seen as well as the front, and be careful while stitching to lay your stitches evenly over both the front and back.
- Repeat until you have completed all four petals. Leave them on the hoop.
Next week – leaves and needlelace!!! Eeeep!
-
-
Leaves and petals traced onto muslin.
-
-
Couch the wire down to the muslin over the lines.
-
-
Fill the petal with encroaching satin stitch or long and short stitch.
Permalink
« Previous entries Next Page » Next Page »
