#embroideryproject

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Details 🌞 🌛 This is an embroidery process for my dark handmade journal. The original art was taken from a medieval alchemy treatise named ROSARIUM PHILOSOPHORUM. This is a collection of 20 prints published in 1550. My store | Instagram 

[jdevinembroidery]

Part 1:

Overall tips and tricks for silk shading, or needle patting:

Try to wash your hands before stitching. The oils from your hands can collect on the floss and fabric, which isn’t great for them. It will degrade the fabric and floss over time. But washing your piece when you’ve finished will help remove anything that may have unintentionally transferred. I can send you info on exactly how to launder your piece when you’ve finished if you’d like as well. It also helps to block or damp stretch the piece when you’ve finished stitching. This will ensure a perfectly flat embroidery with no puckering or warps.

Equipment

A medium plus weight linen is ideal for shading. I sometimes will back my linen with another fabric like muslin or calico to help stabilize the fabric, and help keep the stitches secure and support them. If using a linen or even a cotton, make sure to pre-launder your fabric first to shrink it. You can also use a high count good quality quilters cotton. Silk dupioni works even better. Silk is my favorite and preferred by professional thread painters, but it’s finicky to work with.

Make sure when you cut your fabric, it’s squared on grain. If it’s not cut and mounted on grain, it can lead to terrible puckering and warps. Measure out your fabric, to the dimensions you’ll need to properly finish it for mounting. Mark a mark with a water soluble pen at that measurement. Cut a 1 inch slit along the measurement line. Find and then separate a single strand within the fabric, along the slit you just made. Pull that thread out of the fabric. By removing a single thread from the fabric, you’ll be left with a straight line from where that thread was in the fabric. Using your scissors, cut along that line, using it as a guide. Repeat for all four sides. This will create a perfectly squared piece of fabric in which all the edges are on thread. When mounting the fabric on a frame or in a hoop, keep it squared, on thread. Meaning keep the warp and weft threads straight. They’ll either go vertical perfectly, or horizontal perfectly. Don’t pull one area of the fabric so hard it warp the threads of the fabric. It should be pulled drum tight, but kept so that the fabric remains on thread.

Transfer your pattern using prick and pounce, if you can. An alternative is to use a water soluble transfer paper. This works on any fabric, and on every color. Yellow transfer paper works especially well for fabrics that are dark. Another option is to trace the design using a light box or sunny window. Make sure you’re using a good water soluble pen. Note that this only work for fabric that is thin enough for the light to pass through, and typically you want a thicker fabric for stitching. ****Be wary of heat erase pens!!! The ink my look like it disappears, but it’s always inside and on the fabric and can show back up at any time. They can also leave ghost marks that are permanent and can ruin the piece. Regular carbon paper and iron on transfer methods are also permanent so must be stitch over perfectly and transferee perfectly. Which is not easy to do. It’s best to use transfer methods that are non-damaging to the fabric, like water soluble products.

I recommend using a slate frame to mount your fabric. But stretcher bars work just as well and are cheaper and easier to set up. Use stainless steel tacks to secure the fabric onto the stretcher bars. Other tacks can rust and stain the fabric. A hoop can work in a pinch. I prefer quilter’s embroidery hoops if I’m using one. They’re sturdier and hold the fabric more securely. If you use a hoop, make sure it’s good quality and can either be tightened with a screwdriver or has a wingnut. You can always bind your hoop with bias tape or hoop tape if you feel the fabric is slipping too much or if you’re worried about hoop burn. Just make sure it’s much larger than your actual embroidery design. You should have plenty of space around the pattern. Remember to always keep the fabric drum tight. I can tell you exactly how to mount it up in the hoop or on stretcher bars if you need that info. If using a hoop, remember to take it out of the hoop if not actively stitching to prevent hoop marks and burns.

It helps to lay down acid-free tissue paper over your fabric to protect the it and stitches while working. You can move it around as needed to access the areas you’re working on.

Use good quality, new embroidery needles. I love Tulip brand size 10. John James are fine to work with. Note that old or cheap needles form burs which wear the floss down more quickly making it appear fuzzy and worn.

Start with stranded cotton. DMC or Anchor brand floss are a good place to start. If you’re looking to step it up a bit, look into Cosmo floss, Madeira or Valdani. They’re amazing. Spun silk like Au Ver a Soie d’Alger is superior to stranded cotton. It’s heavenly to work with. I actually use filament silk floss a lot as well, like from DeVere Yarns (size 6). It’s finer and allows for greater detail. It can be hard to work with though and is a bit more expensive. A good alternative is regular sewing threads, like Gutermann. Sewing thread will work to get the same results for detail work.

Cutting and working with your floss

Don’t cut all 6 threads off your skein at once. Separate out only one thread, strip that thread from your skein, then cut it off. Cut the piece of floss 16-18inches long. Any more will wear your floss down, making it fuzzy and it will loose its shine. You can gently wrap the threads still on your skein around it to keep them from getting knotted up. I use DMC’s stitchbow storage system to hold my skeins. It’s very convenient and keeps them organized. I just wrap the un-cut threads back onto the bow after I’ve cut off my one thread.

Make sure you’re paying attention to the grain of your floss. I cut one thread at a time from the skein. Make sure you’re pulling the floss from the proper end of the skein. I then thread my needle with the non-cut end of the floss. This ensures I’m stitching with the grain of the floss. Embroidery thread has a grain, kind of like wood has a grain. Therefore, If you rub along embroidery thread in the wrong direction, you’ll be working against the grain, and subsequently, you will achieve inferior results with your stitching, because you’re pulling the fibers against the grain. To ensure that you’re not stitching against the grain. Always thread your needle from the same end of the floss, which should be pulled from the right end of the skein. To make sure you do this, you pull your floss from the right end of the skein and cut only one strand (of the six) at a time, threading the “front” of the strand into the needle (the end opposite the cut you just made), that way, every time you thread your needle from floss from a pull skein, you’re always threading it so that the thread travels in the same direction through the fabric, and that direction is with the grain and not against it. Stitching “with the grain” of the thread will result in smoother stitching, in fewer knots as you work with your thread, and embroidery thread that doesn’t wear down as quickly.

Part 2 next…

[theembroiderycart]

Another new scissor added to my existing collection of embroidery scissors. Introducing new ‘Arabseque’ embroidery scissors made by BOHIN in France. 💕It has a fine pointed blade and are perfect for snipping threads! ✂️

[margdierembroidery]

My book has now been on sale for two years and is in it's second print run already. I have been overwhelmed by the support that all of you have given me, by buying it, reviewing it, giving me a brilliant rating on Amazon and getting in touch with me to say how much it's helped you. THANK YOU everyone. Available at @royalneedlework for worldwide delivery and " All good bookshops" 😁😁. . . . #threadpainting #silkshading #needlepainting #needlework #embroiderytutor #rsntutor #embroiderybook #needleoworktutor #needleworkbook #embroiderytuition #embroiderydesign #newbook #insrtuctionbook #embroideryproject https://www.instagram.com/p/CIDyfBgnXsX/?igshid=1mapucujbtjmd

[aleksembroidery]

[leleaulait-creations]

Une partie de toute mes broderies.

Évidemment, si vous êtes intéressé elles sont toutes à vendre. Venez en DM je ne mange pas.✨