After finishing the embroidery on the main part of the pall, I made a small, square, detachable back for it, so that the back can be removed and washed without having to take the whole pall apart for cleaning. The detachable back of the pall is made from linen, and it is hemmed all around with a small hem with mitred corners. Then the center is embroidered with a tiny red cross.

For the embroiderer, it's handy to know how to mitre corners on a hem. Imagine making a long table runner with a drawn thread line running just inside the hem. Wouldn't it be nice to know how to finish the corners on that hem so that they looked professional? What about a fine hanky, where people will see the back of the work? Sloppy corners just wouldn't do, would they?

So, today I'm going to show you how I created a quarter-inch hem on a small piece of linen and mitred the corners. You can take the concept to any proportion hem around a piece with 90-degree corners.



I began with a square of linen one inch larger all around than the finished piece would be. This allows for half an inch extra on each side of the fabric, out of which the hem (two quarter inch turns) will be made.



Using a stiletto that doesn't have a super sharp tip (it's not like the tip of a needle, more like the tip of an ice pick) and a ruler, I marked off my folding lines by "scoring" the fabric. You can use any tool here to make marking lines on the fabric, though you probably wouldn't want to use scissors or anything that would cut the fabric.

I scored the fabric in two quarter-inch increments on all four sides of the square. Scoring is simply running that tool firmly over the fabric, along the edge of the ruler. It marks the path of the of your folding lines with a slight dent in the fabric, making folding along the measured line much easier.



After scoring two lines in quarter inch increments (from the edge of the fabric) all around on all four sides, I finger pressed the hem in.

First, I folded the fabric from the edge inward on all four sides at the first quarter inch line. Then, I folded these folds (on all four sides) one more time on the second quarter inch line.

I firmly pressed each fold as I made it, using my fingers (not an iron).



Unfolding the folds, this is what the fabric looks like. You can see two distinct quarter-inch lines where the fabric was folded and finger pressed.



Notice the intersections of the lines.



See how the green dotted line passes through the diagonal on the second square in from the corner?



Using the diagonal on that square, form a cutting line by laying your ruler across the square diagonally.



Cut the corner off. A rotary cutter is helpful here, but really, you can just eyeball the cutting line along the diagonal and use scissors just as effectively!



After cutting the four corners off, finger press the diagonal cut an eighth of an inch in. The fold will actually be as deep as the lower tip of the remains of the second square in from the corner (the top of which you just cut off). Finger press this small fold right across the corner...



...and then, using your previous fold lines as a guide, fold your first quarter-inch fold all along the outside hem and finger press it is firmly again...



... and then make your second quarter inch fold all around the hem, finger pressing the turned edge in, and aligning the corners so that they fit up as in the photo above.



Then, pin everything. Since my square is relatively small here (the finished size is 6.25 inches), I didn't use many pins. Pin through the mitred corners to hold them in place, and then pin down the edge of the hem.



You can then do whatever kind of stitching along the hem that you want to do. I just used a regular small whip stitched hem. When you get to the corners, you want to stitch them neatly, either using a blind stitch or even a regular whip stitch.



I stitched inside the fabric in a blind stitch fashion, and then I pulled the thread tightly, to form a slight ridge where the corners meet up. This is actually a mistake - the corner should be smooth and flat - but once I did it on one, I went ahead and did it on all four, so that they match. (That way it doesn't look so much like a mistake!) There shouldn't really be that rounded bulge at the edge of the corner. One of the reasons for this (besides butting up the corners too tightly there) is that the small quarter inch hem is rather thick, in a small space, so it's kind of tight in there when you're stitching. Still, I could have avoided that with looser stitching on the corner, so keep that in mind as you stitch up your mitred corners.

And that is how you mitre corners by hand on the edge of a squared hem!

Hope you find the technique handy!

Labels: finish work, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, June 18, 2009
PermaLink  |  8 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

The miniature embroidery piece that I framed last weekend went together pretty well, so I thought I'd show you how I framed it, step-by-step. It was really simple, and very quick! Of course, I'm no professional framer or "finisher" - I've always thought it would be a worth-while thing to take a class in finish work. Either that, or to find someone who wanted to enlist as my "personal finisher." Ha ha. Anyway.... here's how I framed it.

The first step was finding something to mount the embroidery on. Ideally, a piece of archival mat board works great. And, as a matter of fact, I did have a little scrap of mat board left over from another project. I knew I wouldn't need much for this one, so it worked out really well.



Measuring the opening of the frame on the back, I subtracted one-eighth inch from the measurement to give me room for the fabric around the mat board. I cut the mat board to fit the opening perfectly, minus 1/8th of an inch. A regular utility knife or craft knife or X-acto knife works well for cutting mat board, and I just use my sewing / cutting mat for cutting mat board, too. The self-healing mats are great - not only do they serve as my base for cutting with a knife, but they serve as my ruler in practically everything!



To make sure the piece of board and the fabric would fit the opening in the back of the frame, I lined up the design on the little board and pushed it into the frame. It fit fine.



I finger-pressed the edges of the fabric around the mat board so I would know where to line it up as I worked. First, make sure your embroidery is exactly where you want it to be. Then, fold each edge of the fabric over the mat board, and run your finger along the edge, to make a crease in the fabric, marking the spot where you want the mat board to fit.

After doing that, I cut the excess fabric off the corners, straight across.



Then I folded two opposite sides over the mat board, making sure my embroidery was centered where I wanted it. With a double-threaded sharp sewing needle, I "laced" back and forth between the edges of the two sides of fabric, keeping the stitches fairly close together and pulling tightly so that the fabric was taut.

Then I folded over the two remaining opposite sides and repeated the lacing on those sides.



I didn't really like the way the corners turned out - they're so unfinished looking. I briefly thought of tucking in that little edge and re-sewing the whole thing with mitered corners, but then I remembered that no one would see it! There's a good quarter inch all around the embroidery that is hidden by the front lip of the frame. Besides, the tweaker you see there in the photo tucked to the back of the mat board just fine. So I left it.



Next, I fitted the embroidered piece into the frame, and when I was certain that all was lining up correctly, I started working on finishing the back. I should have filled the whole space in the back, but instead, I used a smaller square of mat board right behind the embroidered piece, and then one more square of mat board cut precisely to the size of the opening, so that it fit very snuggly into the frame opening on the back.



You can see there's still a good amount of space there. It would have probably been wise to go ahead and fill that with little mat board squares until the last piece was flush with the back of the frame. Probably, nothing will happen to it - but I still have visions of someone picking up the frame and giving the embroidery a good poke, which would dislodge it.



After fitting in the two pieces of mat board, I selected a pinkish piece of card-stock that matched the pink in the embroidery. It's an "ok" match, anyway - not perfect, but it's all I had on hand.

I cut a square of paper to the size of the back of the frame.



A tiny bit of glue fixed the decorative paper to the back of the frame to give it a finished look.



I suppose you can tell I went about this rather haphazardly, but the finished result is ok, I think. It's nice to have it done, anyway. I think I'd like to find a teeny tiny easel to put the frame on for display. At this point, it's just leaning against the base of a statue on the table in my entrance way. Kind of lost and small and dwarfed. But... I like it!

Now, it's time to move on to other things! I've been experimenting with something drawn-threadish, and I'm hoping to be able to show that to you tomorrow, depending on whether or not I get close-to-finished today! I'm also in the middle of trying to draw a design for an ecclesiastical project I'm supposed to be working on already. I can't quite get the drawing where I want it! Oh, where is my Muse??? And, then, once I get that going for real, I've got a couple other needlework-related ideas brewing (or at least half-way brewing - they haven't come to a complete boil yet!). Now, for the invention of the 36-hour day....

Labels: finish work, miniature embroidery, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, May 26, 2009
PermaLink  |  7 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

A few months ago, I finished this little piece of miniature embroidery, and until this weekend, it's just been sitting around, waiting...

Earlier this month, when I went needlework shop hopping, one of the most exciting findings for me was a little square frame which I thought would be the "perfect size" for this miniature piece. It was $10, and, admittedly, I sort of cringed at paying $10 for a frame that was just barely two inches square...!

But... have you ever noticed that smaller things are sometimes pretty expensive?

And if you figure that miniature needlework can take just as much time - if not more - than regular-sized needlework, I think you'll discover a kind of value ratio there, somewhere.

Anyway, this past weekend, I did manage to put the miniature piece in the frame, and I had that little surge of satisfaction, knowing that I was actually right, that the frame was the perfect size.



The horizontal line running through the middle of the piece corresponds to a blank line in the middle of the flower and a slub in the fabric, just in case you're wondering.

After stitching on 28-count linen lately, I look at this piece (approximately 40 threads per inch - the whole piece is just about 1.5 inches square) and can't figure out how I saw those stitches without any kind of magnification...! Don't tell me my eyes are getting old, in just a few months' time!

I took this photo before finishing the back, and I've since slightly adjusted that lower right hand corner.

In a bit, I'll show you step-by-step how a framed the piece and finished the back of the frame. But for now, suffice it to say, I'm glad I've finally "finished" something! It always seems that anything I embroider these days gets put on hold and it never sees the finish line. I really need to stop doing that!

Happy Memorial Day!

Labels: finish work, miniature embroidery, needlework pictures, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, May 25, 2009
PermaLink  |  10 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

You know I like goldwork and silk shading - they're possibly my favorite embroidery techniques - but ... wow... this piece makes everything I've done with goldwork look rather dull. It's like the sparkling city cousin that the country mouse can't hold a candle to! This bright splash of color and gold was an exercise in creative goldwork from a Royal School of Needlework course that Margaret took back in 2007.

The project is worked on a background of silk dupoini woven in purple and red. Predominantly, the purple shows up, but you can see the reddish highlights in the photo. It's a gorgeous fabric!



I think the whole piece is beautiful, but the part of the piece that intrigues me the most is the bold leaf on the lower left, which is made out of gold kid leather. Rather than try to explain it myself, here's Margaret's description of the technique:

What was interesting was that we had a basic outline for the leaf and a piece of leather that was larger than the outline (at least at the top). Starting at the bottom we tacked down the leather to hold it in place. Then at the top we manipulated the oversized piece to fit within the design lines. This let us create the veins. So, everyone's leaf was different, of course.

I love the leaf, with it's bulging gold veins - and my hat's off to anyone who would stitch it and not scream before it was over! Yeeeeesh. I don't particluarly like stitching kid leather, but I'd like it even less if I had to manipulate it and squeeze it into an area! I think it turned out so pretty, though, that it's sort of tempting to want to try something similar.

Here's the finished project, framed up:



Isn't it gorgeous?

Thanks, Margaret, for sending the photos! Margaret, by the way, is the one who designed the Golden Pomegranate project I stitched last fall.

When Margaret sent me these photos, I came to the realization of something that I find rather funny, and I'd love to hear what others have to say about the same subject! It went like this: Margaret sent me photos of her frame jobs on three gorgeous pieces of embroidery: the Golden Pomegranate (hers is matted in greens, with a gold frame), her goldwork rose, and this goldwork project featured here. When I saw the three framed, I thought, "WOW - wouldn't those make a gorgeous set to hang together on a wall??!" And that's when I realized something...

And this is what I realized: in my house, I have one tiny bird I embroidered that's framed and hung. Other than that, I don't have one finished thing that I've embroidered. Everything else I've done has been given away, or was made at the request of someone else.

Ok, wait - with the exception of my silly pillowcases and my goofy felt needlebook thingy. And, no, I don't use the pillow cases myself.

My question is this: do you retain your work, or give it away? Are you fortunate enough to have nice embroidered things around your house? I just realized how nice that would be.

But how does one remedy that? I can't exactly go snatching up the things I've given away. And I wouldn't, anyway. Deep down, I wouldn't want to. (Or wait - maybe deep down, I do want to....!)

I was thinking that a resolution of some sort could help solve this: each year, I could make at least one nice project for the house. It doesn't have to be a big project or a major deal - just one nice something to be finished and framed.

Well, now that I'm thinking along those lines, I suddenly want to make another pomegranate or grab a silk shading project and ditch the whitework sampler!

Yeah. Thanks a lot, Margaret! ;-)

Labels: finish work, goldwork, needlework pictures, pictures, readers embroidery

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, January 25, 2009
PermaLink  |  8 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Now that Inspirations Magazine issue 61 is officially out, I wanted to share with you the finish on this goldwork and silk embroidery project that I showed you last October.

Before the photos, the background information: this project was designed by Margaret Cobleigh, who used it as a guild project to teach some silk shading and goldwork embroidery techniques. After preparing the kits for her guild, she had a couple left over, and I am ever-so-grateful that I had the opportunity to procure one!

Margaret also submitted the project to Inspirations Magazine. It's being published in issue #61, which is just out now. You can see a preview of Inspirations 61 on the Country Bumpkin website right now, and you can also see that the kit for The Golden Pomegranate is available for sale. (US readers, if you look at the kit, make sure to change the currency options to US dollars - it makes quite a bit of difference!) If you don't subscribe you Inspirations magazine, you can buy an individual copy of this issue if you want (through Country Bumpkin, and probably through some US suppliers, like Wooly Thread, for instance). If you already subscribe to Inspirations, then you know that you'll receive the complete instructions, photos, and the pattern within the magazine. If you decide to buy the kit and you don't have this issue of the magazine, you'll also need to buy the issue in order to have the instructions.

So that's how that works.

I was first attracted to the pomegranate design when Margaret sent me a photo to show me what she had designed, with the understanding that I couldn't publish the photo, as she was submitting the project to Country Bumpkin. Well, I was besotted! I love everything about this design - I love the colors (the reds are fantastic, and the greens are perfect), I love the goldwork, I love the way the goldwork is arranged and the variety of goldwork techniques, I love (LOVE) the trellis center on the pomegranate, with the beads and spangles... well. Like I said, when I first saw the photo of the project, I was besotted.

Another point that I liked about it - it's not a huge project. It's small (about 6" x 6", I think), so it's manageable in a reasonable amount of time. Margaret's instructions are crystal clear and perfect for someone who wants to try goldwork for the first time. The project is interesting and varied enough for seasoned goldworkers, too.

Anyway, I was happy to get one of Margaret's "leftover" kits... and I started to work on the pomegranate pretty quickly. All told, it didn't take 3 weeks (maximum) to complete it. Keep in mind, that's stitching in the evenings and a bit on weekends - I have a full time job and a life, so I wasn't stitching day in and day out! It was a nice, pleasurable, non-pressured stitching situation.

I had decided before I embarked on the project that I would make it as a gift for my niece, who was married in the middle of November. The pomegranate has been a symbol for ages upon ages of new life - so I thought it an appropriate gift.



I like angle shots - this isn't perhaps the best angle shot, but one of my favorite elements of the design is the pomegranate "crown" filled with chip work.



Here's the pomegranate itself. I love the fact that the stitching is shaded with the understanding of a light source from the top left. Notice how the pomegranate, on the top left, is lighter, and on the bottom right side, the top edge is also lighter? The top left leaf is couched in a lighter green as well. Nice, isn't it?



The trellis interior is really my favorite part. I love the pomegranate seeds (beads), and I'm a sucker for trellis couching. I think it's a beautiful interpretation.



The only part that I had real difficulty with was the vein on the leaves. I didn't remember until after I couched the pearl purl on that it was supposed to be wavy. So I pinched it into a little wave, but it doesn't look nearly as nice as the leaves on the prototype in the magazine!



Finally, here's the frame job. I had it framed in a custom frame, with all archival materials... the frame is slightly over 11 inches square. It's black with a gold crackle (in tiny veins) working through it, but that doesn't show up so well in the photo. It's triple matted, in green, then gold, then a velvet red mat. The triple matting holds the glass well away from the raised gold and the beads.

I was so happy with the way the project turned out that I was loathe to part with it! Apparently the bride loved it, though, so I'm glad did!

And thus ends the story of The Golden Pomegranate.

Labels: finish work, goldwork, Inspirations Magazine, needlework pictures, pictures, silk

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, January 23, 2009
PermaLink  |  12 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Here's my run-down on the finishwork on my goldwork and silk Christmas ornament that I made for a swap...

First, I gathered all the supplies I'd need to finish the Christmas ornament: threads, batting (which I didn't use after all), fabric, scissors, etc.



I wasn't quite sure about which fabric to use for the back. I had some cranberry colored silk shantung, some burgandy velvet, and a dusty pink striped fabric. The ornament actually has quite a bit of pink in it!



Next, I took the ornament off the frame and cut off the excess linen.



Next, I measured and cut out two pieces of acid-free mat board. I planned to cover one with the fabric for the back of the ornament, and the other I would mount the front on. Stay tuned, though - I changed my approach on this much later!



Then I cut out the corners on the linen, so that I could fold the linen more easily onto the mat board. I wasn't exactly sure about this whole part, which kind of bugged me.



I didn't want bulk corners, so I trimmed out little triangles, thinking that would help reduce the bulk. Well, of course it didn't work - there was an overhang - so I cut squares out of the corners instead.

I folded the edges under, using a strip adhesive sold for scrapbooking (archival and permanent) to hold the fabric securely to the mat board. To do this part, I put the ornament face-down, and placed the mat board over the back of it. I put the adhesive on all four sides of the back of the mat board, then pulled one side of the ornament up and smoothed it onto the sticky strip on the back of the mat board. Then I did the opposite side, making sure to pull the ornament enough to give good tension, but not too much. Then I did the remaining two sides opposite each other.



It "worked" ... but I wasn't quite happy with it. The point was just to adhere the fabric so that it would remain in place while I stitched the front and back together. But I didn't like the thickness of the top piece, and I really didn't like the fact that the white linen was slightly visible on some sides. I tried to console myself with the fact that the edge would be covered with cording. But it was a lame attempt at consolation. I had to backtrack later. So stick with me, here...



At that point, the front was mounted, though not quite to my satisfaction, and it was time to move on to the back. I debated over fabrics and finally decided on a burgandy-ish scrap of something sort of resembling velvet but feeling more like a stretchy velveteen. Whatever. It worked - the color was right, and though it doesn't have the shine of silk, I think it was more important that the color was right!

Now it was time to go through the same process of mounting the backing fabric.



I cut out the square to the right size, placed the other piece of mat board on it, and glued the edges as I had done for the top of the ornament. I liked the thick back with the mat board much better.



When I put the two pieces together, I was still concerned about the thickness of the top. I just didn't like it. But I forged on! I should've taken a break at that point and thought about it!

My next step was to consider what to use for cording and trim. This, of course, is where the thickness of the piece started to bother me even more. I would have liked to just put a cord around it and cover up the place where the front and back were joined, but golly, that would have to be a huge cord!



I went through my stash to pick out possible threads for cords. I was sure I would have all manner of types of thread and colors suitable for this project. Not so, not so. This is what comes of working from stash. You have to take what you can get! I had a silk chenille (on the right) that looked about right; a soie gobelin that looked about right, and two colors of soie d'alger that are in the ornament.



I tried making individual cords from all of them. I even tried making one big fat cord from several combined, with a gold colored Trebizond thrown in for the fun of it.



But none of it really worked, and I settled, instead, for a plain soie d'alger that I used to couch some of the gold passing on the ornament front.



Then I turned my thoughts to tassel making. For a small tassel, the soie gobelin was really the only suitable thread. The chenille was too thick, and the soie d'alger would end up really fuzzy. The resulting tassel, by the way, stunk, so I improvised something else, which you will see later.

Next, I sewed the front and back of the ornament together, using a regular slip stitch, since I'd be covering that up with a cord, anyway. I didn't like the thickness, especially of the front. I didn't like the fact that so much of the white linen was showing, especially because I knew the cord probably wouldn't cover that up all the way around. Aaaargh! SO...



At this point, I took the ornament apart, took the front off, took the mat board out, and mounted the ornament on a smaller cut piece of white (archival) card stock. The resulting edge of white was still there, but much thinner. That was much better. I sewed it up, then started with the cording.



You can see my silly tassel hanging off here just to the right. I didn't take a full picture of it - I should have, then you would understand better. For one thing, it was just too "pinky-orange" - just a shade off from the colors in the ornament. For another thing, it was having a terribly bad hair day. Soie gobelin is probably not the best thread choice for making a small tassel - it might work better on a larger tassel, where length would give some weight to the threads. On a small tassel, the thread ends flipped all over the place and looked messy and awful. Couple that with the slightly off color, and... well. It just didn't work. I got rid of it.



Here's the cording, after the first round of slip stitching just to get it attached. I used a little piece of gold Trebizond at the top for the hanger, which I ran through between the front and ornament backing, and secured in place as I stitched the cording on.

Next, I addressed myself to the problem of the tassel. I didn't want to leave the soie d'alger twist hanging there - though I probably could have knotted it and left it. It didn't look bad. But I wanted more than that! I actually wanted a Big, Fat, Pretty Tassel!!! (Note to self: plan ahead!!)



Instead, I opted for a tiny tail of little gold beads.

Once I had the beads on, I finished off the threads from the cord by running them individually into the cording (up the sides) and then, I gave the cording one more round of slip stitching to secure it and pull it a little bit more over the white.



My tree's not up yet, so no tree shot!



I suppose that, despite the strange tail of gold beads, she'll do ok! I would have liked a heavier tassel for the finish. This picture above was taken from a weird angle, but the ornament actually does hang ok. I though the tassel would be essential for balance, but I could've left off a tail altogether. The beads look a little... well... I don't know. They look kind of dorky. They have a nice gleamy sparkle to them that goes with the goldwork, but perhaps I should've left them off?

Overall, though, I was pleased with the final result, though I do think I'm going to have to make a concerted effort this coming year to polish up my finishing skills!

I hope the recipient likes it!

If you haven't signed up for this month's stash give-away, you might want to take a look at it. I've giving away two spools of Gilt Sylke Twist, along with a few other little goodies (not pictured!). The deadline for that is next Wednesday morning, December 10th. If you want to enter, please read the original post!

Labels: Christmas, finish work, goldwork, needlework pictures, pictures, silk

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, December 07, 2008
PermaLink  |  13 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

I love it when a plan comes together! Guess what I picked up from the framer yesterday? I'm very excited! It's the goldwork & silk pomegranate that I've only written about in bits and pieces. Still, I'm just so thrilled with it, that I must show you a picture of sorts!

I'm still bound by the fact that this project hasn't been published yet, so I can't show you the full finished piece. But I'm so darned excited that the framing came out so well that I can't help giving you another snippet of this goldwork and silk pomegranate designed by Margaret Cobleigh.

Do you ever take your work to the framers and just flounder on choices? Sometimes, I know exactly what I want and it all comes together in a matter of seconds. But other times, I take forever to decide, and then I leave with a kind of buyer's remorse, certain that the choices were all wrong.

But this came together quite well. I went for a triple mat and I framed the piece under glass. The frame is a nice frame. It's black and smooth and clean, but it has tiny veins of gold working through it. You can't really see the gold in the photo, though... but it's there - it's subtle, just "enough" to really tie into the pomegranate piece.



The inside mat next to the embroidery is a perfect shade of green to go with the leaves. I like having a dark outline around a piece, especially when the fabric is lighter. The middle mat is gold. The top mat is a fabric mat in a deep cranberry-ish red, matching the pomegranate. It's linen-like in texture.

I really was a bit nervous about the choices on this one, but I was pleased as punch when I picked the piece up. It's a wedding gift for my niece (less than two weeks away!), so I'm glad the frame job came out so well!

After picking up the project, I had to duck into the grocery store. Right in front of me as I headed towards the produce section was, ironically, a magnificent display of pomegranates. Oh, yes! I found one with the crown still intact, and brought it home to celebrate.

Don't they just look swell together?!

Labels: finish work, goldwork, needlework pictures, pictures, silk

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, November 02, 2008
PermaLink  |  1 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

I had my Gilt Sylke Twist Strawberry piece out during embroidery class the other day for a "show and tell" sort of session. I like to drag out different needlework projects or samplers to show the kids, hoping maybe to fuel a real desire to pursue needlework beyond dishtowels. Well, this piece has just been sitting around, waiting for me to do something with it (or not...).

There I sat, after class, prior to clean-up, absorbing the silence for a moment and staring at the scraps of embroidery threads, the snippets of fabric and felt, the thread boxes that had been foraged through by some kid, the stack of ironed towels equally burrowed through.... and getting ready for the inevitable clean-up that comes from two large classes in a row on the same day.

But still, I just sat there.

My eyes rested on my GST strawberry. I really enjoyed doing that project, and I found myself thinking, "It's really a shame I don't do something with that."

Absently, my brain wandered to the next item in sight.

It was a box - one of those boxes just like the quick silk ribbon embroidery box project I did a few weekends ago - except it was gold and cream instead of purple and white, and it was unfinished.

And I picked up my GST Strawberry, and I thought:


Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

And then I opened the purple box, and I thought:


Ahhh..... Toooooools..... I love toooools.

And then I put both boxes together, and this is what I thought:


Uhhh...? Hm. Ugh. Oh, maybe.

And then I put them next to my basket, and this is what I thought:


They fit nicely in there...

And now, I'm sitting here thinking to myself:

Do I, or don't I? Not just tools and accessories, but tools and accessories in a pretty box....

But then there's this other side of me, grumbling that it might be a shoddy way to finish that piece...

But then there's this other side of me, answering the grumbling side, insisting that at least it would be finished....

And then there's this other side of me whining about .... dirt.

What think you?

Labels: finish work, Gilt Sylke Twist, needlework tools, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, July 18, 2008
PermaLink  |  10 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

I don't know about you, but when I finish a piece of embroidery, usually the last thing I want to do is the real "finish work" - that is, the framing or sewing or whatever it takes to bring the project to full completion. But once in a while, I do have to force myself to buckle down and actually DO something with the pieces I embroider. And once I've accomplished the finish work, I'm always glad I did!

With Christmas looming, I've been cramming in some simple frame jobs for gifts. So I thought I'd take you through the steps of a simple frame job for a piece of embroidery. It's a long one with lots of photos, so grab your coffee...

First of all, you need to find frames. When you frame embroidery, if you decide to put the piece behind glass, you should plan on double matting or putting spacers in to keep the glass off the front of your work. Or, you can do like I did, and find frames that have a "shadow box" effect, where a space of half an inch or more is intentionally left between the glass and the object to be framed.

You can always choose to make the frame yourself, by the way, but this is a "simple" frame job, done in a relatively short amount of time!

After you've assembled all your supplies, the first thing to do is prepare the piece for framing. If you need to wash it, now's the time to do that! How do you know if you need to wash your embroidery? If there are any obvious marks on it, if there has been an opportunity for dust build-up, if you weren't particularly careful with clean hands while you worked (even if you can't see specific marks, hand oil can show up over time!)... probably you should wash it. Certain types of thread are not conducive to washing in water - overdyed silks, etc., shouldn't be just dunked into a bucket of water. But I used DMC on these projects, and it's pretty color-fast, so I wasn't worries about color running.

You can avoid having to wash a project by being super-careful with it, and by covering it with tissue or other cloth while you work, and only exposing the part you're working on. But that's a different story...

Prepare a bowl of lukewarm water and a little ivory liquid soap. I use a stainless steel bowl. I placed the embroidery piece in the water and moved it around, but I don't squeeze it or rub it all over or anything like that. I just gently swish it in the bowl. If there's a specific spot on fabric, I'll treat it first, and I might rub that one spot on the fabric, but you're not doing heavy-duty laundry here - just rinsing the piece.



After the gentle washing (I let it soak for 5 or 10 minutes), I rinse the piece thoroughly under running water. Don't wring it - just let the water rinse over the work, until it runs clear and there's no evidence of suds, and then a little longer for good measure. Turn it over, too - rinse front and back.

Then lay the piece face down on a clean towel, and gently press another towel on top of it to remove excess water.



Once all three pieces were washed, I took them to my ironing board, where I already had a clean white pillow case ready. For ironing embroidery, I use a clean white pillow case folded in half, with a flannel pad inside the fold. The flannel pad is made of four layers of soft, thin flannel.

After hand blocking (that is, arranging the pieces by gently pulling them and squaring them up), I left the pieces on the ironing board to dry a little bit on their own.



When I'm ready to iron, I iron the piece upside-down, with the right side on the pillow case with the flannel underneath it. This helps cushion the embroidery and keeps the stitches from getting flattened.

I iron the piece when it's still damp. Iron it gently, not pushing on the iron to try to dry the thing and get every wrinkle out. Just gently iron, blocking the piece into a square as you go, and being very aware of the temperature of the iron and the fabric. I always lift the iron after moving in one direction - I don't just go back-and-forth and back-and-forth with it. I move in one direction, lift, put it back down, move, lift, put it back down.



After ironing the piece from the back, I turn it over and look at the front. If there is any area on the front of the ground fabric that I want to iron, I do so carefully, without touching the stitches.

In the photo above, you can see two circled areas where there are wrinkles on the piece. This comes from faulty tension when I worked the piece. It could also come from the drying process of the fabric and the thread, but both were dry when I took the photo, and I suspected there would be some tension problems in these areas once the thing was off the embroidery frame and blocked.

Never fear - those slight wrinkles will be significantly (if not completely) reduced by the time the whole framing process is finished.



Now that the pieces are ironed and ready to frame, it's time to give some attention to the frames. This is the back of the frame - notice the octagon-shaped back cover. The board on which the embroidery is mounted is the same shape. I used an acid-free white mat board and cut it to fit the inside of the frame; it's a rectangle shape with the corners snipped off.



You can see here the space between the glass and the place where the embroidery will rest. It's about half an inch. I admit, the frames are a bit cheap - that's a plastic edge - but for 50% off 11.99, they were in my budget!



And here you can see clearly the shape of the mat board and how it fits in the opening.



Position the embroidery over the mounting board, centering it carefully, then turn the embroidery over, placing it face down on your work surface. I use a pencil and lightly draw the position of the mounting board on the back of the embroidered piece. That way, if anything gets knocked or the work slides about, it's no big deal.



After folding the embroidery over the board (it's inside there), I realized it needs to be trimmed. Since I marked the position of the mounting board, it's easy enough just to trim off a couple inches.



There. Remember that the front of the embroidery (the right side) is face down on my work surface. The mat board is positioned over the piece, and then the sides are wrapped around the mat board. There needs to be some space between the two sides of the fabric, as you can see here, because you're going to lace them, and the lacing will supply tension.



I used a #12 DMC cotton string (it comes in a ball, and is usually used for tatting or crochet) and a #7 crewel needle to do the lacing.

Make sure you cut a Long Length of string when you're ready to start lacing. It's no fun to stop, tie off, and start again. I used about a yard.

I folded the edges of the fabric and finger pressed them, then started lacing. This is done by catching the edge of the fabric (about an 1/8 of an inch or so in) and crossing back and forth between both sides.



Because the mat board isn't square, but rather the corners are cut off, I had to do some extra trimming, and I just sort of played that by ear. I didn't want a lot of bulk on the back of the mat board.



I folded the corners neatly, finger pressed, and tacked them down with a new length of #12 thread.



Then I folded the opposite ends down - not quite as neat as it could be - and laced them, pulling the lacing fairly tight as I worked. I was skimpy with the thread!! Learn from my mistake and make sure you start with a long enough length.

In any case, it still worked out fine.



Then, I put the mounted embroidery into the frame, and you'll notice that there's a bit of "wiggle room" here. I cut the mat smaller, since the fabric would take up some space, but it was a bit too small. This poses the problem that the piece might shift in the frame.



To remedy that, I cut a piece of foam to fit inside the back of the frame, to help hold everything in place.

The back of the frame was very well fitted, though, so everything was good and snug.



And here you see two framed up and ready to go.



And here's the iris - there's only the slightest bit of puckering between the petal and leaf on the left. Most of the puckering that was there was really reduced by the tension provided in the mouting process. No one else seems to be able to see the puckers except me! But if you look close enough...

So that's a simple framing job...

Hope it was helpful!

Labels: finish work, needlework pictures, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, December 22, 2007
PermaLink  |  15 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this