Читать книгу Animal Embroidery Workbook - Jessica Long - Страница 10

Take Care

Care for your eyes and body. Stitch with plenty of light, appropriate glasses or other magnification, and a comfortable seat. Take regular breaks during marathon stitching sessions.

Hoop Up

If you plan to use your hoop as a frame for the finished piece, leave 1"–2" (2.5–5cm) of excess fabric to cinch back upon completion. If you plan to stretch your embroidery on a wooden frame or canvas, make sure you leave yourself enough excess fabric for that purpose. If you will not be framing your work in a hoop, be sure to remove your work from the hoop after each stitching session to avoid permanent creases in the fabric.

1. To hoop up, you will sandwich your fabric between the inner and outer embroidery hoops. Start by placing the inner (smaller) hoop flat on the table. The inner hoop is the bottom bread of our sandwich.

2. Center the fabric over the inner hoop. This is our fabric filling.

3. Place the outer hoop (the top bread) on top. Tighten the screw and pull the edges of the fabric out evenly from the center, moving clockwise around the hoop.

4. Repeat until you reach your desired tension. Notice how the hoop looks now after multiple rounds of tightening the screw and pulling the fabric edges out. There should be no wrinkles in your fabric. You want your fabric to be drum tight—that is, as taut as the surface of a drum—to avoid puckering and warping of the design.

Thread the Needle

Pull floss from your skein from the end marked with the color number. Cut a piece of floss no more than 24" (60cm) long to avoid tangles. Your pattern will let you know how many strands to use, one to six, depending on the design and style. If needed, separate the individual strands of floss by pulling them out individually from the cut length. Use one hand to pull out a single ply (strand) and gently hold the remainder of the strands in your other hand.

“Sharpen” the end of your floss with a lick and a snip of your embroidery scissors for easier threading. Be sure to use a needle with a large enough eye. If you are struggling with threading, try jumping up a needle size or using a needle threader.

Note the individual strands that make up a full six-stranded cotton floss. Refer to the pattern to determine how many strands to use. Cut a working length from the skein before separating the strands.

You will thread a larger needle for a full six strands of floss.

MAKE MISTAKES

Make mistakes. Don’t be afraid to start over or to remove your needle and pull up some stitches. You can use the tip of your needle to pull up stitches, but a pair of tweezers and embroidery scissors can be handy when things really go wrong. It’s okay—embroidery is about the process. Just keep practicing and give yourself a break.

Oops! I had to perform “surgery” on this loose French knot. I used my embroidery scissors to cut the knot and my tweezers to help pull out the trimmed threads.

Anchor Your Floss

Preventing your embroidery from unraveling is super important, especially if your final piece is something that will get a lot of wear and tear, like clothing. However, if your embroidery is just going to be sitting pretty on wall, then anchoring may not be as important.

The basic anchoring method can be done with the following easy steps. Other popular anchoring options include the anchor knot and away waste knot. You could also keep it simple with a basic overhand knot tied at the end of your thread before you get started.

1. Start your first stitch. Hold a tail (1"–2" [2.5–5cm]) of floss under the embroidery with a finger while making the first stitch. Do not pull it up through the front. (This and all shots show the backside of the hoop/fabric.)

2. Anchor down the tail. Maneuver the tail so that it is tacked down by the underside of the next few stitches as you proceed with your work.

3. Before you run out of threaded floss (when only a couple of inches [5cm] of floss remain on your needle), weave it into the underside of your stitches to secure it. Keep the backside of your work as neat as possible and trim any excess tails.

4. Subsequent lengths of thread are easier to anchor by weaving into the back of your previous stitches.