Читать книгу Animal Embroidery Workbook - Jessica Long - Страница 8

Hoops come in many different sizes and materials. From bottom: yellow plastic, beechwood, wood with the inner hoop bound with fabric, thick beechwood hoop with adjustable screw, small wood.

A neat stack of colored fabrics used for the projects in Part 2 of this book (see page). Notice the difference in texture between the smooth basic cotton versus the cotton-linen blend. The light purple and the mixed teal/navy samples are the two blended fabrics.

Embroidery Hoops

Keeping your fabric tight will make your hand embroidery experience easier and will produce a more pleasing finished handwork. The cheapest and easiest option is a hand embroidery hoop. Hoops are available in many different-sizes and materials. I prefer working in wooden hoops, but plastic or metal options may work best for you. An embroidery design may specify what size of hoop to work in, but sometimes a different-sized hoop can be easier to hold, depending on the size of your hands. Smaller hoops may also give you better tension, but you can always bind a larger hoop to give it more grip on your fabric. Simply wind a long strip of fabric or bias tape around the inner hoop, securing it with a safety pin or a couple of stitches. Repeat with the outer hoop if needed. Working with good tension will prevent puckering and creasing of your fabric and give you a more stable surface to stitch through. For stitching, I’ve invested in high-quality beechwood hoops with brass fittings and a notch for tightening, and then I use the cheaper wood hoops for framing the finished results.

Embroidery Fabric

I enjoy stitching on 100% cotton (such as Kona® brand cotton, available in many colors and very affordable), but please experiment with different weaves, blends, and colors to see what you enjoy working with. Other fabric options include linen, silk, felt, and tulle. Give yourself time to wander through a fabric store and see what you like. Avoid stretchy fabrics, as they will only lead to heartache and pattern warping unless paired with fabric stabilizer. Double-up thin or light-colored fabrics if you prefer a thicker feel and want to avoid seeing the back of the stitches through the front of your work.

Embroidery Floss

The patterns in this book call for six-stranded cotton embroidery floss. This thread is made of six individual strands of cotton and can be split into one or more strands or worked as a full six strands. It comes in hundreds of colors, including some variegated varieties that are utilized in a handful of patterns in this book. I personally like using DMC® brand floss, and so I have provided the exact color numbers of the DMC threads I used throughout this book, in case you want to recreate the projects using the exact colors I did. But, if you prefer, you can use any brands you like and any colors you like. The DMC color number is printed on the plastic wrapper binding the skein together. There are lots of other floss brands (Lecien Cosmo, Anchor®) and other fun floss materials (silk, wool, linen) to experiment with. A few other tips and notes:

• We will get an opportunity to use metallic floss in a few projects. Metallic floss is usually made with polyester or a polyester blend, so it will feel stiffer and be a little more challenging to work with. Use short lengths and be sure to anchor it well.

We will use six-stranded cotton floss for the projects in this book. It comes in skeins, balls, and spools. Wrap yours on bobbins to help stay organized.

Jazz up any project by introducing specialty threads. We will be using variegated cotton and some metallic threads in our projects. Also pictured are metallic blends, satin threads, and silk threads.

• Wind your floss on bobbins to help keep it organized and free of tangles.

• Be familiar with the colorfastness of your thread to avoid any bleeding of colors if you plan to get your work wet. Red colors and overdyed threads are especially notorious. Wash these fibers before working with them, or plan to keep your work dry.

A NOTE ABOUT GENERIC COLOR NAMES

I used more than 175 different floss colors to make the projects in this book! Each floss has an exact DMC product color code, but, as mentioned on page, you can use any brand of floss (or color of floss, for that matter) to make your projects. The color codes for each design are assigned project-specific generic color names. These generic names are unique to the design and do not apply universally to the product codes throughout the book. For example, “medium blue” may refer to different product codes for different designs. And a single product code may have different generic names in different designs. Remember, you always have the exact product color code available if you really want to match my project to a T(hread).

I organize my needles on a labeled pincushion. Here we see (from left to right) a large size 1 embroidery needle next to sizes 3, 5, and 9.

Embroidery Needles

Embroidery needles have a sharp tip for piercing fabric and a streamlined eye. I recommend grabbing a variety pack of hand embroidery needles with a few different sizes. Embroidery needles come in sizes 1 through 10, with 1 having the largest eye (to be used with many strands of floss and with thick flosses) and 10 having the smallest eye (to be used with only one strand of very thin floss). Your needle size will depend on your design, what stitches you are using, how thick your threads are, and your own personal preference. Play and see what feels good in your hands. A large needle will make a bigger hole in your fabric and reduce accuracy. Use the smallest needle you can to help with precision. If you can’t get your strands of floss through the eye, it’s okay to move up a size (or two)! I would rather you use a bigger needle than give up in needle-threading frustration.

Tip: If you can’t find a large enough eye for working with all six strands of cotton, try this trick. Cut a double length of floss and pull out three strands. Thread these strands through your needle’s eye and stitch with the doubled-over length, now six strands thick!

Other Embroidery Tools

Tiny embroidery scissors with small, sharp blades are important for cutting lengths of floss and for trimming threads from your work. Larger fabric scissors are great to have for prepping your fabric. Tweezers are useful for removing stitches (mistakes will happen!), and I also like silicone thimbles to protect my fingers during marathon stitching sessions. Pincushions and needle minders (see tip below) can help keep your needles organized and save you from discovering misplaced needles the painful way. Needle threaders are useful tools to help you squeeze floss through miniscule needle eyes.

Needle minders are tiny magnets that sandwich your embroidery fabric. Rest your needle on the cute magnet whenever you take a break so your needle doesn’t roll away! Practical and adorable.

A “3/9” variety pack of hand embroidery needles may come with sizes 3, 5, 7, and 9 needles. This is a perfect variety pack to purchase, as you will be able to handle one through six strands of embroidery floss with the included needle sizes.

Your scissors don’t have to be beautiful, but it sure is more fun to cut out mistakes if they are!

Don’t forget to pack your travel embroidery kit! We are lucky that our supplies are small and lightweight. Use a magnetic needle minder so you don’t misplace your needles.