Let's continue moving up the ornament with four more stitches.
Woven Stars
Let me explain that I was actually going to make couched circles so I drew little circles and stars within. But I didn't like the way they looked so I switched to woven stars.
Ignore the drawings and draw or eyeball 7 radiating spokes of each circle. Use 4 strands of floss.
Bring the needle back up between two spokes at the inner ends and loop the thread under one spoke.
Then weave under two spokes and pull through, wrapping the floss around the first spoke.
Continue to weave under two and pull through to wrap one spoke at a time.
Circle the spokes about 4 times or more, depending on the length of the spokes.
At the last one, just insert the needle at the other side of the last spoke and tie off on the back.
Coral Stitch
Use 4 strands of floss. Bring the needle up from the back at the end of one pattern line. Catch a small amount of fabric with the needle with the floss looped as shown - over then under. Pull it through to form a knot.
Take another bit of fabric a little away from the knot and repeat.
To make the second row, simply repeat the process on the lower line moving back the way you came. Alternate the knots.
Straight Stitch
Straightforward straight stitch. I started each stitch just a thread above the pattern line. Make each stitch one at a time.
Zig Zag Chain Stitch
Use 4 strands. Draw or eyeball a zig-zag line across the area. This stitch is made the same as chain stitch, but I inserted my needle on both sides of the loop end of the chain to hold it down better because the stitches were larger.
At the very end, secure the stitch with a small tacking stitch.
See you tomorrow!
Today we continue to fill in the wedges at the bottom of the ornament and then start to fill up the horizontal spaces from the bottom up.
Closed Fly Stitch
Use 4 strands of floss. Bring the needle up from the back at the top center of the wedge. Make a simple straight stitch and then bring the needle back up to the top left corner.
Insert the needle at the top right corner and back to the front at the bottom of the straight stitch. Wrap the floss behind the needle and pull through. Make another small straight stitch.
Repeat the V stitch.
Continue making small straight stitches and V stitches to make the closed fly stitch. They will become smaller as you move down the wedge.
Open Chain Stitch
Open chain is worked pretty much like
chain stitch is, except the loops are held open and wide and boxy rather
than seed-shaped.
Use 4 strands of floss. Bring the needle up at the bottom of the first chain and to one side and bring it down right across at the other side.
Bring the needle back up on the first side (in this case the left) where the next chain will begin.
Insert the needle at the top right of the loop, along the right hand line. Bring it back up to catch the loop again on the right.
Pull it through and continue making these boxy stitches along the lines and all the way across the ornament.
Satin Stitch
This use of satin stitch is pretty easy because it's simply every other open chain that is being filled and each one takes only a few stitches to fill.
Satin stitch is a series of straight stitches made very closely together to fill in an area.
Use 4 strands of floss. Bring the thread up at the bottom left corner of one of the open chain boxes.
Insert the needle at the top left and make a straight stitch.
Continue to lay these stitches right next to each other to fill the box.
Fill every other box for a candy cane look.
Whipped Chain Stitch
Whipped chain stitch is made of two parallel lines of chain stitch that are connected by a simple whip stitch.
Use 4 strands of floss. Make the first line of chain stitches. Bring the thread from the back at the bottom left of the area. Insert the needle just to the right next to the original stitch and bring it back up the length of the chain you will make. Wrap the floss to the back and pull through.
Insert the needle just to the right of where the floss comes through and set up another chain. Pull it through.
Continue making chains to the end of the space.
Make another line of chains parallel to the first. Make sure the stitches match up next to each other.
Use 4 strands of floss. Bring the second color from the back of the fabric at the bottom center of the first chain stitch on the left. Thread the needle through the two inner threads of the side-by-side chains and pull through.
Continue to whipstitch the chains together down the entire row.
Stay tuned for more tomorrow!
Welcome to Christmas Embroidery School, the third installment of the SweaterDoll Embroidery School series.
Each series is a stand-alone series, so if you haven't attempted the previous lessons, don't worry. Every stitch is taught anew, even if it has been used in a series before.
In this one week series, we'll learn some new fill stitches and repeat a few basic stitches, such as stem stitch and lazy daisy. Each lesson covers three to four stitches.
What you need:
Basic supplies such as scissors, a hoop, needle, fabric, and stranded cotton embroidery floss.
You'll also need to choose a method for transferring the pattern to the fabric. You can review a number of methods in this lesson from the original Embroidery School.
Pattern
The pattern for this series is shown in the photo at the top of the page. Just click here to download the pdf.
Hoop
The design shown above was printed at 95% and fits well into the 7" hoop shown. If you trace or print at 100%, use an 8" hoop.
Colors
Choose your own colors or make one just like mine. A seasonal red linen worked in white would look stunning. Or have fun and go with fun brights. The colors I used are charted on the second page of the pattern download.
Splitting the floss
Stranded cotton embroidery floss has 6 strands. Most of the work in this sampler is done with 4. Each lesson will specify how many strands to use with each stitch.
The skein of floss ought to have one protruding end which should pull smoothly. Sometimes it doesn't, causing a traffic jam in the middle of the skein. But usually it works perfectly.
Pull out about 18" of floss (I use my forearm as a measure) and cut this off.
Some people like to grab the thread about an inch or two from the top and pull out one strand at a time and then use the number needed.
I just grab 2 strands in one hand and 4 in the other and start pulling the strand apart. At some point, this will get tricky and I just grab the opposite end with my mouth and straighten out the Y of floss and the rest separates easily all the way to end in my mouth.
Not very scientific, but it works for me.
Needle
I use a smaller embroidery needle, size 7, and sometimes a quilting sharp size 10.
Fabric
I used my favorite cotton homespun fabric. This homespun is a lovely weight and is available in Australian quilting stores. It is a linen-like fabric that has more weight than a quilting cotton and is easier to embroider. It is soft, like a good flour sack towel, but has the weight of an old-fashioned, truly excellent calico (US)/ muslin (AU) fabric.
How much fabric? Take the diameter of the hoop you use and add at least 1 1/2". For example: for a 7" hoop, use at least an 8 1/2" square of fabric.
NOTE: This is NOT the cotton quilting fabric in Spotlight or Lincraft with the same name.
And now it's time for the stitching!
Stem stitch
Use 4 strands of floss. Bring the threaded needle up from the
back at one end of the line. Insert it into the fabric at the end of the
stitch and pull through to the back, leaving a loop. Bring the needle
back up about halfway down the first stitch and pull through.
Insert the needle at the end of the next
stitch and pull through, leaving a loop again. Bring it back up about
1/3 into the entire stitch - about halfway between the end of the last
stitch and the thread on the right.
You will continue to make stitches this
way. You only go halfway on the first stitch and about 1/3 the total
stitch on the remaining.
This is how to do it if you don't want to use the stab method.
These are the areas using stem stitch on the ornament.
Diagonal Laid Fill Stitch
This stitch is a lovely fill using diagonally laid straight stitches which are tacked down at the intersections.
Use 4 strands of floss for the diagonal lines and 2 strands for the crosses.
Draw evenly spaced parallel diagonal lines or eyeball lines and stitch from one side of the space to the other as shown.
Once you have completed one side, cross the stitches over the first set creating wide diamonds.
Use the second color to tack down the intersections using a small vertical straight stitch followed by a small horizontal stitch - a small cross.
Wheel Stitch
Use 4 strands of floss. Draw three circles in the wedges on both sides of the area you just stitched. Bring the needle up at the edge of a circle, down into the center, and back up again a little way along the circle edge.
Wrap the floss around the back of the needle. Pull through.
Insert the needle again in the center of the circle coming back up another small bit away on the circle edge. Pull through.
Work these stitches all the way around the circle edge.
Closed Blanket Stitch
Use 4 strands of floss. Bring the needle up as shown at the top corner of the wedge outside the wedge with the wheels.
Take a slight diagonal, insert the needle to the back, and come up next to the original stitch and pull through to make one straight stitch.
Insert the needle as shown in the second photo and come up at a point further down the side of the wedge. Wrap the thread to the back of the needle and pull through to create a triangle.
Begin making the next closed stitch the same way, making a single straight stitch first for one side of the triangle and then closing the other side of the triangle.
Keep working down the wedge making smaller triangles. Repeat this stitch working in mirror image in the wedge on the opposite side.
That's it for today! Great job!
