Punchneedle Embroidery – Needle and Fabric

Needles for punchneedle embroidery are much different that needles used for other types of embroidery.  They tend to be a bit bulky to use but they create such a wonderful texture embroiderers tend to forgive the needle.

 

                       

 

There are various brands of punchneedles on the market.  I use the Super Luxo.  When I started it was the one available in my area.  It is all metal (handle and needle).  It is heavy to hold (since it is all metal) but I am used to the weight of it now.  You need to get the brand that you like and can afford.  You will notice in my photo I have a rubber band wrapped around the handle.  I found when I laid the needle on a table, it tended to roll off the table and on to the floor, which dulled the needle point.  So I use the rubber band to keep it from rolling away.

What ever brand needle you use they are all the same. It’s a hollow needle with an angled tip and the eye drilled above the point.  You don’t have to pull the entire length of thread through the fabric as you do with other embroidery or sewing so the thread doesn’t fray.

angled or beveled tip

 

hole above the point

 

The needles come in various sizes. Small using one strand of embroidery floss   medium using 2-3 strands or large using 6 strands (the one pictured above uses 6 strands).  There are different types of needle available.  Some with each size needle sold separate or with one needle holder and the needles themselves are interchangeable (the super Lixo is one with interchangeable tips).

The loop size is depending on the needle as well.  Some needles have a dial which adjusts the needle length while others use a little piece of plastic tubing placed on the needle shaft to act as a stopper for the needle.  (By the way the needle tip in the picture below is for 2 strands of floss)

 

 

Fabric

The fabric most often used is known as Weavers cloth.  It is a cotton-polyester blend (45% cotton and 55% polyester).  This blend allows the fabric to be resilient enough to  punch but doesn’t tear the fabric (unless your needle tip is dulled). The needle tip tends to push aside the threads of the fabric when it punches through the fabric.

Weaver’s cloth

 

Other fabrics tend to stretch when punched and do not have a weave that allows punching.  They also don’t return to the original size when stretched in the hoop such as weavers cloth.  So weaver cloth is recommended for beginners but as I will show in a future blog, there are ways to punch other types of fabric.

Next week threads and hoops.

 

© 2018, 2021 – Cheryl Fillion

 

Punchneedle Embroidery – What is it?

I do lots of different hand work and I tend to concentrate on one for a while and then move to another.  Recently I picked up my punchneedle embroidery again and I thought I would repost some blogs about this type of embroidery.

Punchneedle embroidery is an area of small loops ‘punched’ into tightly woven fabric with embroidery thread.  The difference between this and other embroidery is that there is only one stitch, a hollowed needle is used and the design is worked from the back of the fabric.

It has been around for a very long time. In fact the samples of the needle were found in ancient Egypt and were made of hollow bird bones.  It has been very popular in Russia which is why it is sometimes known as Russian Punchneedle. When a Russian group known as the Old Believers migrated to the US they brought along this form of embroidery.

It is actually very easy to do, as I mentioned there is only one stitch.  Projects tend to be small so they are finished quickly.  It is rather soothing to do because it is very repetitive.  And there are very few rules.

So how do you do it?  Once you have the needle threaded (that tends to be the most difficult thing to learn) you ‘punch’ the fabric from the wrong or back side of the fabric.  The needle is then just barely pulled out of the fabric to move it forward and another punch is made. This then means that the design is printed on the wrong side of the fabric but the loops show up on the front of the fabric and that is how the design is developed.

No knots are needed to keep the thread in the fabric. The loops stay in because of the friction of the thread and the fabric and when the fabric is released from the hoop, it goes back to an original state and tightens around the loops, which is why you need tightly woven fabric known as weaver’s cloth.

Here are some examples of punch needle embroidery.

                                            

 

                                            

 

                                            

 

                                            

 

                                            

 

The next couple of weeks we will look at the supplies and technique of punch needle.

©2018, 2021 Cheryl Fillion

Watercolor Pencils on Fabric

Last week I posted about using watercolor paints on fabric.  When I found the paints in a closet I also found a small set of watercolor pencils.  These are pencils which look and color just like colored pencils but when water is added to the fabric will act like water color paints.

 

I did the rainbow stripes again but I did one added step.  This was a small set of pencils and no purple was included so I took the blue pencil and drew it on the fabric and then with the red pencil drew over the blue in hopes that when I added water it would mix and become purple.

 

 

 

If using these pencils on paper, all you would need is a clean wet brush to make the markings look like paint.  But since I was using them on fabric I used the mixture of textile medium and water so I could make the paint permanent.

 

 

 

The pencil marks did spread out but not as they had with the paint.  It could be this was a cheap set of pencils or I have to admit an old set of pencils.  I might try it again with a newer set.

 

But I was still curious with what I had done if the colors would set.  So I let it air dry and then heat set it with an iron.

 

 

Not much of a change.  And my experiment with blending the blue and red worked a little.  In certain light the last line looked purple but when up close it really was a blue line with a red stripe through it.  (It was card to see clearly in a close up picture).

 

And no change after I rinsed it with hot water.  On one hand this is good that there is no change or fading of color but being watercolor pencils, I expected more blending of the colors when the fabric was wet.  They really were no different from regular colored pencils.  All in all this is good to know if for no other reason than watercolor pencils are more expensive. 

 

©2021 Cheryl Fillion