Tutorial – Nun Stitch

Maybe you have already noticed the frayed edge of my new sampler. It was done in nun stitch, my very favourite way to secure the edges of coarse fabric. When it comes down to very coarse fabric like my sampler, it’s about the only good way I know if the edges will be visible in the finished article. Otherwise I glue or machine zigzag the edges of hessian and such and either frame it hiding the edges under a mat or add some fabric binding for frameless hanging. (not that too many of my works reach such a stage of finish LOL)

But on fabrics like hessian or canvas, I add a dash of fabric glue to the backside of the nun stitched edge. On medium thread count, tightly woven embroidery fabrics such as hardanger a nun stitch edge is pretty secure in my experience when it is done properly. Of course it is not secure enough for clothes or anything else that will be machine washed or otherwise mistreated.

It will be insecure on slippery fabrics like rayon, some manmade fibers and some silks. It is not secure on needlepoint canvas which is too stiff to pull the fabric threads together.

On open fabrics such as linen usable for pulled thread work and all forms of scrim or mesh this stitch will not produce a secure edging, there are various better options for such fabrics.

On anything with a substantially higher thread count than hardanger this stitch works but is tendious to do, and there are various other options for finishing those.

Funnily, when I was a young teen I invented a variant of nun stitch. I did it like the real one but only did one backstitch – one overcast stitch instead of doubling them. I had no access to a sewing machine and was desperate for a way to keep coarse fabrics from fraying. Guess how surprised I was when I aquired a copy of Therese Dilmond’s Encyclopedia of Needlework and found the real nun stitch in there. By the way, on fine countable fabric or when the edges will be bound or overstitched later I still use my method, it’s faster and in these cases just as durable.

I also invented a crochet version of this back in the day, but that is (maybe) for another post…

But now to the stitch

As preparation, cut the fabric to shape following the threads of the fabric exactly. remove a few threads arround the edges, producing a fringe of the desired length. Use a fine strong thread like pearl cotton, buttonhole sewing thread or mercericed crochet cotton. Floss will not be strong enough.

Work on the front side, working in the direction most comfortable for you. When doing this stitch it is important to pull the working thread hard so that the fabric threads over which you work are bound together in little bundles. Be careful not to pull the whole fabric out of shape.

Secure the thread on the backside 2 threads away from the edge. Do a backstitch over 2 threads.

Do a second backstitch over the first, doubling it.

do an overcast stitch over the edge of the fabric as shown.

overcast the same thread bundle once more

Do another back stitch as shown, then double it again (not shown)

Do the next overcast stitch as shown, then double it

That’s it. Remember to pull the threads hard. if the edge feels insecure, glue the backside of the edge.

And finally, this is how a corner is supposed to look like. For them, just do double back stitch – double overcast stitch – double overcast stitch on second edge – double back stitch.

Meh that was a lot of typing and pic inserting. If this leaves any questions open just ask.

And fina

Sketches

Last weekend I have been painting a little in my sketchbook. Enjoy.

Yes, the next one shows tomatoes….

The marigolds have gotten too cold once already-

29th Worldwide Sketchcrawl

So there was a sketchcrawl again. We met at Nymphenburg Palace, but it was raining and very cold, and on my way there i stept onto something that made a hole in my shoe. So we went indoors in a little museum that has carriages and porcelain.

The first one is a pencil sketch of some metal ornament on a carriage.

That was another ornament on another carriage. It is unfinished, because they didn’t allow us to return to that part of the museum after leaving it for lunch.

We had a nice lunch with lots of chat in a little french restaurant. After that we went to the porcelain department of the museum. There I painted three bird statuettes made from porcellain.

The first one is a peacock. the pentel waterbrush I own really has changed sketching for me. Now I can do watercolour sketches almost as easiely as pencil ones.

A guinea fowl made of porcelain. I love their sleightly stylised forms and lovely colours. I figured out that I find it annoying to work without black in my paintbox. As you see here, I can mix grey without it, but it takes too much time and produces a mess on the little palette.

The last one was another peacock. I was in a hurry because everybody else wanted to leave. The form is not that good but I like its colours.

Finish !!

Rose in the Rain

Acrylics and stitching with cotton floss on mulbery paper.
Size: 28*40 cm

So i finally managed to finish something, or at least think so. I always find it hard to know where to stop with free embroidery, but I do think I am done on this one. I’m not yet sure if I should present this behind glass or glue it onto a box canvas and seal it. Suggestions? Probably this will be decided when/if I ever get round to having a show.

Stitching on paper was a new experience, but a fun one. I think I’ll be doing this again, but next time I’ll probably glue the paper on muslin for stability or go for proper fabric paper in the first place. It got rather soft from handling by the time I was done. I did take in progress shots, posts about the process will follow.

I designed this and started work last winter, when I had bad neck pain and headaches for months. I think it shows, and I’m not sure I like that. What do you think?

Announcement: I’ll be away until Sunday

Today, I’m going to a congress because of my work and I probably won’t come back before late at night on Saturday. I was so busy finishing stuff at work, packing and saying goodbye to my now 14 pet hamsters that I didn’t manage to pre-write any postings. I’m not even sure that I will feel like writing something on sunday, so this is a mini blogging break.

By the way, this is the first time I’ll ride a train first class, and the second “vacation” in the last ten years, so I’m both nervous and very happy. Yes I’m that pathetic.

Work in Progress Wednesday

I need to have some more structure to my blogging if I want to do it more regularly. So I’m going to try and show you what I actually do every wednesday, no matter how boring it is.

Since last wednesday, I have been working on that doily pattern again. This time, I used Nr 20 crochet yarn, not 10, which I like much, much better. It does lay flat this time round.
the knitted stuff is supposed to be Victorian Lace. I felt I needed a new challenge in knitting, so my christmas present to myself was the book Victorian Lace Today as recommended by my friend at textiledreamer. Thanks to her, I also bought knit pro knitting needles which seem to be very good for this. Since then I’m busy trying out all the patterns so I’ll learn how to do it and can decide which complete project I want to do.

I also tried to come to grips with a certain knot stitch, ponto grilhao, not very successful so far.

The last thing I have to show is progress of a very different sort. Some time ago, I oderered a male roborowski hamster from a breeder to mach the female I already had. I got a female cambpell hamster, and the poor thing went into labor as soon as she arrived at my place. It is a wonder that she raised 2 pubs after that stress. The first pic shows one at about 20 days, the next at three weeks. Didn’t they come a long way since their birth, naked and blind? They are almost adult size by now. I will keep poor mom and give her a good home although she bites, but I will try to find new homes for the young.

I’m without Computer for Some Time

The darn thing is comunicating only in smoke signs, or at least the monitor is. I’m sorry, probably there won’t be posts before I get a new one, but hopefully that will be soon.

Sketchcrawl !

Tomorrow we will be sketching at Munich again, as will be many people in other towns. See here for details. If you live nearby and want to join us just drop by, we won’t be too hard to spot with all our sketching gear out. I will have a week off work now, so expect a few more meaty postings soon.

For eye candy, here is a sketch I did at the botanical garden not long ago. I confess it is the only real outdoor sketch I did since last scetchcrawl.

blogging break

I’m sorry, I have to go on a blogging vacation again. My Wlan equipment is out of order and job stress/christmass stuff are keeping me too busy to fiddle with this right now. So I won’t have easy inet access until I find time to go shopping for computer stuff, which will not be for another week or two. I’m missing you all and your blogs, but sometimes real life is just more important. Sorry.

New digital Camera – and a museum visit

Sorry you didn’t hear from me for a long time. I feel kinda uncreative these days. I finally made a decision and treated myself with a digital camera – this one. Time will tell if the decision to spend that much money on a compact camera was good, but right now I’m in love with it.

Yesterday I saw this exhibition about the table silver of the Russian Tsars and used the opportunity to try out the “museum mode” of the camera. The Exhibition itself was interesting because it had loads of history, but most of the silver shown was too baroque for my taste. I’m showing one shot and a detail of the same. The shot is technically a failure, seems I moved the camera too early after pressing the button – it has 4 seconds max time for a shot, and flashlight was not allowed in the museum. But it still shows the details of that silver plate niceky and I like it’s athmosphere. Anyway, it is amazing you can take pictures there at all, with bad light and through glass. My long-dead analog camera wasn’t able to do that. please click on the pictures to enlarge.