Transcripts
1. Class Overview: Hi there. I'm gonna I'm the owner and designer of Peak. Often sick in this class. We're gonna be learning how to make this loudly little group project. Isn't it cute? This is a pomegranate pattern. This pattern features beating and couching using Japan threats, which is a type of metallic threat. So in the class, I'm going to be covering your materials. You will need what Japan threads are. What couching is what be jewel bead feeding techniques and lots of tips and tricks along the way the renewed across it. Or recommend you do the cross stitch fundamentals class as well as the intermediate cross stitch class, because you will need those techniques in order to be able to complete this. So I really hope you enjoy this class. Let's jump right on in and get started.
2. Materials: all right. In this video, I'm gonna be showing you what your materials are that you're going to need for this project . So obviously, you're gonna need your base of materials to get to this stage. So these are all listed in your resources section, but you need seven inches of square of eight of fabric. This is 14 count, so 14 stitches to the inch. I've got a foreign embroidery hoop. Obviously, all my flaws colors. Those were listed in the resources as well as, obviously scissors and your tapestry needle that you get to this stage at and your pattern . If you are not sure how to get to the stage like if you're not that clear on cross, it's like the full cross stitch itself and back such that I would really recommend watching the cross stitch Fundamentals class as well as intermediate Crossett class, which is called backs. It's like a boss. I would watch those first before you attend this class because you're going to need those techniques to be able to do this project. And one thing to note to with the pattern is a slightly different format than the pattern I have in my other classes. I'm starting to use a new software. So for this one, I've done it a little differently to to make it easier to read. So I've got the full color version here with all the back stitch and the couching lines. I've got a page exactly the same without the couching lines. That way you can see which colors are underneath the lines in case it's a little hard for you to see. And then same again, exactly the same thing. But this is a black and white version just using the symbols that's got the couching in the back such lines on it, one without the back stitching the couching lines. And then here's your instructions in your symbol key. So all your colors, different types of thread for the back stitch noticed that here, it says, use two strands for the back, such for the Japan threads for I'll show you that and also your beads and as well we've got our thread length estimates. So these Aaron meters and a skein of embroidery floss is eight meters, so these are all well under one skein of embroidery floss. All right, so go to a pattern there. So in addition to all of that basic stuff T just to get to this point, you're going to be needing. First of all, you're gonna be needing your couch threads. So when I say couch two threads, I mean the ones that are going you're gonna be sitting on the surface of your fabric. So in this case, they're going to be Japan threats And these air absolutely gorgeous. I love them. I'll explain more about them in the next video. Yes, that's what's gonna be laying on top of your peace. And also you'll need couching threads. So what's actually attaching these to your fabric? So you can see here? I've got a very similar color blends right in. This is Guterman 100% polyester sewing thread, and it's got this at a sewing shop. Its color 865 It doesn't matter so much that it matches exactly like sometimes you can actually get really cool effects by using a totally contrast in color. And I could be really, really cool for your first couching project that I would recommend using a matching color or a similar as you can get just because then, if you have any variation between your stitches, then it's not gonna be as noticeable. So you've got your couch threads, what you're attaching down on what you're attaching them with your couching threads. You're also going to need a size 10 embroidery needle. This is quite fine if you have an issue with threading smaller needles. I do have a tutorial on needle thread hours and different types of needle thread hours a link that in the resources. But I will show you how I thread this one, which is just without using a needle threat. Er at all. This is very fine. Delicate deal is perfect for coaching, and it's also going to be used for beating. But I'll explain about more that in a moment, and you're also going to need your seed beats. Use their size 11 Beautiful Old Gold, which is a company called Mill Hill. I get these beads from absolutely beautiful you're also going to be needing. You don't have to have this, but it's super super handy. I'll explain a bit more about this in the beating section, but this is a bead match, sometimes called tacky Bob's. It's got a little protected coverup, but it's actually tacky, and I keep it on a Tupperware lead, just perent any beads from rolling off of it in case any our wayward and want to try and run away. Also, you're going to need a size 22 Chanel needle, so Chanel Needle is just another name for an embroidery needle. It's got a much wider I than an embroidery needle does, and it's also about the sharp point of an embroidery needle. So it's almost like a cross between a tapestry needle with the wide I and a number three and you know with a sharp point. And as you can see, it's got some black thread hanging off. But already this is called buttonhole thread or a button and craft thread, which is what it's labeled as on the when the school. I just got this from Michael's, so any craft store should have this. It's a really it's not super super crazy thing, but it's very thick compared to normal sewing thread, and it's very strong. That's what you need. You need a really strong thread. You can use normal sewing thread, um, or even embroidery thread for this embroidery floss. But I wouldn't recommend trying to find this if you can. If you're going to use another type of thread, I would recommend waxing it first to give it a little extra strength. So this is just bees wax. Just run your thread through it once or twice and wipe off any excess with your fingertips , and that's it. And the last thing you're gonna need this is not mandatory by any means, but it really does help, especially you're gonna get more into beating. And, um, couching and things is an embroidery stand so you can get ones that are called a seat stand . It's got a little paddle on the bottom if you sit on and then it's gonna arm that comes up and then your embroidery, who actually clamps onto its what sits above you above your lap and keeps it so it's hands free, so you don't have Teoh actually hold the hoop. There's also bigger ones called a Lowry stand, which is what I have. It's a big metal stand in swing away and you can raise and lower it. It's fantastic. I really, really like the lower stand, but they are not, you know they're not inexpensive either. So please don't go. You know, Teoh, any great length thinking you have to spend all this money on your supplies. You don't. I'm gonna be showing you how to do this by holding the hoop in my hands. But it is helpful if you do have a stand of some sort. That kind of should clamp your frame or your hoop so that you are hands free. And that's it for this video in the next video hungry, explaining more about Japan threats. So what they are?
3. Japan Threads: All right. So this quick tutorial, I'm gonna be just talking a little bit about Japan threads as most people haven't ever really heard of them unless they're familiar with gold work or things like that. And, uh, a lot of these techniques seem to be teaching you for the actual couching come from gold work classes that I've done. So if you would like more information about actual gold work techniques, then I can recommend the Royal School of Needlework class. Saddleback should be showing you a project I'm working on with that class in the next video , as well as the Embroidery Guild of America. They quite often have classes that involve gold work techniques in them as well. So Japan threats are really, really cool, as he concedes become these schools. There's different thicknesses is, ah, the next number. Japan. For number seven. This one's the same color, but it's Japan trade number five, and it goes down to number one. So there was number one, number seven, number five, and that's just the thickness. Is number seven so thickest, the number one is the finest, so we're gonna be using number seven. But what Japan threads traditionally were was really metal that was pounded super, super, super thin into like a really thin sheet and then wrapped around a filament like ah, core like a horsehair or something like that. And that way it's basically called. It's a wrap thread, so it's really, really beautiful. They're really, really lovely to work with, but because they're wrapped, you don't want to actually stitch with them like through your fabric, because the fabric can actually rough them up and take that core off. So traditionally they were made out of real metal. These ones have a percentage of metal in them, but they are sent That s synthetic metallic wrapped around a polyester core. The brand for these is chronic, and I love chronic. They have some really, really beautiful threads, particularly their metallics. So this is the number seven to number five, and we also have different colors. Here is this is a copper in the number five wage. Here's a ribbon made out of Japan threads. So this sexually made out of strands of the number one threat, the very fine one woven together into into a ribbon they're absolutely beautiful to work with. And then we have a braid. So again, it's all the individual strands of number one. So 12 this is a 12 afraid number 12 brave, meaning there's 12 strands in it, so bigger the number for the chronic braves means a thicker it is. It means there's more strands. So, like a number four, braid is equivalent to roughly two strands of DMC flaws for diameter. This is number 12 braids, so it's obviously a lot thicker, and it's just gorgeous and sets made out of 12 strands of the number one Japan thread. You can just buy the number one Japan thread on its own that one you can actually use as you're couching thread if you wanted to. If you really want to go all out, you could get the number one Japan bread to couch down the sticker. Japan threads. There's also a chord that they have a metallic cord that would work as well. I just prefer the sewing thread. I just find it a little bit easier to work with. So one thing to note about Japan threads with these ones the woven number one ones. It doesn't seem to affect it as much, but with any of the wrapped ones, the thicker ones, like the number seven in the number five. One thing I've noticed is, if you get them wet, they will actually kind of warp the threads a little bit. They actually kind of expand the core, and you can see the gaps, like if you look really closely at your Japan threads probably can't see in the video, but it almost looks like it has little breaks going along. And that's just the texture of the wrapping. What it does it when you get it wet is a polyester core swells, and it kind of makes the wrapping seem further. Apartment can actually warp the shape of the threat as well, and it can make it dollar. I've noticed that it makes it quite a bit dollar if you get it wet, so I wouldn't recommend washing these. So if you're going to be doing a project with Japan threats, what I would recommend is get it up to this stage and then wash it. If you're going to wash it and then apply your Japan threats like it's not. His ideal is obviously washing when everything's done and you finished touching the project . But that's what about as good as you're going to get without actually damaging your Japan threads. The good thing is, is they won't tarnish like a real metal thread. And in the next touch video, I'm gonna show you some real metal threads and show you what, um, what you can do with the rial metal threads as opposed to the synthetic versions of them. But yeah, the good days. You can touch these as much as you want, and they're not going to tarnish riel. Metal threads will eventually tarnish. So I'll see you in the next video. We'll get Andrzej actually teaching you how to do the couching.
4. What is Couching?: Yeah. All right. Welcome back. So the general explanation of couching as I was mentioning in the previous video is that you're actually catching one thread with another thread. So I mentioned I was going to show you some actual metal threads for use for gold work. And here's some of them. Here. I got this from a shop on Etsy. Hold durable. These needle works I might actually be doing, um, like a little project with these later on another class with them. But we'll see. I got like, a little sample. Kitt was sure of all kinds of stuff is like leather in there were some needles, all sorts of stuff. Yeah, well, different kinds of metal threads. So here's the parole parole, which I'll show you briefly. So for this one, it's actually you actually stretched its see. It's got, like, a sort of a nubby textures, actually coiled metal like it's actually metal, and you actually pull it apart slightly slit. Your couching threads will go around and through those little gaps in between each metal. So you can see here. This is the project from the Royal School of Needlework Class that I'm doing. You can see all of this has all been couched down. This has all been couched down. All of this technique here is is full couching except well, even this is a little bit coaching. This is string padding, but all of these are just like rows and rows and rows of threads have been couched down on different textures of threads. Things like that. So you can see this is all been couched down. So that's all couching. It is basically just catching one thread with another thread critically with metal threads . Obviously they're too thick, Sevilla So through your fabric. So this is why you couch threads and sometimes you want, like, a really cool decorative effect with them. And so couch reds worked perfectly for that. Uh, just as a a little side note to this little project here is actually part of a project that I'm working on for a new collection cross stitch pattern collection. I'm coming up. This is like super sneak peek is nobody's seen these yet. This is part of this isn't finished yet, but this is what is going to look like in part of the national pattern so you can see all the couching they're so I've got the Japan threads here. And then I've got this chronic braid. This one here, the number 12 braid Got that couch down all around here in the beginning, So these techniques are very handy. They are found in some patterns, especially ones that are a little bit more embellished. So I really hope you enjoy learning how to do the couching.
5. Couching - Part 1: So what I would do first is if you get your sewing thread, you're gonna want to cut it length off. I wouldn't go very long like maybe 18 inches maximum, like maybe the length of your your fingertips to your elbow max, because with couching quite often the your sewing thread where we could get a little bit roughed up cause it's constantly going around other threads. It's going through your fabric, so sometimes you can get a little roughed up, so I wouldn't use really, really long strands of that. So I'm not sure we're going to see this. I'm gonna try and zoom in the camera, but basically for threading really, really fine needles like like this Number 10 embroidery Needle is I cut my thread cleanly with the scissors. Make sure you have a good in short, Paris's there, so you're gonna really need a good pair of sharp scissors if you're using. If you doing actual metal work embroidery like with the gold with the actual metal threads , then you are gonna need a separate Harris scissors for those just a regular border of her sisters. But keep them separate from your normal sewing scissors But so I just cut it cleanly, squeeze it between my fingers. You can just barely see a little nubbin of the flaws. And then I basically I put the eye of the needle over the thread. I don't try and put the needle with the thread through the needle. Put the needle, I over the threat. And that seems to work a lot better. Do this quite tricky, cause it's actually very similar skin color to my skin tone. Okay, So threaded. So for this, um, I'm just gonna do a small not on the back, because any embellished project, like with gold worker beating a stuff, it's gonna have a bit of a raise surface, so you don't have to worry as much about knots on the back. But just be aware that sometimes you can catch you're not with your embroidery needle, So that's just one thing to be aware of. So I do use little knots. There are other ways to anchor your threads, but I prefer small knots for this kind of technique. So this is a quilters? Not so. You just layer if loss or your thread under a needle, wrap it around the tip a couple times keeping it firm and grab the raps between your fingertips. Keep it firm, push your needle through and then keeping it firm like don't let your fingers go and just pull through slowly and then you'll feel it form and not in your fingers. I am a little tiny, not super cool. Okay, so you got your needle threaded. That's that part done. So what you're gonna be wanting to dio is you're gonna need your pattern because you're gonna have to actually measure out how many of these sort, like how long these threads you're going to be needing. I've seen some really cool techniques where people actually get to schools. Like if they're doing two strands, they get to schools and then they could just, like, keep going until they're finished. And then I just cut its that we're not sort of wasting thread. Uh, but you would need to Schools were able to do that. So for this one going to start here, that's lying down here. So you're gonna get your couching your couched thread, the one that's gonna go on the top and you're gonna roughly place it on your pattern You don't have to get super accurate about this. You're gonna leave access anyway, So just roughly measure that curve. It's going along the edge of the beating. And as you can see in this pattern where the beads are, there is no stitching. And I'll explain more about that when we get into the beating section. But you're gonna We wanted to leave roughly. It's a three centimeters to an inch on each end. We don't want to leave like crazy amounts, cause then you're just gonna be cutting off a lot when you put it through to the back. So let's just say roughly there one thing I will say to if you have really long needles like the starting, you know, snails, fingernails like these air for me, actually, pretty short. If you're really long fingernails, when you're trying to plunge your threads through, you have to kind of grab the ends and I'll show you what to do. But you might find your longer nails make it a little bit harder to maneuver your threads in a sort of small space, so you may find that you need to leave slightly longer tails you either end to make your threads a little bit easier for you to manipulate. Totally fine. It's just that you're you know, you're going to use up a fraction more loss for the threads, which is fine. He's or 10 meters school. So I mean, you have plenty there to play with because this is only gonna take up such a tiny amount here. But just one thing to be aware of. If you're fair, nails are quite long. You may find that you want to leave your tails a little bit longer. So I've got one cut. Someone's gonna cut another one by measuring it against this one again. These don't have to be, like crazy, precise, just as long as it's long enough to cover your area. Plus, if so, one inch tail region we got are two here and beautiful. So these are gonna be couched down in parallel right next to each other. Certainly with little train tracks, you can just do one if you want. It is ah, much more subtle. Look, I'm using two of the number seven, um, Japan threat. Just because it makes a really nice glimmer on the pattern was gonna play those there from moment. So on your pattern, you can, um, start from either end. Whichever one seems easiest for you. I'm gonna start from down here. It's It's a nice straight stretch along this section of stitching. What you're not gonna be wanting to do is start your sewing thread. You're couching thread right at the tip where it's gonna go back into the fabric because you need I'll show you why and you'll understand why in a bit you're gonna want to start like, a couple of stitches up and I'll show you why. So on the pattern here, we're gonna start sewing thread. Pretty much sorry. Sitting in the camera, I'm gonna start roughly right where this first bead would be right in the corner. So it's roughly where I'm gonna put my sewing thread. So I got her gap here where the beans are. So it's where I'm gonna put my sewing thread. I'm actually going to, um, take a really tiny little stitch as an anchor. Stitches Well, so I'm gonna come up, and then I'm gonna go down almost the exact same spot, but not quite exactly the same spot and then come up again just a really anchor. That's red. All right, so now we got this. That's right. Anchored. We're gonna take your to Japan threats. Keep the ends. That's together as you can just to prevent one from, like, really shimmying. And then you run out of thread on one side. It's gonna lay them down if you it's okay to stroke them to kind of get them to lay flat because they've been in a curly, been on a curly school. They may. You may find them a little curly and wanted to kind of curl away from each other. So it's okay to kind of straighten him out a little bit like that, especially for these ones. Like the more you touch moment, like it's with any threat. I mean, the more you touch it the you know, more chances it has of eventually becoming yellow and fragile and things like that. But at least with these ones, they're not going to tarnish like the actual metal threads would. So you're gonna lay this down right next to your thread that you just come up where the ends are, doesn't really matter at this point, just keep a decent amount of tail. And for this one, if you're not using a hoop stand, I would actually recommend just holding it down like this, and then you can pick it up in a second. So you're gonna we want him to basically do a U shape with your stitch up and over and down . So the reason for that is if you go around like this like you come up and you go back down and exact same spot, it's going to pull those two threads together and make them bunched up. They're not gonna lie flat, whereas if you do, like, almost like a staple, you go up one side of them, go across and then go back down. Obviously not that wide, but that will actually keep the threads lying parallel to each other. And it won't make them want a bunch and twist. So you can you put your threads right next to your sewing thread where you came up, is there a little bit twisted right now? It's OK. We can straighten that out and they're gonna want to go straight down right on the other side of the thread, so horizontally opposite where you came up so you can can see. I'm just barely lifting the hoop up to pushed a needle in a little bit. So it sticks there. Try and keep it. Hold on. This is a trickiest part. Is getting the first stitch in just because nothing is anchored in place so you can see again? This is another reason why you don't want to have super long threats because they can catch around these ends and this make your life miserable. So relatively short threads for your couching this word. You can pull it gently. You can see it's a bit twisted. That's okay, user, to put your needle to separate them. Well, it again a little bit. Just keep doing that until they lay flat. You can actually use your other hand as well if you need to, to get them to lay flat. He's ones wanted twist right there. All right, starting on pole, not super tight. You're not gonna try and break your sewing threat, obviously. And then what I usually dio is I do a little locking thread, and I usually do this in between. If I'm doing like this with the two strands of the Japan threat I usually do is very close to that first ditch, but in between the two. So this little pin stitch, so anchoring or locking stitch will actually be hiding underneath, come up well and then go down very, very close again. Doesn't have to be super precise. Were just close ish to where you came up just enough to kind of act as a little lock. That's your first stitch done, So that was the hardest. The 1st 1 is always a little tricky trying to get everything laid down, but as you can see now, the threads you know, they're relatively well behaved. So if you do have a hoop stand or some other frame to hold your hoop, you got you hold your threads in line with where you want to go with one hand and then stitch with the other. That's one really good way to do it. You can actually do the same thing with needle minders like the little magnets you can actually like, place half of the needle minor on one side and have but on the other and clamp it with the little magnets, and that will help hold two threads in the direction that you want to go in as well
6. Couching - Part 2: So depending on the pattern you can see on here, I've used back such lines to designate where the couching is going to go. This doesn't have to be crazy, accurate, Just trying not to get too far into where the beating is gonna go cause and the beads won't sit properly, but doesn't have to be crazy, accurate on Biff in the back. Such class I taught you as well it where to see the corner anchors of the longer runs of back stitch. So it doesn't have to be super accurate when you do have to get really accurate is things like if you're doing the gold work and you've got, like, multiple rows a lying next to each other and they have to be, but it up right next to each other. And that's when you have to get really precise about where your threads are lying for this project here, if you don't have to worry about it. I mean, as long as it's generally in the right area, it's fine. It doesn't. It doesn't matter. This is your project, all right? So because we've done our first stitch here, so you can see Member was mentioning not to start at the beginning because you're gonna need space for these to turn under and go down into the fabric. Later, when we pull these heads ends through to the back, you need space for the threads. Actually bend. Otherwise, you could end up just stripping all this metal off of them and things like that. You can see this one some reasons. Already shredded a little bit right there. Got in a little fluffy, which is fine because it's gonna get hidden. But that's why you want to leave a bit of a space. You're allowing your threads space to bend and go into the whole when they're gonna be plunging your ends through to the back. And of course, I will show you how to do that. So the next one you can see this goes straight, huh? Until one stitch above the beads, one stitch above the beads and then it turns kind of hits that corner of the B that it turns. So again, don't worry about being crazy precise with this, but it is good practice. We'll work is quite a It's not hard per se, but it is very precise needlework technique. So what I've done for my samples is I've actually spaced all of my couching stitches space of each grid square on the fabric, so it's gonna be a lot of little tiny stitches, but that way it's anchored evenly. You don't have to worry about your spacing of your stitching because sometimes if you're couching stitching, it's a little off like it's closer together. At one point, in white or together. Another point, it can look a little bit funky. So this way you're stitching is going to be even. So what I'm gonna do is go to the next Red Square again, remind you will come up, then come straight over. And that actually went under Greece. That's red, stinky little sucker. So what happened was when I was pulling the thread it actually, this threat actually went around this end so it didn't catch it, caught one of them, but not the other one. Do you know? So it's going to keep an eye on this. Make sure you're ends aren't getting tangled up in your your sewing thread. That's one again. Come up. Instead, you're gonna go basically parallel, not parallel perpendicular to the direction of your You're Japan threats. It makes a really nice. It looks really nice when it's perfectly perpendicular to it. We get a little bit off. It's fine. That's the one thing nice about this embroidery needle. The really sharp embroidery needle is even with the aid of fabric, you can puncture your other threads. It can puncture the fabric really, really easily, So wherever you put it, it's going to anchor in the chair. Dark twisting. This is so one where it's going to start turning again. Make sure your threats you can keep doing this of your fingernails to just keep flattening about, making sure that your Japan threads aren't twisting. If it's easier for you first to just do one strand so you're not dealing with two strands kind of fighting against each other. Go for it to your project, the whole point justice to teach you these techniques. The two strands do look really pretty, though, when they're laid down. So now we're at this corner here in the pattern. Sorry, keep reading the cameras that are different angle. So we're gonna go angled up to one stitch above this next beads. That's where the next angle is so again. Like I said, you don't three crazy precise about this. What I do is I grabbed my threads, making sure you're still flat. You're not twisting them. If you are aware, the next anchor points going to be, which in this case is a stitch above this one here. So it's gonna be sensors show you right there. That's gonna be the next anchor point for that for this angle. So I'm gonna roughly hold the threads sort of centered over that red square again. Not to be manic about getting really precise with this and again, you're gonna go up. So are last ditch was here. Can you just can follow one stitch grid square at a time for your distance, the coaching And then you look and see where your next anchor point is? That's pretty much right on the corner. So I keep moving the pattern out of the way pretty much right on the corner of this next, so low beat up here. This is how you work across your pattern. You just do one little section and make sure your strands are flat. Do the next little section. So looking up to the next point. And then I will keep usin more instructions. Your stitches, you're couching stitch just aren't exactly even with each other. This fine point of needlework is too. Relax and enjoy yourself and learn new techniques since that paper point and then it's just gonna keep working all the way up to the top. There again, what I'm gonna remind you is don't stitch. I'm gonna say within two grid blocks of the endpoint. So what's gonna happen is these are going to get put up like this. The next ones, you gonna cut two strands again, Same thing they're gonna come up and around like this. I'm gonna anchor them like that. You can leave these ends up for now. It's totally okay. Just trying not to get your threads. Your sewing thread called around them, but I leave them up for now. Don't worry about putting them through to the back yet. An insane with these two little strands here for the leafs. Baines, leave about an inch extra on each one. Couch them down, leave the ends up, and then I'll come back to you once that's done. But again, leave a gap about two stitches away before the end point of each one. Like don't stitch right to the edge because you're not gonna turn your threads if you do that. So began up to here up to roughly here to roughly here. That's where you re stitching is between these points, not the very end points. All right, so I will keep couching this. I will get to the point where we're ready to turn the ends into plunge. The answer on I'll see you in a moment.
7. Plunging - Part 1: Okay, so I'm back. So as you can see, this looks like a hot mess. Pretty hot, miss, but it looks like a hot mess. So one thing I should have mentioned to before turning the camera office when you're finishing your threads as well, like finishing an end or something like that that I would do another anchor stitch like one of locking stitches as well and what I usually do when I'm working gold work or for this type of thing, like on the surface of the cross stitch patterns across the whole pattern is attended to all one stage all at once, like do all of the couching part and then do all of the plunging part in all the finishing at the same time because it just makes it easier in the end, because then you're not getting ends all tangled up with each other and what not. So if you're counting lines ended up a little bit wobbly or whatever, it's OK. You can kind of pushed him a little bit with your fingernails that the curves didn't come out of smoothly, as you'd like or, you know, getting a little twisted near the end things like that. You must give him a little wiggle, and that's fine. So what we're gonna do now is I'm gonna teach you how to plunge the ends to the back, which means taking all these ends to the back. I got a really meet. Um, picture. I will show you. This was a class that I did with Kate Barlow from the Royal School of Media Work. She's amazing in this one of her designs, but you can see what I did is I didn't plunge. The ends of the hair actually kept them down and the mater to have a little little down do rather than, you know, being plunged the back, which is what they were supposed to be. So there is that option as well. Especially using some really cool but yarns or really neat cords, things like that. I should kind of cool, and they're all kind. Afraid you don't necessarily have to plunge against the back for this one. You do, because obviously it looks a little crazy like this. But it is an auction to actually just leave the ends unfinished like this. And you can fray them if there of a type that would fray easily. Just make sure you're you're gonna leave them like this. Just make sure that they're really secured very well at each end. Otherwise, people might be able to pull them out from things like that. So make sure they're quite tight. France wanting to If you noticed that when you were stitching your you're Japan threats are traveling a little bit. You can actually pull them down a little bit, too, as you're stitching and so reposition them in case like you realize that your end is way too short on this in a way too long on this and like depending on how much you've already stitched, sometimes you'll find you can give him a little wiggle, and you can kind of give him a little tug to get them to lay where you want them to. So for plunging, we're gonna get our Chanel needle here with the loop of system loop of the buttonhole thread that's about 34 inches long when it's doubled. So the reason I'm using this thread or so this this needle is because it's actually wide enough to make a whole big enough for these threads to pass through without leaving a giant hole, depending on the thickness of the threat to your your passing through, then you may need a thicker needle. So you might need to get a bigger needle that you can make a bit of a hole with before you plunge the ends. Or even in all if you haven't. All this is actually a screwdriver that no a friend sharpened for me into an all. Don't do this at home unless you know machinery. But, yes, that's another way to use. You can punch a little hole for gold work. There's a tool called on my lore, and it's got like a flat paddle type, and on one end that shoes for smooth and laying threads flat on that. It's got like a little puncture, and on the other end, she can punch holes for your threads to passer. Another neat, if I learned, is actually a porcupine quill as well, so sharp on one end, and that has actually worked well for laying your threads. If you need them to lay smoothly. For certain types of Muto work you can use, this is a laying tool. Yes, so there Ricky Pine needle works fantastic as well. But for this one, because he threads aren't that thick. You use National Needle. So what we're gonna do is, as you can see Well, don't start down the end here. It's it's really simple. You can see where the ends are being anchored there, Right on the point here. Actually, it's handy to cause that's exactly where you all your back stitch lines are meeting up a swell. So grab our Chanel needle with, uh, loop of buttonholes red, and you're gonna want to do this one strand at a time. Sometimes if this if you're count, treasures like sits say there's two of them and they're quite fine. You sometimes come pulled both through at the same time, but then sometimes they might get twisted. Or you might need a bigger hole, that everything. So it is easier to put them through one at a time. The trick is making sure that they're lying flat as you're doing it. So I'm gonna do outside one first. So I'm gonna put my needle right at the juncture. It's movie spreads away, but right at the juncture where that back stitch lines are meeting right that V. So this would be for anywhere where your patterns ending. But you're to figure needle right at that juncture, right where the threads we're gonna go down into the back. Well, your threat through, then I'm gonna leave a loop sticking up. This is where if you have really long needles or nails, this gets tricky unwinding a bit. So what I'm doing, I'm going to feed this outside strand of the Japan thread into that loop and pull it through to the back. It will make a really satisfying little book. Sound usually depends on your fabric. So you gonna grab your end kind of tricky. This is where having both hands coming get hands for you. Stand is really helpful center and through. So I'm pulling my Neil through the back as well. Obviously trying not to lose the read. Often you'll serve. You can't quite see this. There we go. You can see the end is caught under the buttonholes. Red. Well, the buttonhole thread and make sure turn it over briefly. Make sure when you're pulling this through that you're not just gonna hold your needle right off of the thread like grab both sides of these threats or grab the eye of your needle to make sure that you're not just gonna pull your needle often. Then you have to do it all Iran. Well, biggie if you do it with the pain. But you can see also, I'm actually catching the very chip of the thread, not where it's closest to the stitching you've done again. That gives it space for it to bend and move. And it's not gonna shred your thread. So we're going to pull over and pull gently. You don't want a refund. It obviously cause he could pull the whole thing out. You can see your beautiful at all. He's a gold, right there I am. So we're gonna do the same again for the Strand. That's right next to it. And the trick is you're gonna put your needle right next to the previous whole. You're not gonna go down the same hole because then they're gonna start to kind of merge and cross, and the threads won't look as nice as if they're lying Complete parallel going into your fabric so you can put your Neil right next to that first stranded. So one thing to be aware of to when you're pulling your needles for you might accidentally end up grabbing onto this threat. So just be quite aware of what you're grabbing onto. The last thing I wanted to try and pull your Neil for him pull this really hard, have done that before, and then you pull the whole threat out, and then you have to start that whole stitch that whole section again because you can't put your thread back through what's already been such down. You have to cut all your little couching stitches and then do it all over again. And quite often you'll need new, um, Japan threads as well, because the action of counting them down consumers rough them up just a little bit. Have you tried to use it again? It might end up not looking as pretty, so make sure you're not grabbing your other stranded. I should put that under your fingers. It helps of your needle and pull through Luke. Grab the needle. Think he's on the back again. Grab your and stick it through and again. You just wanted to catch a little tiny end. Not very close. See, it's not a nice bend in it. That's good. You don't want it to catch too close to your stitching. This 1 may be a little interesting. It's got a little fluffy on it. It should be fine. Three against over and
8. Plunging - Part 2: So you go, it's me down a bit. You can see those two ends or perfectly parallel to each other, and they're not overlapping. So same again, but this one. So I started from the outside of this line and then did this one. So the next one's going to be the one that's lying next to this one, which is inside of these two strands. Put your needle down right next to those where exactly it goes. It doesn't really matter, like whether it's right on a grid square or whether it's like halfway through. It's fine because your needles gonna make enough space for that threat to go through. That's why we're using the sharper embroidery needles and not a tapestry needle. Make sure not pulling. That's your catch. Your friends, this one actually, don't. If you can see this one actually caught some of that fluffy stuff so it would have pulled the thread through. Someone's gonna Oh, I need a lot again and try again. That will happen sometimes. Sometimes you'll catch your your other threads on the back. Well, you can do is if this is really annoying on the back, having your threads sticking up is you can actually use Scotch tape like a a low tax Scott shape and cover them like bend them out of the way and cover them. That way they won't get in your way. That's one little trick to make sure you have the Neil are not threats. You can see this kind of technique with the couching. It isn't hard per se. It's just a little bit finicky, and you need to be a little bit precise. Just takes a little bit of time, especially if you're threads airbending all over the place and making a little bit crazy just takes a bit of time again, not catching it right next to the edge of the sitting through gently. Sometimes you might have to figure out which one it is that you're pulling gentle actually caught long thread. So because I caught the wrong thread there, I caught the one on the outside. He's gonna pull it up a little bit and then I'll do this one in between. You're not catching my threats go. So let's those olden. So what? You What I would normally do is I would do all the plunging all at first and then I would do all of the finishing all at first. Slow start next. But what I'm gonna be doing is showing us how to finish these ends off. In that way, you could just finish up the project on your own with couching part of the project on your own. Anyway. So what we're gonna do is flip it over. Don't need that one anymore. Back to year number 10 Embroidery Needle with your sewing thread. If you're using actual metal threads like the pro pearl, this one here, then I would definitely use a doubled strand of the sewing thread. But because Japan threads are quite soft, I just use a single strand. So what I usually dio is I gather them up. If you got like a huge amount of them, like, say, six or eight or something like that, I would do these in sections, but because the four is relatively manageable units to do it all in one hit. So what I usually do is an anchor. You be about 1/2 a centimeter away, Little not we'll do a couple of stitches to catch. Make sure it's firmly anchored. This is going through the back of other stitches through the back of the cross stitches. Another reason to use it. The embroidery needle instead of the chapas dream, you know, because put it to your previous staging a lot easier. Okay, so we're anchored. So what you gonna do is try and get these to all my nice and flat next with each other. You don't want a big lump of them, so try and get them all and twisted trying at the mall, lying relatively next to each other instead of on top of each other. Hi. Once you do that, you're gonna lie them down. Close together. You're trying to keep them. You're trying to keep them as flat as possible. Is that what you're not gonna know? The big giant lump at the back? Yes. You've got your thread. It's already anchored underneath. Um, so roughly where your thread was anchored, do a couple of catching stitches again. Make sure to catch over these ends here. Sewing thread isn't gonna well wound up around them in trying to keep them flat. Trying not to let them bunched together in a lump. Once you've Anchorage the main part, then you can work your way back up to the beginning. You want to go right to the edge, but make sure to catch a lot of that excess that's close to where you came out Reason for that is it makes a neater back, but it also helps keep the threads flat as well prevents him from moving and getting caught on other things. If there nicely secured, you can do a buttonhole stitch over. This is well, if you know what that is, it's a really nice finish. I'm go back down, finished him off with a notch, you know, And then I usually run by after I've not. I usually run my thread underneath a couple of other stitches before cutting it. Just the end doesn't sticking up. It's removed. And then cut these. Maybe about a millimeter or two away from where you're stitching was. But you don't catch your you're cross such as? Well, that would suck. All right, so you got a nice little finished ends. They're not going anywhere. So you what you're gonna be wanting to do is plunging all of your other ends the exact same way I just showed you making sure the the two strands are lying next to each other nicely that they're not overlapping and then finish off the back like that. And then I will see you in the next section about how toe finish off your project with the beating. All right, so there you go. So you've done your coaching, so that's sort of the basic technique that is found in gold work. Like I said, if you do want to do some more advanced gold work techniques like this gorgeous one, this is not finished yet, But this is by Becky Hogg. She's a British designer and also a teacher at the Royal School of Needlework. Absolutely gorgeous. Love it. She really enjoying doing this? I would recommend that chorus. Also, The Embroiders Guild of America, as I said, has some courses occasionally, and it's also like some other private teachers and stuff, too. Like if you search gold work classes, I'm sure you'll come up with some other teachers and stuff, maybe even some in your area. You never know. Alison Cole has a a couple of books about gold work. She's an Australian designer. Her steps amazing. So yes, that's the gold work section that's what it looked like at the back. And obviously with this one, it was kind of easier to do because it was obvious which direction you had to fold your ends and because there was nowhere else to stitch. But when you are catching your ends of the back, you do want to fold them back towards your lines. Your lines are coming down this way, and then you fold it back up towards him. That way kind of sort of anchors them as well, as well as all the stitching. Obviously, what helps to sort of keep everything in place, for instance, that done. So the next thing I'm gonna be doing is teaching you about beating section about lovely, lovely beads.
9. Plunging - An Alternative Method: Yeah, All right. So welcome back. So in this quick video, what I decided to do is, as I was working on one of the other patterns in the collection that I'm about to launch as I discovered a new way or an easier way, I guess I should say to plunge the threats to the back. As you may have noticed in the previous plunging video, I was having a hard time with one of the threads of actually randomly got a bit of an issue with dexterity. If I don't have a needle in my hand, which is really bizarre, I know, considering what ideo but anyway, so that wasn't helping. And that's why I said to If you have longer nails, sometimes this can be tricky. This is actually an easier way to do that. If you are having issues getting the ends of your threads to go through the loop of the buttonhole thread. So what I've done here is you can see I've pulled up the loop of the buttonhole thread as before. It's going into the hole that the the credit braid is going to go through. In this case, I'm using a combination of chronic braid and of the Japan threats in this particular pattern. So you can see that got the loop ready to go and what I'm actually gonna be doing it's grabbing a pair of tweezers. I'm gonna be putting the tweezers through the loop of the buttonhole thread and grabbing the tip of the in this case, a chronic braid or, in your case of Japan, threads. So I'm as you're going through the loop and grabbing the thread, the tip of the thread, and then you can see here as I'm slowly pulling through the buttonhole thread, I'm keeping the end of the braid firmly in. The tweezers grasp so doesn't slide out. In that way, there's still a little bit of slack to allow for the braid tracks and chronic the Japan threats to kind of go through the fabric. You still need a little bit of space for them to bend to go through the fabric so you can see I've got that grass there, and then this last picture you can see it's classed as normal, and you would just pull it straight through. So you may find that using a pair of tweezers is a really easy way for you to work rather than using your fingers. You can also just grab the tip of the Japan threads with your tweezers and then feed them through the loop of the buttonhole thread. If that's easier, I personally find it easier to go through the buttonhole thread with the tweeters and then grab the the Japan thread, whichever is easier for you to experiment. But I wanted to share this quick little video with you just to show you that there is another way to do plunging as well. Um, you might find this a lot easier than using your fingertips. I'll see you in the next video.
10. Beads: All right. So the first thing we're gonna have a look at is the type of beets. So these are mill hill beads. That's a brand name and is gonna cover the tops. Tipped. Um, the color is old gold. The color number 00557 thes air size 11 beads. Which means that there's gonna be 11 beads to the inch. Um, it's perfect sizing for 14 count pita. If you wanted to go to a slightly higher account eight, I like, um, say 18 count. I'd recommend going to a size 15 beads, which means 15 BC, and it's gonna be a little smaller as your fabric squares are going to be a little bit smaller. So there's a couple types of needles, so I'm gonna be using the the size 10 embroidery needle again, just such as they do actually fit in those beads. But you can also get proper beating needles. You can see how fine that ISS the eye is just crazy. Fine. And also there is this magical one here, which I'll show you, and it doesn't look like anything. It looks like this Api's are metal. This is called a big guy needle or a wide I needle. I've got this one on Amazon. It's a two inch one you can get them up to, I think five inches. This is magical and hilarious. Thing is, if you go on Amazon some of the reviews of people who return them because they couldn't figure out how they worked. And yet he's bought them, which in theory would indicate that they knew how they worked, which was weird. But anyway, it was entertaining to me. These air supercool, these air soldered on each end in the eye, little bit tricky to open the eye. Is the entire shaft the needle super cool. So if you have your thread just chuck extraordinary. 12 strands are many strands I wouldn't use like a lot of strands is because these are quite delicate needles that you to start switching away. The thing is, though, because it is more flexible. You do have to be careful, like if you're stitching through, like, say, it's from really thick fabric like denim or something. A lot of stitches, like a lot of layers of stitches and things like that, and this might not be the best choices because they are We're flexible and more likely to bend. We're snap if you try to, like, pull, like, way too much floss room. But yeah, they are super cool. Just because they got the whole thing is a giant I So it's really neat. I love them, but But this I'll be using the little number 10 embroidery needle. So in the next video, I'm gonna be showing you what to dio one more tip before we go. That, though, is for your floss. You can either match the color of the beads, which this is where you can match the color of the fabric. Either one doesn't matter whichever is easier for you. All right, I will see you in the next video.
11. Beading: all right, we're back. So the first thing the check obviously, is how you're beads air charted on your pattern for whenever I used beads in my patterns. I don't put stitching underneath, Um, because I find that tends to make the beads sit too high on a project that make them too proud of the rest of surface. So I leave them the area blank underneath, which is, you know, obviously how you you've such that with the blanks. Some designers will, though, put beads on top of other stitches. So that is just something to be aware of is how it's been charted. All right, you got my you know, here. And I've got my little tacky Bob saying here the little this one's called Beetle on from Amazon. And I think these things actually would fit into a city case, too. If you had a CD case, you took the guts of it out. That would help protect it as well. It should be fun. So the tricky thing is that feeds the everything, assumes beans. There's really hard. It's not the trickiest thing. Is not making these into little Air Force personnel and making them fly through the air when you knock them with your hand. When you reach for your cup of coffee or something, there's two ways to prevent that. First is to use one of these little sticky mats, and that's great cause that just holds them all in place, like it is still possible to fling these. But it's way harder like this. This this holds them pretty well, like if there is, it's one layer of beads. They're kind of not going anywhere. Ah, the other way is if you have flung them in the air, Um, which happens like that's why I try to keep this little container. Either put the lid back on it or I put it like way far away from where I'm working while I'm stitching. Is is if you have your vacuum cleaner and it's got the hose or it's got the little nozzle end like, say, for ah, that's bust or something like that. If you put a sock over it or like a para nylons or something like that, you hold him on because you don't want get sucked up inside, and then you wherever your beads landed in your probably plush car but because that's just the way Murphy's law work works. You vacuum up that area, holding their sock onto the nozzle of the vacuum cleaner and the beads like you stick to the outside of the sock. And then what use You have a bowl or a tray or something like that near. And then when you turn the vacuum cleaner off, make sure the hoses over top of the bowl of the tray, and then the beads will just drop into the bowl. And then you can just put them back into your container, which is fantastic. Sets one little good tip for cleaning them up afterwards, because, I mean it's gonna happen. I mean, at some point everybody knocks over their beads, and then they're wailing and moaning and gnashing of teeth and all the things. So what we're gonna be doing is there's no real Um, some people just like to start from the bottom and work their way up. For me, it doesn't matter. Just where makes you happy. One thing the note, though, is if you are going to use a hoop that's too small for your project like, say, you have a really big project. That's a lot of beating, and you keep moving. Your hope is if you're using beads, they're pretty strong. I mean, they're glass and or metal. Um, so they're pretty strong, but you don't really want to crush them, obviously. So if you are gonna move your hoop over an area that's beaded, you could put a piece of felt over that area to sort of soften them and then leave the tension on the hoop later. Or you could just take him out, take the fabric out of the hoop entirely. You don't need to use a hoop to be. It's more helpful, but it's not necessary. So what I'm gonna dio is gonna come up this little bottom corner here. I'm gonna grab a bead is where fingernails can come in handy, executes pull a beat up your needle. Damn. But down there. And so you always going the same direction. Let's be is like, you know you're going top left bottom, right? Yeah. You are about butts and my kids bottom left to top, right? You know, coming from either direction is fine, But as long as that your angle of your stitches always the same that's the most important cause. Otherwise to be holes will be facing different directions, and it'll look a little weird. One thing you can do to I didn't do it in this sample. But one thing I usually do Dio is, um, for the first bead, I'll stick through it twice unless you're using two strands, in which case you don't need to for this, when I'm using only one strand. But if you're using only one strand, I would recommend going through the first and the last feed of each thread twice. I just hope so. Hold attention and and helps protect it. Just in case and not on the bat comes looser. Anything random like that. So, as you can see, I'm just picking up bees and just working my way. Close pattern. You can see how the size 11 beads fits the 14 count. Eight. A perfectly like those feeds just sought perfectly into the little empty spots left for them. One thing for this product to is and notices I'm getting closer to the edge of the Japan threads is purposely coming up in this corner and going under the Japan threads that way, like I'm not gonna try and come up under the Japan threats because in your needle might catch them and snagged them, which would kind of suck. It's easier to go under that that's proved much it to beating. One thing to note with beads is most are fine, like mill hill beads or fine, Um, but there are some that recommend that you not wash them because the detergent can sometimes affect the the finish on them. So, uh, what you can do is do a little sample, like if you got a little scrap piece of fabric is just stitch a couple of them on there and then wash your little sample as if you were washing a normal project and then ah, see if the beads air color fast. So again here, instead of coming up in this corner, I'm gonna go down underneath that piece of Japan's red. So that's the only thing to really sort of be concerned about what beads is just being care of. Like if they're a type that might get kind of messed up if you wash him for this project, that's not a big deal, because you're not gonna be washing this once the beads air on because the order that we worked with a cross stitch in the back stitch and then the couching and in the beads because the couching has been done with Japan threads what shouldn't be wet? You're not gonna be washing this after the beads go on anyway, so it's not a big deal. Also, if you're ironing, just keep your iron as much as you can away from the beads like this should be fine. It's which the glass ones. But you know, there your delicate in a kind of suck, too. Smash them or something like that. After you pull that work and I have to go back in and replace some, that's never fun. So that's pretty much it again. Like once you get to the end of your threat or get to the end down here, then do a double stitched through the last one. Just two extra security, and I'll be back in a few moments to wind up and give you a few extra tips. I'll see you then. All right, so there we go. Done. Isn't it cute? This your first time embellishing a project I'm so excited for you because I mean the possibilities really are endless for adding beads to projects or, you know, adding, like really fluffy yarns and counting them down or cords or anything, is it? It's really amazing what you can do with thes thes techniques. One thing to note to one final worry about the beads is if you find the beads keep getting stuck on your needle. Uh, then it means either that be it has a flaw. It happens sometimes the whole isn't quite big enough. Or it means that your needles the needle you're using isn't quite the right size for those particular beads. So I would recommend getting a finer needle like it's even like the big ideal here when it splits in half. Too much fun. So I would recommend that, and I'll have a couple of more final words for you in the next video, and I hope you enjoyed your project
12. Final Words: Welcome back. I'm so happy for you that you finish your little project. If you would like to share your pictures with me, I would love to see them so you can post them in the class Project gallery below. Whether it's of your works in progress or Whip says they're called or you're finished pieces. I would really like to see your pictures. And also, if you follow the channel, if you follow the pick up in big channel on skill share, then you're going to get notified of. When I launched new classes, as I mentioned, there's potentially a gold work class in the works. So if you would like to see that, please do let me know. And also, if you have any comments or questions, please let me know I'd be happy to answer them for you. And if you did enjoy the class own loved. If you leave a review, it just helps other students. And I would love to hear your feedback. I hope you have an awesome day Happy sitting
Dana Batho, Peacock & Fig Surface Designer
