handstitch

hi there...come on in

so glad you're joining me!

posting will begin tomorrow [monday] and i have  10-ish posts to share with you by friday :]  so there will be a couple posts per day.  i'll be leaving the blog up for a while so it'll be available for reference if you need it in the future... 

the main reason i'm doing this blog..stitching is the one thing i get asked about most so i figured i'd do a little how to blog :]  there won't be assignments or anything like that...just informational about *my*personal*process*...what works for me.  and if you are big on stitching/sewing too, i want to use the comments to have discussions about what works for you as well. 

i'm so excited to get started!  thanks so much for hanging out with me this week!

 
ps. the links on the left and right are all stitching/crafting related things that i though you might find handy :]  enjoy!

jump right in...the water's warm

let's begin from the beginning shall we?  it all starts with tools...i've been stitching now for several years and have found a few tools that make the process go *so* much more smoothly...and some tools- not so much.  so long story short, our first post will be all about tools...namely, the tools that work best for me and why :]  keep in mind, these are the things that work best for *me*...they might or might not be the best for you.  my advice here; find what works best for you.  handstitching is a time-consuming, labor of love and the proper tools are VITAL.

paper piercer:

the making memories piercer is my favorite...their newer piercers are alot lighter in weight than their older version from several years ago...i like the heavier weight. 

heidi swapp makes a short version that i've been using quite a bit lately as well...mainly because i can change my grip on it as needed for the more involved sewing projects...your hand will get tired from holding your piercer in the same position. 

tip: because of the repetition involved with paper piercing, i've found that using pencil grips on my piercer makes a huge difference...oh and one more tip...if you don't have a paper piercer, you can use a push pin, my good friend wendy swears by it :] 

 

some other piercers that might work for you: stampin up, ornare, bazzill, tim holtz, and herrschner's.

piercing pad:

 
love this version by bazzill that features gridlines...the most important thing for me is the thickness of the pad. you don't want to damage your work surface by poking tons of tiny holes in it :]  trust.

i've heard of people using mousepads as well...i tend to get a little over-zealous with my hole poking so it doesn't work so well for me :]  ha!  some other pads you might check into: ornare, stampin up, nordic needle, or you can also create your own by layering several sheets of kid's craft foam or by purchasing a piece of upholstery foam padding.  you basically just want a dense foam pad.

***edited to add***

tania posted a comment about the piercing pad...she uses this one from timeless touches...the best part, it's 12 x 12 and i'm getting one!

embroidery floss:

can't sew without thread right?!  but seriously, all flosses are NOT created equally.  i've tried tons of different varieties to get the 'look' i was going for (detailed, not chunky, clean stitches) and my one and only floss is dmc needlework threads...a thousand times over.  love their color selection, the texture, their splitability (yes, i made that word up i think...but it's a true story...one that we will go into in more detail soon.)

needles:

i'm not really up on the needle brands but i do know what i like and that's thin needles with long eyes.  sounds like a personal add right, haha!  but seriously, the main reason...because they are easier to thread.  especially for when i'm doing stitching that i want thicker (this goes back to the 'splitability' issue to come later). 

purchasing needles- i usually just buy mine from walmart or any big box craft store- think michael's, joann's, or hobby lobby...i recommend trying different sizes at first to find what you like best :] 

miscellaneous:

just a few more things that are super helpful with handstitching on layouts...

scissors- if stitching is something that you are wanting to include in your layouts on a regular basis, i recommend investing in a good pair of 'thread only' scissors.  there's nothing worse than having to saw through a thread :]  i am partial to the spring loaded scissors...not sure if that's what they're actually referred to as but that's what i call them, ha!

ruler- any straight edge will do in a pinch but for regular use, my go to straight edge is an 18 inch metal ruler with a cork backing for grip...it doesn't slide and the piercer doesn't take it's toll on one of these babies :]

tape- i've found that the red label scotch tape works best for me (more on this later...) it's thin and crystal clear...both are good things.

**********************************

so that's that with the supplies i think...haha!  i'd love to hear what works for you guys so don't be shy...comment away friends!  oh yeah, and questions are always welcome...i have email notifications set up so i'll get answers to you asap :]

be on the lookout for another post later this afternoon/evening :]

getting to know you giveaway...

hey girls!  i'm back again with a super fun giveaway...but there are strings attached (no pun intended, cheesy- i know but it just couldn't be resisted).  so here's the deal...there are almost 30 sign ups and request emails are still trickling in from folks i know and lots that i don't and well...i wanna know everyone! 

so here's the rules:  leave me a comment (on this post only please to avoid confusion on my part, hahaha) and tell me the following...

and you'll be entered to win a super fun, custom made stitching box filled with some of my favorite sewing goodies...it'll be similar to this...

wanna know what goodies i'm speaking of???  scissors, piercer (w/ a grip- since it's such a hit), punching pad, needles, all my fav shades of dmc, and whatever else strikes my fancy :]  i've got shopping to do!

so what are you waiting for?!?  leave me some comment love!

oh yeah, and the drawing/ lucky winner will be announced on friday :]  good luck!

splitting hairs & splitability

allow me to ellaborate...splitability refers to dmc embroidery thread/floss.  dmc is actually 6 little threads that are twisted together to make one big thread.  i much prefer the look of thin, clean stitches...i discovered, after many chunky handstitched layouts that you can split the floss...sounds tedious right?  not really. 

first, lets talk about splitting floss...it's super easy most of the time, lol.  i start off with what i'm sewing...if it's very detailed or intricate, i usually lean toward a smaller number of strands (2 is my favorite) if it's a straight line or a large basic shape, i'll go with a higher number of strands (4 at the most for me...it's just my preference).  i cut a piece of floss (i've found that it's easier and much more manageable- and less knotty- if i work with about a 1 1/2 to 2 foot length of thread) and choose one end to split...spread the thread with your fingers a bit to loosen the strands and then S-L-O-W-L-Y pull them apart.  i tend to hold the thread up so that it's not touching anything to start with...it'll coil up (if you keep pulling during the coiling you'll get a huge knotty mess) and when it does if you lay the end that you're not pulling from over fabric (i use my jeans) and pull just a bit it'll straighten it out enough to separate the strands completely.  serioulsy though, it sounds so much more involved than it is...try it and see. 

NOTE: i've tried to separate the strands using bazzill's embroidery floss (their's has 8 strands)...and it doesn't work.  bazzill floss is braided together and i could only split about an inch of floss before knotting profusely and saying lots of curse-words...not a proud moment for sure.

so, in order to demonstrate my theorys on dmc splitting, i've made some examples (pay close attention to the thickness as well as the detail)...i scanned the demo stitchwork first to show the thickness and the next image is a photo i took to demonstrate the texture difference.  each letter is sewn using a different number of strands (i numbered each letter so the 'k' with a 1 underneath means it was 1 strand...) 

(i uploaded the above image in a larger size so if you click on it, you can view it larger and closer)

so...which number of strands do you prefer?  i'm kinda digging on the single strand myself...which is surprising to me because i've been stitching with 2 strands the most. 

a couple of things about the different number of strands (note: i used the same embroidery needle for all numbers.  the reason for this: to keep the holes the same-ish size so that the difference is more apparent)...

1 strand- it's a little more intense getting a single strand of the floss to separate from the 'pack' hahaha...we had to have a little talk but we managed to work out our differences, lol.  it's also a good idea to pierce lightly so that the holes are a little smaller.  with the thread being so small, the holes are much more obvious and apparent.  a single strand looks way more similar to machine stitching to me too :]  it'd look super cute on a zig zag stitch.

2 strands-  my go to number...i like that you can do both detailed and larger shapes using 2 strands, and maintain the appearance of a 'clean and neat' stitch while showing a bit of texture too.

3 strands- fairly similar to 2 strands...i've found that 3 is harder for me to thread through my needles though.

4 strands- pretty thick...super cute if you want to add an organic, almost child-like appearance to your project.

5 & 6 strands- super super thick (keep in mind, these are just my opinions and preferences at work here).  it's really challenging to thread through both the eye of the needle and the paper itself.  i'm pretty sure this is the first time i've stitched through paper on a 'project' using more than 4 strands (back in the day, when i first started stitching i used 4). 

as previously mentioned...this isn't a homework/ assignment type of blog tutorial, but...haha...i do encourage you to try a few stitches using a couple of different strand numbers and pay particular attention to the backside of your paper or cardstock.  the higher the number of strands, the more bulky the backside will be (giggling at 'backside')...this isn't necessarily important for layouts but it does come into play when i'm sewing something to be adhered to a page or mini album.  just something to think about :]

ps. i know that this post is coming at you kinda late in the day...my apologies for that friends!  i had camera battery issues (translation: i didn't charge it.  tucking my tail between my legs as we speak, lol.)

pps. i am having a blast and getting tons of ideas from your comments on the giveaway post...so nice to meet you guys!  i'm thinking of maybe doing a bonus post this weekend to cover some of the things y'all mention in your responses...thoughts?

ppps. i'm going to try my darndest to get caught up on today's posts...dinner and homework and various other mom duties might push the posting time back a smidge...so look for a post later tonight :]

pppps. that's alot of ps's...just wanted to add a *HUGE* thank you to everyone for their patience with my hairbrained-ness.  maybe by friday i'll get it together?  hahaha, i kid. i kid.

punching, poking & piercing- an expose on handstitching violence in the scrapbooking industry [part 1]

i'll admit it...got a tad bit carried away with the title there :]  basically, this post is dedicated to the science of paper piercing...

for starters, i'm going to let you in on a little known stitching secret [the secret also applies to just about any creative endeavor as well]...keep this hush-hush though, k?

 
note: sometimes the 'crooked' can be substituted for the following words as well...unevenly spaced or imperfect.  the way i see it though, is that those little 'quirks' make it handstitched.  i like that i don't always stay in line with my piercing...it's an indicator to the people who will see my albums for generations to come that i put a ton of love and thought into each page...it's what makes it *mine* and i really dig that about this whole handstitching thing :]

honestly, we are all our own worst critic's when it comes to expression.  agreed?  i think yes.

so, that being said, let's do a group cleansing.  let's just take a moment to gather up all of our self-doubt, criticisms, and whatever else henders us from stitching our hearts out, and stow it away in the nearest trash compactor...

done. done. and. done.

so, there are 4 main methods i use for paper piercing...we're just going to take it one method at a time though...

templates and stencils are awesome stitching tools...the beauty of a template is that there's no need to measure...the best ones are crystal clear, like a transparency.  i use a template to do most of my zig zag stitches.  it makes it *so* much faster, not having to play around with rulers, pencil lines and trying to get the 'perfect' zag, hahaha. 

i designed a little template freebie for you guys...so when you get a chance, get your hands on a printable transparency (8.5 x 11), print the pdf and punch holes using your paper piercer.  you'll notice, once you download the file that i left the letters' outline solid...i did this for 2 reasons (1) because i couldn't figure out how to make letters with a dotted line, oh dear. and (2) because even if i had figured out how to do dotted lines, they would be super close together and pointless...so, here's the downloadable pdf...Download STITCHING TEMPLATE

i used the same font for the strand sample in the last post as the font in the template...i've found that when i'm stitching letters or characters, the easiest way for me to get *fairly even* stitches is to start with the points or corners...

 

i prefer to keep my stitches between 1/8 and 1/4 inch in length...again, it's personal preference...it just looks cleaner to me and more detailed.  with that in mind- back to the corners/points...once i've pierced at every intersection, i eyeball the centerpoints on the shorter straight edges...

 

on the longer straight edges i just space them between 1/8 and 1/4 inch apart...notice in the sorta blurry image above...my stitches are both *crooked* and *unevenly spaced*...i won't say i told you so...but i kinda did :]

on the downloadable template, there are also some nesting circles...the dots are a little close together for my liking but i found that if i skip a dot when i'm piercing, it works like a charm.  speaking of circles...let's talk stitched curves for a sec.  i've found that if my stitches or rather, my pierced holes, are closer together (smaller, shorter stitches); circles, curves and rounded corners end up much smoother looking than if i use longer stitches or holes spaced further apart...long stitches on curves make a rounded edge look more choppy and angular.

the last item on the stitching template is a dual function deal...it's both a zig zag stitch guide (if you use both lines) or a straight stitch template (if you use one line). 

as per usual, questions + comments =  yay!  see you soon friends!

coming up a little later this week...

stitching techniques...

creating your own 'patterned paper'...

stitching as an embellishment...

functional meets decorative stitching...

'supporting actress' stitching (stitching that doesn't steal the show)...

plus more of course :]

 

punching, poking & piercing- an expose on handstitching violence in the scrapbooking industry [part 2]

(or just any edges) 

this method is pretty straight forward...i just use the edge of something and punch holes at semi-even intervals...measuring doesn't usually take place [for me] with this method, when it does, i use the cm side of my metal ruler, i line it up where i want my stitched line and i pierce at every 1/2 cm.  quick and easy!

here's a layout using both the straight edge and the 1/2 cm methods...

(click on the image to make it a little bit bigger)

the lines across the horizontal '8' thingys were made using the cm method as mentioned above :]  and if you look closely, i used my trusty zig zag stitch template to do the stitching around the photos...check out this post for info on template piercing.

another super fun piercing idea is to combine the template + straight edge methods.  so, in this example, i used the straight edge for the 'frame' around most of the photo...i left about a 1 1/2 inch space here and there and used my zig zag template to fill those gaps...check it out...

 

ps. part 3 is coming your way in a bit :]  oh, and happy hump day friends!
 

punching, poking & piercing- an expose on handstitching violence in the scrapbooking industry [part 3]

ok, so now it's time to delve into the serious 'labor of love' stitching category...using patterned papers, printed images and graphics is most definitely detail oriented.  i've found that the 'easiest' images and patterns to pierce and sew are in black and white or they have clearly defined lines &/or outlines.  there are a couple of different ways i like to approach this method...

first up...

graphite paper is an eraseable version of the old school carbon paper.  you can find it in just about any craft/art supply store...check in the fine art deptartment- it comes in packaging that looks similar to tissue paper for gift wrap.  it also comes in colors...my go to colors are charcoal & white...charcoal for use on lighter color backgrounds, white for use on dark color backgrounds...

i found some sold online here, here and here. 

so the idea with graphite/transfer paper is to sandwich a piece of transfer paper (i cut mine to the size of the image) between your image and your cardstock/project.  here's the layer order: cardstock/project base (face up), transfer paper on top of that and image on top of everything.  it's a good idea to use some low-tack masking tape to hold everything in position before you begin. 

i mostly use this approach for larger stitching projects (ie. stitching the entire background of a page) or if i want to use a patterned paper that i'm attached to and don't want to cut up...(when i'm not opposed to writing on my chosen patterned paper, using a pen to outline the pattern/images is easier because i can see what i've traced and what i haven't.  with the embossing stylus, i ended up going over certain spots several times as well as missing some spots because i couldn't see where i had outlined.)

i used the embossing stylus method for the background of this layout...

i used the patterned paper on the far right (american crafts- discontinued)...can't find a larger image anywhere...boo.

here's how i did it...i cut the patterned ac paper down to about 10.5 x 9 inches.  i made the 'transfer paper sandwich' and taped it in place.  then i used an embossing stylus just like a pen (see pic below), to outline/trace the pattern onto my cardstock (i used the white transfer paper on this one because of the dark colored cardstock base).  once the pattern was transferred, i began piercing...similar process to the alphabet piercing, corners/points/intersections first and then pierced between the lines.  once the piercing is completed, erase the transferred outline...i've found that gum erasers work best on the transfer paper lines.  helpful tip: if you know where you want to place photos or other elements, it saves alot of work to go ahead and block those sections off so that you don't pierce or stitch in places that are going to be covered up...this elliminated about a 6 x 10.5 inch section and saved tons of time.

here's the stylus i used:

another approach...

 
so, the process behind using tracing paper, vellum and transparencies is similar to using a template (you're basically printing/creating your own).  simply print the desired image to size on translucent paper, place it on your project and pierce away!

i used the tracing paper method on a layout to stitch snowflakes. here's a couple of closeups of the snowflakes...

and the snowflake image i printed from photoshop elements 6...

  

punching, poking & piercing- an expose on handstitching violence in the scrapbooking industry [part 4]

i'm using the word 'freehand' sorta loosely here...i guess i'll start by defining my 'freehand' process and then maybe you'd be willing to help a girl out with a better-fitting moniker? 

i generally use this method of paper piercing when the project i'm working on just needs a little something extra to pull it together...it could be a flourish, a curly-q, or just a few strategically placed stitches to make an accent pop.  these little (but needed) finishing touches usually make themselves known towards the end of a project after everything has become a permanent fixture...so i'll stare at my work for a few minutes, maybe make a few doodles on my sketch pad and then make the command decision as to what type of doo-dad i need to add. 

using my pencil, i *lightly* draw whatever it is i want to stitch on my page/project...and the beauty of using a pencil is its eraseability :]  if i don't like it, i erase and try again until i get the shape and size i want.

tip: flourishes & curly-q's...i like them to have a 'fluid & smooth' appearance, i've found that the faster you draw them, the smoother looking they are...i used to draw things really slowly and they ended up looking kind of choppy or bumpy-ish, so yeah, the faster the better for me...you should give it a try and see what works better for you :]

once i have my penciled in lovelies where i want them, i pierce holes, erase the pencil lines and then stitch away.  here are a few layouts where i used the 'semi-freehand' piercing technique...

 
(above: i did some accent stitches on the flowers, freehand, and used the grooves in the petals as reference points...i also freehanded the white border around the scalloped paper.  i pierced the 'valleys' of the scallops first and then pierced the rest as evenly as i could.  below: the full layout.)

 

 
(above 2 photos: the curly-q lines were done using the pencil drawn method...i also used a faux applique technique on this one that i'll talk about later on. below: the full layout.)

 
(above: the heart shape here was made using the pencil drawn technique.  below: the full layout.)

 
and that folks, concludes the chapter on paper piercing :]  see you soon!

 

check. it. out.