Adding Stitch
Show and Share Lesson 1 Slideshow
Now that you’ve had a chance to study your released
vessel from all angles, you can decide where you want to decorate with
stitch. For this first vessel, we are
going to start with an edging. Please
note that all decoration is at your discretion – you can choose to add it or
not. I’m simply going to go through the
steps that I take. The decision is
always yours.
Piercing holes for a border edging
The edge of your vessel, (even though you have
reinforced it) remains a delicate area, so you will need to manage it with
care. We will be pre-piercing the paper
with holes for sewing. I find that this
makes sewing easier for me and saves my fingers. It isn’t impossible to poke the holes with my
sewing needle, but it isn’t always the most comfortable way to do it and it
isn’t the easiest way to go through several layers of glued paper.
Using a paper piercing tool, awl, or pin vise, pierce
holes about 3/8” to ¼” away from the edge of your vessel. You need to support the back of the paper
with your fingers, so essentially you are holding the edge of the vessel
between your thumb and two fingers and trying to pierce between your two
fingers. Try hard not to poke yourself (you don’t want blood on all your hard
work – just joking). The paper needs to
be held taut and given support when you pierce it, so it doesn’t try to bend or
tear. You don’t want your finger
directly behind the area you are going to pierce. You will soon find what works best for
you. I also have some small pieces of
dense foam that I have cut up and can place behind my vessel edges when I am working,
that helps at times.
Follow the contours of the edge of your vessel. If you feel that an area is too thin or the
paper tears, you will need to make a decision and place the hole lower or add a
patch to reinforce the weak area. If you
want to keep the tear, place a hole on either side and you can sew over the
tear and make it a feature.
Review the video from lesson 1 about piercing holes
Stitching the Edging
Once all the edging holes are complete, it’s time to
do a Blanket/buttonhole stitch around the edge.
I use the term Buttonhole and Blanket stitch interchangeably even though
I believe there is a slight difference between the two.
All knots are on the inside and secured with full
strength PVA, then the tails are trimmed.
I use crochet cotton #10, mainly because I then went on to crochet an
edging into the buttonhole stitch. Perle
cotton, or embroidery floss would work as well if you were not planning to
crochet.
Video --
Stitching your Edging
The video shows how I stitched the edge of my vessel
after piercing it.
At this point, you can leave the edge of your vessel
as complete, or you can continue to work on it.
One thing that you can do if you wish is crochet –
that is completely optional. For anyone
interested, this is how I began to do the crochet work on my vessel
edging. I used the loops that I created
with the buttonhole stitch as the foundation row for my crochet. I held the tail of the crochet thread along
the edge of the vessel and wove it in as I crocheted along the vessel edge so
that there would not be any loose threads.
You can see all this in the accompanying video below.
I’ve included some How To Crochet videos if you want
to brush up your skills.
Video – Beginner’s SingleCrochet 6:19 is where the actual
crochet stitching starts
Video– Beginner’s Double Crochet 1:43 is
where the actual crochet stitching starts
If you didn’t wish to crochet, you could use the
buttonhole stitches as link stitches to allow you to couch fibres to the edge
of your vessel. You could take
decorative fibres that might be too thick to stitch through the paper and couch
them to the vessel using the legs or loops of the buttonhole stitch as anchor
places to attach the fibres. Additional
touches of PVA could also be used to secure the fibres if necessary.
You could also choose to do a form of needle lace using the buttonhole stitch as an anchoring stitch for your work. The decoration on the edge is up to you and your imagination.
Other Decorative Stitching
The edge isn’t the only place that stitching can be
added to the vessel. Holes can be
pierced at any point. You may decide on a pattern or design motif
and arrange that on your vessel. You can
lightly mark it and then pierce where the sewing holes need to be. Once again, knots should be on the inside
unless you wish to make a feature of them.
It is also possible to cut out areas of your vessels
and stitch over the openings. This can be quite effective. When cutting it can be helpful to use an awl
to begin a hole for the blade to start.
Always use a sharp blade, a cutting mat and follow safe cutting
practices. The glued paper can be quite
hard.
Stitching ideas will vary as widely as your
imagination. One thing to keep in mind
when making your vessel, if you plan on stitching, is the size of the
opening. I have a broad hand and a small
vessel opening means that I am limited when I try to put my hand inside.
Have fun experimenting!
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