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A not-so-new needle art, Russian punchneedle is seeing a resurgence, and I’ve been hooked! I love the depth of color plus the dimension and texture you get with this technique, and am anxious to share my creations and tips with you. When you click the images on this page, you will go to a description of the leaflet or card with the design. I use punchneedles made by both IgolochkoyT and CTR, Inc. Both will give you great results - they have different features so you can decide which is right for you! I use a variety of threads which are already available at your favorite needlework store. Most of my designs are punched on "weaver's cloth" - a sturdy fabric that is also readily available at retail fabric stores. However - you can punch on a variety of other fabrics. I've used gingham, wool and linens, so you really have quite a lot of options! Occasionally, you may need to stabilize the fabric with some lightweight fusible interfacing, but most of the time this is not necessary. The only other thing you need is a good embroidery hoop – the kind with the “lip” on the inner piece is best – to hold your fabric drum-tight for punching. It’s important to keep your fabric very tight in the hoop. Not only does it make it easier to actually punch through the fabric, but when the piece is released from the hoop, the threads of the fabric contract and help to hold the loops in place. Transferring the design: My designs are now packaged with a multi-use iron on transfer to stamp your fabric (transfer directions are included.) This not only allows you to punch the design additional times, but it lets you punch on whatever background fabric you prefer. As much as you can it is good to line up the grain lines of the fabric with any straight outside edges or borders in the design. Remember, because you punch from the back side of your fabric, the transferred design will be printed in “mirror image” so that it reads correctly on the right and finished side. Threads: Just as in cross stitching, the use of specialty and overdyed threads in punchneedle design is a lot of fun! Subtle color changes add lots of richness and depth to backgrounds, and threads with a lot of color variation can be punched in different directions to achieve a wonderful variety of end results! Solid color floss such as DMC is still a great source, but be open to other threads too! The 3 sizes of the Igolochkoy™ needles also allow you to work with different weights of threads – I’ve used Wildflowers from The Caron Collection and size 8 & 12 perle cottons, to name a few. A bonus with using these threads which come wound on balls or continuous skeins is that number of times you re-thread your needle is reduced considerably!
Gentle Art’s Sampler Threads come in nice 1-yard lengths, and I like to cut the 5-yard lengths from Weeks Dye Works in half and work with 2-1/2 yard pieces. Just work with as long a piece as you can and still control the flow of the thread into the needle so it doesn’t get hung up along the way. Punching on the Lines: You will often see directions advising you NOT to punch on the design lines. This allows the threads a little bit of “space” between different color areas and helps to avoid too much mixing of colors between two areas. This also allows some space in the design where you need to add a single fine line of punching for detail – that is when you will be instructed to punch directly on the lines. Use the tip of your needle to help separate the loops between color areas if you need to. Finishing: Lots of options here! Most of the time, I trim down the fabric around the punched design, turn back the fabric and miter the corners so the background fabric is almost invisible. A light pressing is okay, but not too hard so that the punching is crushed. Particularly, in larger pieces, the turned back corners create a little extra bulk around the edges and therefore a little “depression” from the right side may result. Usually, a piece of flannel or thin batting in the center will even that out nicely. You can finish the edges of the piece with a strip of wool, overcast stitches, or my favorite is a piece of twisted cord that just blends in with the predominant color of the outside edge of the design. Twist the cord so it’s just thick enough to fill in that edge space and carefully glue it around the edges with a bit of fabric glue. These designs also make great box toppers and the littlest ones are perfect for pins – great gifts that are fun and quick to make! They make beautiful covers for needle books or sewing cases, and appliqués or medallions for scrapbooks or photo albums. We can be just as creative with finishing options with punchneedle designs as with other needlearts! If you decide to frame your piece, they are lovely mounted on a piece of wool – now available in wonderful hand-dyed colors! The tactile quality of the wool really enhances the texture and rich colors of the punched designs and acts like a “mat” for the framing. |
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