Puffy Couching

Dec 19, 2008 15 Replies

Instead of doing exactly as displayed on the URL below, I plan to fold over several strands of different colors of size 5 perle cotton to start the puffing. I haven't found a site that tells you what to do with the ends after an area is filled. HELP!!!



Here's a picture of one type of puffy couching:



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From my experience with Casalguidi, the ends are underneath . . . but this is an entirely different embroidery and I'm not sure what you're doing.

Dianne

anne wrote:

I'm doing a generic free style/surface embroidery piece. There will probably be

6-8 separate strands that'll form the line of couching. Are you saying that after the couching is completed, one takes each strand individually to the back? That makes sense ;-)

I'm trying to learn the 'right' way, rather than come up with my own way.

That's the way I did it on a project I worked on years ago! Also, that's the way heavy, metallic couched threads on kimono fabrics (Japanese Embroidery) are finished off. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

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And that's the way corded pin stitching, chinelle, and trailings are worked: the ends are at the back.

But in lace stitching, often the ends are bent over and caught up in the overcast stitches. But I don't think you'll want to do that on this piece.

I simply wouldn't leave them on the surface unless that's the look you want. So much of contemporary embroidery is simply getting the "look" and never minding the usual conventions.

Would be nice to see the results of this project. Dianne

Tia Mary wrote:

Right now, it's a work in progress; I'd prefer to wait until the stitching is completed before sharing.

p.s. I forgot to mention that the puffy couching is being used to simulate a rouched (sp???) ribbon ruffle. Doesn't look too bad, especially from a slight distance.

It's your fault, Dianne, that I bit the bullet and bought a card reader for the new camera sooner than I thought I would! I hate bundled software and using camera batteries to transfer pix.

Here's a little tease of the puffy couching on Fannie Flosswinder:

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It's the way I learned with couching, and in Japanese - called plunging the ends - just pulling them to the back. You may want to loop yours and then plunge them somehere back in the middle so the ends look like loops rather than bars. Anyhow - typically IME as Mary and Dianne have said, you plunge the ends to the back. I have no doubt your piece will end up lovely.

Ellice

I hunted online for pictures of books I own, copied and resized them, and then printed them on card stock. I tacked them down with a few stitches rather than gluing. Not because I don't like glue but because I thought if they weren't totatly flat, it would look like they were stacked on top of each other and add another dimension. I had toyed with the idea of printing them on fabric or making several copies on paper and layering them with glue dots like professional sticker makers do but the KISS principle won out ;-)

You're just so wonderfully creative. I do nice work, but I don't have your imagination and I wish I did.

Lucille

Anne! Your embroidery is wonderful! You are so very creative. Thanks so much for putting up the picture. It is absolutely charming! I love it!

And the books! You are something else!

Dianne

There's many different kinds of creativity. When I absolutely must come up with a design from scratch, I have a really hard time even if the design or motif is abstract rather than representational. I need a jumping off point. Adapting or embellishing the heck out of someone else's original work is my forte.

Quite a few thing at are calling to me.

Thank you, thank you! Coming from the person who is leading EGA's surface embroidery master craftsman program that means alot.

ROTFL as I think of P/PG rated labels

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