Throwback Thursday - 2007 Part 04

In today's #throwbackthursday edition I'm going to describe the process of embroidery on paper using the example of a card I made in March 2007.


Embroidery on Paper Card #1

This example of embroidery on paper came from the book New Ideas with Embroidery on Paper by
Erica Fortgens.

First, I made a working photocopy of my chosen design. This way I had the opportunity to change the size of the original pattern in the book. In this case, I enlarged the original design, making it 125% of the original.

I then attached the photocopy to the card stock using a couple pieces of light-tack tape to hold it in place. The card stock I used looks like parchment paper, but is thick like a greeting card.

I placed the card stock and design stack on top of a foam piercing pad and used a special piercing tool to prick the design through both layers. This creates the holes used to embroider.

After the holes were made, I removed the photocopy from the card stock. Following the directions in the book , I embroidered from hole to hole to create the design. In this case, I used DMC Light Effects floss #E3849, a fiber that has a lot of sparkle.

The ends of the threads are held in place on the back of the stitching with tape. Because of this, the backside of embroidery on paper pieces tends to be messier than the backside of pieces stitched on fabric. These embroidery on paper designs stitch up very quickly.

To do the finishing work, I used another piece of the same card stock to create a card blank. I cut a circle in the front of the card. Then using double-stick tape, I adhered the design to the card so it showed through the circle. I then cut another piece of the card stock just a tad smaller than the front of the card. Again using double-stick tape, I adhered this smaller piece of card stock over the back of the stitchery to hide all the mechanics.

I have all the specialty tools for this technique. But if you don't have the special piercing tool and the foam pad, you can use substitutions. To pierce the holes, use a fine, sharp needle. Use a stack of corrugated cardboard to protect your work surface in place of a foam pad. When I did my piercing, I placed the pad on top of a self-healing cutting mat to be sure I wasn't poking holes in my table top.

Erica Fortgens has published a number of embroidery on paper books. She does beautiful work. The book I used is not for beginners, but it wasn't too difficult to figure out the patterns. In this book she teaches how to use the embroidered pieces with paper that you have embossed using brass templates. I recently bought some of these brass templates in hopes of trying more intricate designs. I truly enjoy these beautiful, small projects and am sure to do more.

Next time I'll share the other embroidery on paper projects I finished in March, 2007.