floral pocket watch pendant cyber class lesson 2 · metal thread embroidery scissors, use nail...

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©2013 Alison Cole Embroidery. This pattern may not be taught or reproduced, in part or in full, without the written permission of the author. Cyber class students have permission to print for their own personal use only.

Floral Pocket Watch Pendant Cyber Class – Lesson 2

By Alison Cole

Detached Petals The detached petals are worked with a third of a length of wire as for the leaves, but this time they are worked in long and short buttonhole stitch. This stitch not only works the perle edge but also the first row of the long and short stitch. As this stitch does not hold onto the wire, you need to place many more couching stitches – make the couching stitches 2mm apart. If you do not make the stitches close enough together, when you apply the petals the wire can gather or slide right out of them – so make sure that your stitches are 2mm apart.

Again start with a waste knot and make sure that the wires are uncrossed at the base of each petal. Don’t forget to run your thumb nail down the wire to put a curve on it and to use the thread to shape the petal – bringing your needle up on the inside of the shape and bending the wire gently around the thread.

The centre front and side petals are couched and embroidered in Colourstreams Blackberry Ripple with highlights of

Raspberry and Madeira #3 while the two back petals are worked in the reverse – Raspberry with highlights of Blackberry Ripple and Madeira #3.

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Remember to make the stitch across the crossed wires…

…and hold the silk firm as you uncross them.

Again, start the buttonhole stitch with a chain stitch – but as we are working in long and short buttonhole stitch we need to adjust the angle as we work.

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Make the first three stitches into the same hole so that you are moving along the wire on the outside edge but are still working into the first hole on the inside to adjust the angle of the stitches.

The next three stitches will all go into the next hole – again to make the angle steeper.

Once you are happy with the angle of your stitching, continue to work around the petal working shorter stitches as necessary to adjust the angle. Hint: the second side is the harder side as you are bringing the needle up in the shadow of the perle edge of the buttonhole.

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Right about now you are probably running out of thread. I find in classes that the student’s first instinct is to finish off the thread and then try to bring the new thread up through the perle edge – which can loosen the last stitch.

Before you run completely out of thread, grab a second needle and start the new thread (with a waste knot).

Bring the new thread up to the surface on the outside of the wire – right where you would be bringing the needle up with the old thread for the next stitch.

Waste knot split stitches

Old thread

New needle emerging

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Park the new needle up to the top of the hoop.

Work one last stitch with the old needle and thread – the stitch should be working around the new thread. (The needle is emerging in the same spot as the new thread.)

This picture is showing the loop of the old thread stitch tightened around the base of the new thread stitch.

Old thread

New thread

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Bring the new thread down and park the needle to one side…

…and with the old needle, then take the old thread over the new thread, taking the needle down on the outside of the wire. This can then be darned off through the existing stitching on the reverse of the work and you can continue your long and short buttonhole stitching with the new thread.

The stitches should be long enough that they will be touching each other at the base of the petal and leave a small keyhole shape in the centre which will be filled with the second colour.

New thread

Old thread

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When you have worked all around the shape, take the needle down on the outside of the wire as close to the wire as possible.

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Remember what I said about the second side being the harder side? If you are going to get any gaps in your edge it is bound to be on this side. So long as you don’t have too many of them, these gaps can be corrected.

Bring your needle up on the inside of the petal shape and take the needle down over the wire but inside the perle edge of the buttonhole – if your stitch is outside of the perle edge it will float around once the petal has been cut out.

Next Colour! - Thread up with the Raspberry and darn into the reverse of the petal. I usually still have a waste knot so that the end of the thread doesn’t pull through.

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Work long and short stitch to fill the petal shape – bringing your needle up through the existing stitching and taking it down towards the base of the petal.

The more different places that you bring the needle up to the surface, the better the long and short stitch will look.

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Darn off the Raspberry into the back of the work once the keyhole has been filled.

Next work radiating stitches using a single strand of Madeira #3.

If you have not used this thread before, grab hold of one strand and pull as you do for regular stranded threads – but you will find that the rest of the length of thread will bunch up in your fingers. You will need to ‘milk’ the bunching down the length of thread before the single strand can be removed further.

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Once you have removed the strand – the easiest way to keep this thread in the needle is to make a noose. Thread the needle,

and then thread back in the direction you have just come from. You will have two tails – one long and one short - hanging out one side of the eye of the needle and a loop hanging out the other.

Now take the point of the needle through the loop and pull on the long tail to tighten the noose around the eye of the needle.

loop

tails

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Again, start with a waste knot to one side of the petal,

and darn the Madeira into the reverse of the petal – I make a second darning to make sure that the slippery little thread stays where I want it.

Again, bring the needle up through the petal and take it down at the base – like you did with the Raspberry silk. When you have made around seven highlighting stitches, darn off on the reverse.

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Work the remaining petals the same way – remembering that the two back/top petals are the reverse colours of the three lower petals.

Cutting and Applying Using fine, sharp scissors, cut out the detached elements. Hint: take the scissors down through the fabric away from your leaf and petal shapes and cut up to them. If you sink your scissors close to the shape and they slip and cut the petal/leaf you will by very unhappy! Cut as close as you can without removing from the hoop – the tension of the hoop makes it easier to cut out the shapes. A lot of people cut out the shape with an allowance all the way around and then try to cut closer – using the tension of your hoop means that you can cut super close right from the start as each snip the threads pull away from each other.

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The scissors that I like to use for cutting out Stumpwork detached elements are KAI Ultrasharps. They are a very lightweight scissor with an exceptionally fine blade. When you open the blades of your scissors and look down on the cutting surface, remember that the width of the blade is how close you can cut easily. KAI Ultrasharps have a blade that is almost as fine as a sheet of paper – so they cut super close! I use and recommend them for any cutwork technique such as Stumpwork and Hardanger. While they are available with a curved blade – they never curve where you want them to – I prefer a straight blade.

Once you have cut along one side of the detached element you have now lost the tension in your hoop that is helping you cut.

So if you grab hold of the detached element and pull it towards the cut, you are putting the tension back on the muslin so that you get a nice, close cut.

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Once cut out from the muslin, run your fingernail around the shape to rub up any hairy bits and re-trim.

Cut Rubbed Cut again

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Turn it over so that the back is facing you and trim again – turn it on an angle and cut any last remaining little hairs.

You will always have the cross section of the threads of the quilter’s muslin showing – that is unavoidable – so cut as close as you can.

If you find the cross section muslin objectionable – or if you are scared to cut too close – you can colour the edge with a felt tip pen. I use Faber Castell Connector Pens as there is a huge range of colours. The thing to

remember is that the barrel of the pen is NEVER the same as the ink colour – so test it on the quilter’s muslin still in the hoop to make sure that you have a colour that is close to your embroidery thread colour before you take it anywhere near your detached embroidery.

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Once you are happy with your detached element, you may now cut off the small tail of wire from one side of the shape – but not the long tail! Cut out, trim, colour and snip the short tail of wire for all detached elements.

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Insert the #18 chenille needle through the base design at the points marked with an X on the diagram so that the eye of the needle is halfway through the fabric – holding open a hole. The shapes are positioned on the pattern sheet to correspond with the X’s on the base design – the smaller leaves on the top X’s, the larger leaves on the lower X’s, the two top petals through the upper central X and the three lower petals through the lower central X. Thread the long tail of wire through the hole and fold the excess wire back behind the leaf or petal.

#18 chenille needle – eye halfway through fabric

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Secure the wire to the reverse of the embroidery with stitching and then fold the wire into a U shape and stitch again. Do not cut off the excess wire yet!

Folding the wire into a U is important if you are working a box top or something where the embroidery is unprotected. If it is simply stitched and cut without the U, anyone who wants to play ‘she loves me, she loves me not’ can pull on the petals and leaves and they will slide right out of the securing stitches on the

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reverse. When the wire is bent into a U, the element is permanent. The reason that we don’t cut any wires yet: if you cut the wires as you apply them and then sit back and look at your work and decide that you want to move one of the elements, it is much harder to do if you have hardly any wire on the back. So leave all the wire tails hanging on the back for the moment (you can always bend them out of the way).

Once you have the leaves on, it is time for the petals. As there are multiple pieces to go in the same spot, you can actually place two at a time – thread one wire through the front of the eye and the other through the back.

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Folding the wires back behind the petals – both wires can be secured at the same time. Don’t forget to fold them into a U shape also.

Side petals next.

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Base petal last…

Fold the wire back behind the

petal.

Once you have applied all of the detached elements, take a look at your embroidery and make sure that you are happy with the placement of your petals and leaves. If you are happy with the placement, you can cut off the excess wires – if you are not happy, you can cut the securing stitches and move the pieces.

All pieces applied and ready for shaping!

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To shape the petals and leaves, hold the tip of the shape with your fingertip and stroke underneath with the #18 chenille needle to gently curve.

Putting a curve on each element makes all the difference! Don’t worry if they flatten out while you are finishing the embroidery and making it up – they can always be shaped again last thing before you pop it in the watch.

If you are happy with the placement of everything – you can now cut the excess wire off.

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Finishing To complete the design, there is a hoop of Gilt Smooth Purl #6 in the centre of the flower and there are paillettes surrounding the leaves and flowers. These are applied with waxed Gutermann thread. If you are working with gold, your thread colour is #968 if you are working a silver kit, the colour is #38. If you have not waxed a thread before, thread the needle first and then hold the needle like a handle to drag the Gutermann thread across the wax. Next run your fingernails down the thread two or three times to remove the excess wax before tying a knot in the end.

To apply the hoop of Gilt Smooth Purl #6 in the centre, bring the needle up in the middle of the petals.

Lay the smooth purl on a cutting mat of velvet and cut a length approximately 5mm long. Do not use your best embroidery scissors to cut this thread. If you don’t have metal thread embroidery scissors, use nail scissors or old embroidery scissors.

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This thread is hollow and applied as you would a bead – pick it up on the needle and run it all the way down to the centre of the flower - as unlike a bead, it is a coil of metal that could unwind if you simply take your needle through to the back like you do with a glass bead.

Take the needle down in the same spot that you emerged. If necessary, you can make a small couching stitch over the loop to hold it in place. If you do this, pull on the Gutermann sharply so that the couching stitch disappears into the purl. To apply the paillettes, using Gutermann #968 which has been waxed, bring the needle up through the fabric and thread on a paillette followed by a small chip of Gilt Smooth Purl #6 (approximately 2mm long).

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Take the needle back down through the paillette – the purl will act as a stop bead and keep the paillette in place. Repeat for the remaining paillettes.

To make up the embroidery, cut two rounds of template plastic – trace the shapes directly onto the plastic with a pencil or pen. The two pieces do not need to be glued together – but they will be used together as a single piece will not be strong enough to lace over. I cut them out slightly larger and then checked against the fob to make sure that they fit in – a little had to be trimmed off but better to have too large rather than too small!

Using clear craft glue, glue pellom to one side of one piece of template plastic and then trim the pellom to the same size as the plastic.

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Position the template plastic (both pieces) so that the pellom is behind the embroidery. When you have it centred behind the design, turn your work over and draw a line around the plastic. Cut the quilter’s muslin back to the line and then cut the silk dupion back to be 1.5cm wider all around the shape.

Using a strong thread like perle 8 cotton (or doubled Gutermann), make gathering stitches around the shape in the 1.5cm seam allowance – put the template plastic back behind the work (with the pellom facing the embroidery) and pull up the gathering stitches.

Once gathered on, make sure that the design is centred and then lace the back to stretch the embroidery on the front.

Once laced up, clean the glass on the inside of the pocket-watch and push the embroidery into the watch. It should be a tight fit otherwise it will move around in the watch. If it is too tight a fit, unlace, ungather, and trim a tiny amount off the plastic before gathering and lacing again.

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The button on top of the watch is glued in place – if your watch is one that has a spring loaded filigree opening cover, make sure that you only glue the outside portion of the button – you still need to be able to press the button in the centre to open the cover. If you do not have an opening cover, the button is purely decorative – apply glue and position. When in place, the post of the button should be behind the embroidery. I tested that the button worked before putting the back of the watch on.

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To make sure that the embroidery doesn’t move around, I cut a piece of pellom and folded it into four to put behind the embroidery before putting the back of the watch on. The back of the watch snaps onto the watch body and some force is required – I asked my husband if he could press it on for me as I didn’t want to break the glass. His suggestion is to make sure that you are applying even pressure all around the edge – you may need a friend to help.

If you purchased the chain for your pendant – you will find that the catch does not fit through the fob clasp – the knob on the end of the chain screws off so you can pass it through the fob and screw it back on.

floral pocket watch pendant cyber class lesson 2 · metal thread embroidery scissors, use nail...

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