What types of handicrafts have not been invented by craftswomen and craftsmen all over the world! Some of them are complex and require professional skills and special tools, while others are simple and accessible even to beginners. One of these simple, but very bright and expressive types is carpet embroidery. Not to be confused with carpet weaving!
Today, both venerable couturiers and home-grown needlewomen use carpet embroidery in their works. Having mastered this technique, you can make soft and cozy pillows, blankets, rugs, and decorate clothes. In general, create unique, inimitable things.
Types of embroidery
Each of these techniques is easy to learn even for beginners. And the work is done quite quickly and in the evening you can create a small exclusive product that will become an interior decoration or an excellent gift for loved ones. There are two types of carpet embroidery, which will be discussed below.
Looping - performed using a special needle. On the front side of this work there will be even loops of yarn. And on the reverse side there will be smooth embroidery. Another name for this technique is “non-woven tapestry”.
Knotted - performed using a special or regular crochet hook. During the process, short pieces of thread are tied with knots to the base fabric.
Carpet embroidery
To work with this technique you will need a special needle; you cannot do without it. They are sold in handicraft stores. The set includes a handle, removable needles of different diameters for different thread thicknesses and a thread puller. Needles for carpet embroidery are distinguished by the fact that their points are hollow and beveled at the bottom. The instructions describe how to thread correctly.
The work is done on thick fabric. The thicker the needle, the denser the fabric, otherwise there will be unattractive holes in the fabric.
Any yarn will do, but in one project it is advisable to select threads of the same thickness and structure. In the process, you can use both specially purchased yarn and leftovers that knitters have in stock. You can also use threads obtained from unraveling woolen products that have served their age. Waste-free technology.
A hoop, scissors, and a pencil will also come in handy. You can start creating a masterpiece.
Looped
You will need a compacted fabric or mesh. Use natural or synthetic embroidery threads. If you want a more voluminous weave, take a thicker thread.
Use a special needle for carpet embroidery.
Work begins by transferring the drawing with a marker onto the base. Transferred with tracing paper. Fabric tension is required - use a hoop or a special frame. They embroider from the inside out, and the pattern is applied there. The frequency of the stitches creates the pattern - the denser they are, the more voluminous the picture.
The base itself needs to be pulled well onto the frame, because the needle can pierce the fabric during operation.
On the Internet you can find drawings and instructions for embroidering a rug on a mesh. This technique is believed to help create tapestries. On the Internet you will find diagrams of carpet techniques for embroidered tapestries.
The surface of the embroidery in this case turns out to be soft and fluffy, one might say “carpet-like”, since the design itself is obtained due to the loose threads released. .
Work process
This type of needlework, like carpet embroidery, is very suitable for beginners, because you can master it in a short time. Initially, you need to choose a drawing for work. You can draw the diagram yourself or choose a picture you like. It is important that there are no small parts on it, because they complicate the work process and are difficult to see on the finished product.
Draw a design on the wrong side of the fabric with a pencil, keeping in mind that the front side will have a mirror image.
Place the fabric in the hoop and stretch it well so that there is no sagging. It is advisable to choose a hoop size such that the entire picture fits.
Thread the thread of the desired color into the needle. When working, the fabric breaks through, the work is held with the wrong side up. You need to hold the needle strictly perpendicular to the surface, inserting the tool until it stops. The length of the pile is adjusted by a limiter on the handle and depends on the wishes of the master.
In carpet embroidery with a needle (information for beginners), it does not matter which side the work starts from. Insert the thread into the needle, leaving an end of at least 3 cm. It is important that first the outline of the selected fragment is made, which is best done in a contrasting color (black), and then the space inside is filled with the main color. You can make stitches along the contour, filling the fragment from the periphery to the center, or go through straight rows. The choice depends on the performer.
Then, with a gentle upward movement, the carpet embroidery needle is pulled out and rearranged 2-3 mm from the original puncture. You don't need to raise it too high, otherwise the loops will unravel or be uneven. Before you start, you need to practice on a small area of fabric. The front row rarely looks perfect, but that's no reason to panic. The result will be visible when a fragment of the drawing is completed.
Periodically you need to turn the work over to the front side for control. The finished loops are bent in the direction opposite to the needle so that they do not intertwine, which will make the work sloppy.
To change the colors of the yarn, just cut the thread of the used color, leaving a small tail, thread a new color into the needle and continue working.
The process is fun and quite fast, the video demonstrates this.
End of work
In carpet needle embroidery, it is important for beginning craftsmen to finish the work correctly so that the product retains its shape for a long time.
Remove the finished embroidery from the hoop. Carefully inspect the front side. If some loops turn out to be longer than the neighboring ones, you can carefully tuck them in with tweezers, picking them up from the reverse side. If the loops turn out to be shorter than others, then using a needle or hook you can slightly pull them up.
From the wrong side, trim off the excess threads, leaving 2 cm tails, which need to be secured by passing them under adjacent stitches.
Coat the wrong side of the work with PVA glue diluted in a 1:1 ratio. This should be done with a soft brush and so that the glue does not get on the front side. This technique will secure the yarn and prevent the loops from unraveling. If you do not dilute the glue, then after drying the work will be hard, and when bent the product will crunch.
Cover the work coated with glue with film and leave overnight. Then remove the cellophane, lay the product on a flat surface and leave until completely dry. This smoothes the surface well.
Iron the embroidery from the wrong side and glue it with non-woven fabric. You can go over the adhesive solution again. After such manipulations during operation of the product, nothing is scary anymore. All threads are securely fixed.
All that remains is to hem the lining, if it is a rug, if it is a pillowcase - the second wall, if it is a picture - insert it into the frame.
How to make your own needle
Needles for embroidering carpets are not sold in every city. Therefore, you can make a tool for carpet embroidery techniques yourself. This requires materials that are found in almost every home. Needles were made this way more than twenty years ago, but it is still relevant today. The only drawback of homemade needles is the inability to choose threads of different parameters. For embroidery in carpet technology there are also needles of different sizes, for which there are suitable thread numbers.
A homemade needle is made from a syringe
What you need to create your own needle:
How to make a needle for DIY carpet embroidery:
Once you have a needle and hook in your arsenal, you can familiarize yourself with useful tips for embroidering using carpet techniques.
Little tricks
First, the small details of the drawing are completed, then the larger ones. The last step is to fill in the background.
The length of the loop can be changed during operation. This will create relief and volume. But the entire fragment must have the same loop height. For example, the grass at the foot of the mountains in the picture, or the ears of a puppy.
If there are missing loops in some areas, you can insert a thread into the needle and always come back and refine the gaps.
It is advisable to make a contour or straight lines in two parallel rows. This way they will look clearer and won’t get lost in the general background.
Updated version of Lavor needle 4 mm and 5.5 mm
In September 2022, Lavor announced the release of a new version of the needle. Now needles in sizes 4 and 5.5 mm can be purchased with a new, more comfortable and ergonomic handle. Yes, the handle design is shamelessly copied from Oxford needles. But who are we to judge. You can buy a new needle using this link.
Master class on carpet embroidery
To work, you will need a special dense canvas with large cells, called stramin. This material is sold in craft stores and construction departments.
You also need a special hook, but if you don’t have one, you can get by with a regular crochet hook. To work, you need yarn, which needs to be cut into equal pieces. Their length depends on the desired length of the pile, from 3 to 10 cm. To simplify the task, it is recommended to wind the yarn onto a ruler of the desired size and cut it on one side. So all the segments will be even. Any yarn available is used.
A master class on carpet embroidery will help you complete work of any level of complexity. But it's better to start with something simple.
The picture should not contain small details, they will complicate the work and will not be visible on the finished product. The canvas is divided into 10 x 10 squares to simplify the process. Apply the image to the front side. If you plan to use several colors, you can use a pencil or felt-tip pen to highlight these zones.
It is important to remember that you need to retreat 2-3 cm from the edge of the canvas in order to subsequently continue working with the workpiece.
In the knotting technique, work begins from the lower or upper corner, and the knots are tied sequentially into each cell, row by row.
Fold a piece of thread of the desired color in half. Pass the hook under the cell of the canvas, grab the thread at the bend point and pull it under the base. Thread both tails into the resulting loop and tighten the knot. Each knot must match the color of the selected pattern. When everything is ready, you need to trim the ends of the threads with sharp scissors so that the product takes on a finished look.
This is how simple and uncomplicated it is to create a beautiful, exclusive item.
Where to get the diagrams
Any designs can be used for carpet embroidery. You can draw a diagram yourself or use children's coloring books. Cross stitch patterns, where each cell corresponds to a loop or knot, are very suitable for this purpose. It is best to select pictures without small details.
Abstract geometric shapes or simple patterns look good. Even the stripes look beautiful, because they gain volume and softness.
Carpet embroidery for beginners is an opportunity to spend time profitably, use thread trimmings and create a unique thing that will decorate your interior.
Hook for carpet weaving
It resembles a crochet hook, but differs in a special movable lock slightly closer to the tip. If an ordinary hook has a straight metal rod, then for carpet weaving it is characterized by a curved shape. There is a comfortable handle.
Specialized hook for making carpet embroidery.
