I am still learning how to use my new Oxford Punch needles and make punched fabric. This can be rugs, chair pads, coasters, art work. Whatever you fancy really. I continued working on the freeform piece that was started in the workshop I took last fall. I decided to add a border to the piece. Once that was done I took it off the frame.
Since I am still a beginner I decided to experiment with some blank Monks Cloth. I stretched the cloth onto my frame and got out my Sharpie to draw a pattern. I decided to try making a small Christmas tree and some coasters. Then I picked out my yarn and started punching. I drafted the pattern and started the tree one evening, then finished it off in another evening.
Then I turned my attention to the coasters. After a couple of hours of punching spread over 2 evenings I had completed my coasters. Generally you work by outlining your shapes, then filling in the middles. I was using a bulky yarn that changes colours slowly as you move through the ball. On the first coaster I let the background yarn move through a colour transition. But I decided that I preferred to have the background be more solid so I avoided that with the rest of the coasters.
I now had to learn how to finish my pieces. I watched some videos and asked for help on a punch needle forum. I learned that I needed to iron the pieces to block them. So I wet a large bathroom towel, covered the piece with the damp towel and ironed them. Both the front and the back of the pieces were ironed. This helped flatten my pieces. I cut out the pieces and used the iron to fold down the hems to make sewing them down easier.
After gathering my sewing supplies I started with the tree piece, sewing down the hems. Next I sewed the tree into a cone. Then I added a small star made from pipe cleaner and sewed small brass bells randomly onto the tree. When I was happy with all that, I stuffed the tree and then sewed a circle of black felt onto the bottom of the tree. Then I moved onto finishing the other pieces. The freeform piece was easy to sew since there were nice wide seam allowances. The coasters were harder because the seam allowance was too small. However, I fudged it and got them sewed down.
The final step was to sign my pieces. Black sharpie for the win! (Though I could not sign the tree since it had a black felt bottom.)
The tree was gifted to my parents and was a small addition to their holiday decor.
I had a great time working on these pieces and learned quite a few valuable lessons:
1) Design: The tree should not have had a curved line on the bottom (my tree leans). Since this was a 3D piece I should have made a paper cutout to test my design.
2) Spacing: A larger seam allowance would have been better for the coasters. They suggest 2″ on all sides.
3) Density: I should have made fewer punches in some of the pieces. My punching was very dense which caused the pieces to curve when taken off the frame. Luckily blocking with the iron helped with that. In future I should skip more space between punches and leave a bit more space between rows of punches. I think this is an easy beginner mistake to make because you are working from the back and the tendency is to fill everything in. However, in reality you need to give the yarn some breathing room to let it bloom.
Thanks for listening to me babble about punch needling. I’m enjoying learning this new craft and looking forward to my next project.