Thursday, March 28, 2013

Sharp Points With Wool

Good Day! I have been stitching quite a bit with wool these days with the launch of my new pattern series, Little Woolies. I don't have to tell you all how great it is to appliqué with wool...no seams to fret with, easy stitching and beautiful texture! One thing I have been perfecting as I stitch along is getting sharp points when using the buttonhole stitch on wool. If you have an inner or outer sharp point that you don't want rounded, here is a tip that helps...

For the inner corners, come up for the buttonhole stitch right at the corner point. Continue stitching all around the shape.

When you get to the next inner corner, take an extra stitch through the background up through the last loop you stitched. Continue stitching around the shape.
When you get to a sharp outer point, take the stitch right off the tip of the point.
As you pull the stitch, be sure to hold the thread in place right where you want it to land in the end. Doing this now, will help it stay where you want the thread to lay.
Take an extra little stitch through the background and up through the loop you just made.
Continue to control the thread on the next stitch. This will help the side stitch stay nice and straight, not rounded so much.

When you get around to your starting point, take an extra stitch through the very first stitch without catching the base fabric.

Then go straight down into the background and knot on the back. This will hide the beginning and blend the stitches so that you can not find the beginning and end as well as make the shape of that inner corner sharp and crisp.

 

See these nice points? See the inner corner on the left side of that picture? See how the stitch is not up next to the wool? I left off that extra stitch to show you how it helps to take the extra stitch. Now I will go back and fix it so it looks nice and straight, tucked into that sharp corner! You can also see the larger point peeking in on the side of the photo. See how it is rounded? I left that extra stitch off of that one too so you could see the difference. Now I will go back and fix that one too! I want my points nice and sharp on this quilt. If the design needs to keep the points and corners nice and sharp the steps above will help you out!

Take care,

Missie

 

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