5 Things You Need to Know

About Hand Embroidery Fabric

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Favorite Embroidery Books

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Here are five points that deserve emphasis when considering the ground fabric for
hand embroidery:
1. Importance of the ground: The “ground fabric” (the fabric on which you work
your embroidery) is as important as the design, threads, colors, and techniques that
you employ – and sometimes, it’s more important!

2. Quality: Any fabric can be embellished with hand embroidery, but some fabrics are
better than others. Better fabric always yields better final results, and usually, you get
what you pay for. Don’t put money and time into an embroidery project that is worked
on cheap, low-quality fabric that isn’t suited to hand embroidery. If nothing else, the
fabric won’t last as long, and your embroidery efforts will not look as good as they
could.
3. Grain: Fabric has grain. There’s the lengthwise grain, which runs parallel to the
selvedge (the edges as the fabric comes off the bolt). There’s the “cross grain” which
runs perpendicular to the selvedge. And there’s the bias, which runs catercorner to the
length & cross grain. Squaring up the ground fabric so that it can be mounted to a
frame (or in a hoop) on the grain lends to better results. Mounting your fabric off grain
often leads to puckering or warping.

4. Support: Weight & weave, stitch type & density need to be considered when
choosing a fabric. The ground fabric needs to support the type of stitching you plan to
do. Denser, heavier stitching generally requires stronger fabric with a weave that will
hold the stitching. The opposite is also true: light, delicate stitching will be lost on
burlap.

5. Care, Preparation, & Use: Consider how the project will be used before you
select your fabric. If the project is meant to be laundered, or will be used on an item
that may need laundering, or will be displayed in a place that will require its being
cleaned now and then, choose a ground fabric (and an embroidery technique) that will
withstand laundering. When working with linens and cottons, pre-shrink your fabric
and rinse the sizing out. Some experts say this isn’t necessary, but in fact, it never
hurts to rinse out and pre-shrink linens and cottons before you start stitching. Better
safe than sorry

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Cutting Linen on the Grain

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When you’re setting up a hand embroidery project, the way you cut your fabric makes a
big difference in the outcome!

The concept I’m discussing here – fabric grain – applies to any woven fabric, but when
it comes to cutting on the grain, I’m demonstrating working specifically with linen that
has a visible weave.

First, it’s important to understand the terminology and the basics on the structure of
fabric. In the diagram above, the brown woven area represents a piece of fabric. When
the fabric comes off the bolt, there are two sides of the fabric called the “selvage”
running perpendicular to the bolt, establishing the width of the fabric. The threads in
the fabric that run parallel to the selvage are the warp threads. These are the threads
that are set up on the loom before weaving begins, running the length of the piece of
fabric, into which the weft threads (perpendicular to the warp threads) are woven. The
warp and weft threads are perpendicular to each other, and they establish the “grain”
of the fabric. The warp threads are the lengthwise grain and the weft threads are the
crosswise grain. When cutting diagonally across the warp and weft threads, you are
cutting “on the bias.”

When fabric is cut along the warp and weft threads, it is said to be cut “on the grain,”
and when you set up a surface embroidery project, it is very helpful (and ensures a
better outcome) if your fabric is cut “on the grain.” When fabric is cut across the grain
or on the bias, it is stretchier, and your embroidery project may end up warped and
wrinkled if the fabric is cut on the bias. Yes, you can stitch on the bias – but if you cut
on the bias and try to set up a project cut on the bias, you will not have “squared up”
fabric – you’ll have something sort of stretchy and and your framed project can end up
out of whack.

So, how to cut linen on the grain…

Measure the length of your fabric and take a little snip on the edge of the fabric to
mark the size. Next to the snip, pick out the first thread of the linen. If you’re right
handed, you’ll want to cut to the right of this one thread, and if you’re left handed,
you’ll want to cut to the left of this one thread.
Hold onto the thread, and cut along the edge of that thread, holding onto that thread as
you go. The thread will release from the fabric as you cut along the side of it. If you
have a very long bit of fabric to cut, cut along this thread for about four inches, until
you have a good length of that thread loose. Make sure you’re cutting right next to that
thread and following the grain of the fabric. You’ll be cutting between two threads of
fabric – the one you’re pulling on as you cut, and the one on the other side of the
scissors.

Once you’ve cut about four inches into the fabric, you’ll have a good four inch loose
thread along your cut.
Now, you could use your finger to do this part, but I like to use a block of beeswax,
because after a while, this can really hurt! If you’re cutting a lot of fabric, and you use a
finger for this part, you can develop the equivalent of mini rope burns, and repeating
the process frequently, the thread can eventually cut right into your skin.

Trust me. I know from experience! Please let me save you some pain!

But if you’re just cutting out one small piece of linen, your finger will work fine. But if
you’re pulling out very long threads along the grain, or cutting out many pieces of
linen, find something that you can wrap the thread around other than your finger! A
stick of beeswax like the one above works great – though the thread cuts a little ways
into it, the wax really holds onto the thread.

Wrap the loose fabric thread around the block of beeswax, and, pulling the thread
straight out in the direction the thread runs (and keeping the beeswax as close to the
surface of the fabric as possible so you’re not pulling up at an angle), gently pull (don’t
tug!) on the thread until you feel it start to give.

If you’re working with a good linen, the threads will be strong, and they will stand up
to the pulling without snapping.
Pulling on the thread will make it very visible across the surface of the linen. You can
clearly see the pulled thread in the photo above. Now, you can do one of two things.
You can either cut along that visible thread (the thread has made a clear line for you
and acts as a good guide for cutting), or you can keep gently pulling. If the fabric
begins to gather up a bit, stop pulling and gently work the gathers out until the fabric
isn’t puckered. This will move the thread further out. Once you feel the thread really
start to give, you can pull a little more, until the whole thread starts moving smoothly
out of the fabric. Pull the whole thread out, and you have an even more visible line
along which to cut easily and quickly.

Once you’ve cut your fabric in one direction, do your perpendicular cuts the same way,
right along one thread of the fabric.

In this way, you can ensure that your fabric is cut straight on the grain, that it’s exactly
the size you want, and that it will square up well when the embroidery is finished!

This is how I cut 5 yards of linen into project-sized pieces. One mangled block of
beeswax later, I had 145 pieces of linen, cut perfectly on the grain. It’s the best method
I know of for achieving a clean cut on the grain with linen, without any waste.
Fabric for Embroidery: Plain
Weave vs. Even Weave
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Good morning and a Happy Friday all around!

When it comes to hand embroidery, probably the Most Important consideration for
any project is the fabric that you plan to stitch on.

It seems strange to say that the fabric is more important than, say, the design you plan
to stitch. Or more important even than the threads you plan to use.

But to help clarify my assertion, think about it: without something to embroidery on,
there’s really no point to embroidery at all!

So let’s have a little chat about fabric, and more specifically, about fabric that is used
widely in the needlework world – specifically, linen, and more specifically, even-weave
and plain-weave linen and the differences between them.
Even-Weave Linen
Even-weave linen is widely used in needlework, especially in counted techniques like
counted cross stitch, blackwork, certain types of Hardanger, drawn thread work, pulled
thread work, and the like.

Even-weave implies that the weave of the linen is even, with both the warp and weft
threads numbering approximately the same in either direction (or at least, so close to
the same, that the difference is negligible).

Even-weave linen comes in various thread “counts” which are simply an indication of
the number of threads per inch in either direction.
A low count even-weave linen would be, for example, a 20 count linen. In a 20-count
linen, you should be able to count 20 threads in one inch of the fabric along the warp
or weft. In a 20-count even-weave linen, the threads are usually rather thick and very
easy to see.

High count is a little more difficult to define with exact numbers. What I consider high
count even-weave fabric might, to you, be a rather low count, and visa-versa. It really
depends on what we’re used to working with.

But in general, a 36 or a 40-count linen for counted handwork is considered fairly high
count. A 50-count linen would produce very fine work, indeed, if the counted stitches
were worked over one thread of fabric!
The photo above features, close-up, a 32-count even weave linen.

Notice that the threads form a grid pattern, and that there are distinct “holes” in the
corner of each intersection. This is what makes even-weave linen work for counted
techniques. It’s easy to see exactly where to work the stitches on the grid provided by
the weave of the fabric.

Characteristic of linen, with the fabric in the photo above, the warp and weft threads
are not always exactly the same size, but the count works out even, anyway.

The better the linen, the closer the warp and weft threads are to each other in size. A
very good even-weave linen will have warp and weft threads that are, overall,
practically equal in size. Occasionally, you might see a thread here and there that is
“off” compared to those around it – maybe fatter, maybe thinner (this is characteristic
of linen). But taken as a whole cloth, the threads are fairly even in both directions.

The cheaper the linen (in quality – and, yes, usually in price, too!), the more likely it is
that the warp and weft threads are more uneven, although the count should still be
right. There are just more irregularities in the overall cloth.

Plain-Weave Linen
Plain-weave linen is not, as you can guess, even in its weave!

Not intended for counted work, a plain-weave will not have the same number of
threads per inch in the warp and weft direction. In fact, the “thread count” for a plain
weave linen is not usually even taken into account. We just think of it as linen. It
usually has a fairly high thread count, counted along the warp or the weft, but count
doesn’t really matter with plain weave fabrics.

Plain weave linens are often sold by “weight.” For example, we talk about
“handkerchief weight” linen. Or “sheer weight” linen. These are both light linens,
relatively sheer and fine. You might find them listed for sale by actual weight – maybe
3.5 oz per square yard, for a handkerchief weight linen. A canvas weight plain weave is
much heavier – maybe 7, 8 or more oz per square yard, and the fabric is, as you can
guess, much thicker and heavier.

Plain-weave linen is usually fairly closely woven, and the little holes in the corners of
the intersections of the warp and weft threads are not as distinct. Usually, a plain-
weave linen is very smooth – it has what is called a “smooth hand,” which means that,
when you run your hand over it, the surface feels nice and smooth.

Plain-weave linen is the stuff of bed linens, garments, table linens, and the like. But it
is also a really nice ground fabric for surface embroidery that isn’t counted.
In the photo above, the white linen in the top of the photo is a plain-weave linen. You
can see a huge difference between the even-weave below (with it’s very distinct grid
pattern, open holes around the intersections, and broader woven threads), and the
plain-weave, where the threads are in no way as distinct and the entire fabric has a
smooth, close surface.

For Stitching
When it comes to counted work, an even-weave linen makes an ideal ground fabric.

When it comes to free-style surface embroidery, a plain-weave linen makes an ideal

ground fabric, but you can also use an even-weave linen.

To use an even-weave linen for free-style surface embroidery, a higher count even-
weave is normally the best choice, but it really depends on the weave of the even-
weave. If the threads are plump and fill the weave completely, then even a lower count
even-weave (like a 20-count or 25-count) can serve for surface embroidery, too.

In surface embroidery, designs usually involve flowing curves. To make sure that the
stitches have free range of the fabric and aren’t confined to the grid of the even-weave,
a crewel needle (also called an embroidery needle – it has a sharp tip) is essential, in
order to pierce the fabric threads rather than slip between them.

Additionally, a backing fabric – like a cotton muslin – will help give your stitches
something to grip into, in case the even-weave is too open to hold them just where you
want them. I wrote about backing fabrics here.

Sometimes, it’s a good idea to use a backing fabric behind lighter plain-weave linens,
especially when denser or heavier stitching is planned.

Over to You!
When it comes to surface embroidery, do you use even-weave linens or plain-weave?
Do you have any tips to share about the fabric you like or use? Or any
recommendations for other stitches?

Are you new to stitching? Or do you have questions about linen for embroidery?

Feel free to join in the conversation and share your thoughts below!

What’s Up Here?
On my end of the computer screen, I’m getting ready for Easter! And just following
Easter, my family is flocking to the Midwest in droves for a family reunion.

We haven’t had a full-fledged reunion in ten years, since my parents celebrated their
50th anniversary. This year marks their 60th. There will be 110 of us (out of 122)
gathered here in Kansas – all my sisters and my brother and their families, with all
their children and grandchildren. It’ll be a blast! I can’t wait to see everyone together
again!

So stitching has taken a back burner for a bit while preparing for that event. This
weekend, though, I’m definitely putting some stitches into one project or another. I’m
craving my needle!

I hope you have a jolly weekend, with plenty of time to spend with your needle and
thread!

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Exploring Linen: Origin,

Quality, & Uses
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Last month, we chatted about plain weave and even weave linen for hand
embroidery, and that discussion sparked some interesting questions that flowed in
via e-mail concerning linen in general.

One reader asked how to tell “good” linen for hand embroidery projects. Another asked
about buying linen from online fabric outlets, and there were several questions about
garment linen and other types of linen available on the market.

Today, I’d like to chat about these questions in a general way, and further down the
road (if there’s interest!), we can discuss the particulars.

Pin It
First things first: I don’t want to come across as a Linen Snob. I’ve used all kinds of
linen for embroidery projects, depending on the project and its uses.
In my mind, the question of ground fabric boils down to this: what are you creating,
and how is it going to be used?

I’m a whole-hearted advocate of using the best possible materials you can afford on
your needlework, while keeping things realistic.

For example, if you’re creating what you consider your Magnum Opus – your great
masterpiece – and you want it to withstand the test of time, you plan to put a lot of
time into it, and you know that you’re going to be spending a fair amount of fundage on
threads (perhaps you’re using silk or real metal threads or the like), then it only stands
to reason that you should invest in the best possible ground fabric for the project. Why
put all that time, all that expense, all that energy and focus into a project, only to work
on inferior ground fabric and run into inevitable problems later because of the fabric’s
inferiority?

On the other hand, if you’re creating a quick project for the fun of it, not necessarily
something extravagant – say, a hand towel that you know will be used and laundered
or a quick little hoop art project – you’re probably not going to put the same effort and
expense into ensuring that the ground fabric is the same high quality that the fabric for
your Magnum Opus is.

Does that make sense?

Of course, there are in-between projects, too. But I just want to settle the principle:
your choice of ground fabric and the expense and effort you go to to procure the fabric
you want for a project really depends on what kind of project you’re creating and its
purpose.
Linen is an ever-suitable ground fabric for hand embroidery of all types, whether it’s a
simple, fun project, a Magnum Opus, or anything in between.

But there are different grades of linen on the market, and it’s good to know something
about origin and quality when deciding on the type of linen you want to use.

Recently (and I’m still working on this concept!), I procured various pieces of linen
from online “wholesale” priced outlets. My plan was to test how good it was as a
ground fabric for embroidery and whether it would work up well into useful items.

I was looking for linen that didn’t fall in the same range of expense as some of the
better hand embroidery linens. I looked primarily for linen suitable for clothing, for
totes or bags, and for toweling (hand towels, linen bath towels and the like).
For me, one of the Biggest Clues to the quality of a linen, without seeing the linen, is its
place of origin. It’s often very difficult to find the country of origin of linens on fabric
outlet-type websites, but you can always ask. They might or might not respond.

Linen from China is usually on the bottom rung of the ladder, when it comes to quality.
I’m guessing this has to do with the quality of the linen crop, the length of the flax (I’m
guessing it’s made from a shorter staple thread, or from the tow, or coarser, broken
fibers of flax during processing).
Linens from Russia and from Eastern Europe are next up in quality. The Czech
Republic is a major exporter of linen, and their linens range in quality. Some of them
are quite suitable for hand embroidery, and especially for items that are to be used, like
clothing, toweling, some sheeting and also for displayable embroidery.

The Ulster Linen Company – which, due to the name, you might think deals exclusively
in Irish linen – distributes quite a large quantity of linen from the Czech Republic. In
fact, the colored linens that I used for some of the letters in Stitch Sampler Alphabet
are worked on these Ulster linens, which are not Irish, but in fact, Czech.

When you hear of “Irish linen” these days, keep in mind that there are very few
working linen mills in Ireland now. When distributors refer to Irish linen, they could
be talking about a look or “type” of linen, or they could be referring to the fact that they
have offices in Ireland, rather than the origin of the linen. When it comes to looking for
Irish linen, check the country of origin if you want the Real Deal!

The finest linens, by way of origin, hail from western Europe, due to the ideal growing
conditions for flax. Some really gorgeous linens come out of Italy, and I’ve tried linen
from Portugal, as well, that’s decent, good linen.

When it comes to available linen these days, though, if you want the cream of the crop,
look for linens from Belgium and France.

In all the photos above, I’m showing off some linens that I bought from an online
supplier of “wholesale” priced linen sold for clothing and household uses. I don’t want
to mention sources, because I haven’t finished working with them, and I don’t know
how they will perform, when all is said and done.

Strangely enough, I can’t get any information on the countries of origin. I’m still
following up on that question. I’m suspecting that the linen comes from either Russia
or Eastern Europe, though I suppose it could come from China. Some clues here and
there lead me to think Russia or Eastern Europe, though. In any case, whenever the
distributor mentions “European” on this particular site or its sister-site, it is always as
“European quality linen,” not “European linen.” What’s the difference? The former can
be translated as “similar in quality to European linen.”

If this is what they mean, they’ve missed the mark!

The linens are definitely not high quality like most European linens, especially
compared to good linen from France and Belgium that we see in the needlework
industry. They aren’t the type of linen I’d choose for the Magnum Opus. But I would
use them for toweling, totes and bags, and more rustic-looking garments, if, in the end,
they take hand embroidery well enough and they sew up well.

I laundered each piece of yardage separately, on delicate in the washing machine. I

dried them to “almost dry” and then left them to dry the rest of the way on their own,
smoothing them out a bit, hoping to relieve some of the wrinkle factor. (Didn’t really
work! I’ll dampen them before I iron them.)

The lint, slub and selvage factors are all good signs that we’re not looking at linen made
from superior fibers that are superiorly spun or superiorly woven.

Upon laundering, the selvage on all yardage fell completely apart, leaving raw edges
and globs of strings twisted all over the place.

This has never happened with any of the finer linens I’ve used for hand embroidery.
Ever!
The linens produced Mountains of Lint in the dryer, even though the most I washed
and partially dried at one time was one yard of linen. The lint filter looked like a 2″-
thick piece of memory foam, it was so densely packed. I had a hard time pulling the lint
filter out to clean it, and I promise I clean my lint filter out every time I use the dryer. I
could kick myself for not taking a photo – it was such a Chuckle Moment!

Again, this has never happened with any find needlework linens I’ve laundered the
same way. They produce very little lint.

The fabric, which looked “ok” before laundering (see the blue in the photos above,
which hasn’t been laundered yet), revealed lots of “flaws” afterwards (keep in mind,
certain “flaws” are often desirable characteristics of some linen, depending on what
you’re planning to do with it). I picked out short hairy staples of flax fibers from all
over the surface. The slubs became more pronounced with laundering. There were also
little hard bits of fiber – little scrubby twiggy bits – here and there.

Once again, this doesn’t happen with the Really Good Stuff!
In the photo directly above, you can see a creamy, sunny yellow (already laundered)
next to the unlaundered blue. These are both sold as “heavy weight” linen – at over 7 oz
a square yard – but I’d really term them more medium weight once they are washed.
They seem significantly lighter upon laundering, due, I suppose, to the removal of
sizing and the lint loss.

The linens shrink upon laundering, which is typical of even very good linen. There’s
always some shrinkage with linen, because that’s the nature of the fabric.

The Upshot
These particular linens may or may not be suitable for what I have in mind.
I’ll iron them up and see what they do. My original plan was to construct a few
different things from the pieces I bought, like a small tote, a book cover, a hand towel,
and the like – all embroidered, of course! – to test whether or not this type of linen is
worth buying. Sure, it’s significantly less expensive than linen sold exclusively for
embroidery, but if it doesn’t perform well in the finishing, then…is it worth it?

Incidentally, once I washed the stuff, I wondered whether or not I should put too much
time into embroidering the pieces I want to construct. I decided that if I go simple with
the first test piece, I could test the embroidery aspect and then move on to something
more complex.

So that’s my plan.

Linen Take-Away
All linen is not created equal. The quality of the linen, its origin, and the use of your
final product should all be considered when you embark on a linen search.

Depending on your intended use, you don’t always have to invest in more expensive
linens.

But if you’re planning on creating something that you want to withstand the test of
time, that you’re putting many hours into, and that you’re spending good money on for
threads and so forth, it pays to get the Really Good Stuff!

If you’re ready to embark on your Magnum Opus and you’re looking for fine linen
made for handwork from the ground up, I wholeheartedly recommend needlework
linens from Access Commodities, which are available through local needlework shops
and from online fine needlework shops. My favorite all-around white linen from them
is called Alba Maxima.