I pricked and pounced!

I've been personalising Christmas stockings full time for the last few days it seems. Because the stockings are made with quite rough textured felt it is a real problem getting the lettering on to the fabric so that I can embroider the names. I have been using a charcoal pencil, but that is rather unsatisfactory because drawing on the felt is difficult, smudgy, and the pencil gets very clogged up with wool. Yuck.

So, today, I had a bit of an inspiration when I remembered reading about the 'prick and pounce' method of transferring pattern to fabric in Diana Springall's book Embroidery. So I tried my own version of it.

First I drew my design on thick tracing paper.










Then I pricked along the lines of the tracing with a chunky needle (sorry, rubbish at knowing about needle sizes) - you might be able to see in the photo below that I missed the dot on the letter 'i'!













Then I laid the tracing on the felt stocking I'm working on at the moment. Holding it firmly in place I then scraped a bit of tailors' chalk dust on to the tracing paper & rubbed it in a bit with my finger. If you were doing prick and pounce properly then you would use pouncing powder - ground up cuttlefish - & a brush so I don't think you would need to rub it in.

















Then I lifted up the tracing paper and - tada! - it worked perfectly! I then pressed the chalk in a bit with my finger so it didn't just brush off.














People have been using this method of transferring pattern to fabric for centuries. I think the next step is to join up the dots with paint, otherwise the pattern would soon be rubbed off. Fortunately, the chalk I used lasted for long enough for me to finish the embroidery.













I've just read that it's also traditional to use ground cinnamon for pouncing. That sounds infintely preferable to using ground cuttlefish... And wouldn't it make Christmas stockings smell nice and Christmassy?

I feel the need to record how hard I've been working these last few days. So - we've got the embroidery above...

This very sweet little blue elephant:


















Some crochet brooches (er, not quite finished):














Finished a scarf using the stunning beautiful Colinette prism in Autumn Leaves:














No wonder I'm cream-crackered...

A pin cushion - more attempts to be organised..

Aware that I really must stop sticking in-use pins into the arms of our sofa (it really isn't safe), I knew I had ot make a pin cushion. I was not really looking forward to it because it brought back memories of the 1st weeks of senior school - a pin cushion was the 1st thing we made in 'Needlework' lessons (god it sounds like I was at school in the 19th century). I seem to remember that mine was in the shape of a tortoise, & its legs never did look right.

But I was inspired to get going after seeing a picture of a fab pin cushion in one of my 'new' books. I went mad on www.greenmetropolis.com the other day and ordered a few really good value craft books. My favourite purchase is 'Embroidery - An introduction to the basic skills and techniques of the craft' by Diana Springall (out of print but currently available for 1p on Amazon Marketplace - how do they do that??). It was published in 1980 but it has some absolutely gorgeous ideas in it. This (left) is the pattern that inspired me. I really like those slightly rounded squares & the very simple shapes. As you can see my version (right) doesn't have an awful lot in common with the Springall version. I've used felt rather than silk, I haven't bothered with piping & I didn't need to do trapunto because the felt is raised enough as it is. I am really pleased with the way the colours blend in the felt - although I think the white could be replaced by cream felt for a slightly less startling effect. I messed up the corners (I machine sewed the edges) - I should have made them much more rounded, and as a result they are too pointy. Next time I will also put the squares closer together in the middle of the cushion - at the minute I think it looks a bit like they are sliding off down the sides... but overall I am rather pleased with the effect & I will certainly get a lot of use out of it. And hey, now my family are all out of danger (until they find the pin cushion that is).

While I am on the subject of the Springall book I have to post a picture of one of her othe designs - this really wonderful felt elephant. I just think this is just great - I love the slightly psychedelic effect that you get from those pink, purple & gold swirls. I am not sure that my skills are quite up to something like this (and I certainly don't have time to try) but I might have a go at adapting the techniques she describes to make something a bit less complicated & a little smaller. I think I'll try another pin cushion first - I have an idea that pink, sage green, pale blue & white might go together quite well.