(photograph © Kiwidutch)
If you are a needleworker, chances are that you like to dabble in several variations of needlework.
I’m a cross stitcher and an embroiderer… some of my embroidery is general stuff that I have been doing for years but sometimes I fancy trying out a new thread or stitch.
That’s when having a piece of fabric especially reserved for dabbling and experimentation is very handy. I use this too when I haven’t done a stitch for a while and want to check that the tension on the thread looks the same throughout the piece.
No matter how well you stitch, if you haven’t done a stitch for a long time, then the beginning will always be a little too loose or a little too tight as you get back into the swing of things again, so even a small amount of the required stitch on a test piece of fabric will make an enormous difference.
Sometimes too, I just can’t be bothered to stitch a full piece at all, I just want to experiment with a combination of stitches to see how they might sit well together… or not.
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Here’s the tester on silk that I did for the little pillow for our wedding rings for our wedding day…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Here is a sample where I also stitched the names of the stitches for reference…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
…starting a Bullion Rose…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
High count Linen or even-weave fabrics for embroidery are expensive so if you can save yourself some blunders on the fabric intended for a special project (and a lot of stress and frustration) then a test fabric that you keep in your sewing drawer can be worth it’s weight in gold.
