Pillow embroidery with a cross and ribbons: carpet trim, the use of beads and wool
Of course, in any city there are decor stores where you can choose beautiful items to your taste and decorate the interior. But many times more pleasant and dearer to the heart are self-made things. They not only manifest the taste of the hostess, but also present her internal energy, which is the best talisman for the home. One of the oldest women's crafts was embroidery, which was applied to clothes, towels, scarves, dolls, and even pillows. And today, a self-embroidered pillow speaks of the extraordinary skill of a woman, her artistic taste and desire to create beauty for her family.
Where and how did embroidered pillows appear?
Historical sources indicate that fabric pillows began to be used in ancient Egypt and China. They, as a luxury item, were available only to the nobility and were decorated very richly. Such a pillow could be lined with precious stones and embroidered with gold thread by skilled craftswomen. In Greece and Rome, and later in Medieval Europe, there was a real boom in beautiful sofa and bed pillows.
Patricians and European nobility paid any money to get such a luxurious household item. Women were especially persistent – without embroidered sofa cushions, the interior of their boudoir would be incomplete. During this period, demand also gave rise to supply – many young girls from poor families learned various types of embroidery and later did it with their earnings. However, rich ladies also did not shun embroidery work. In their graceful well-groomed hands there was always some kind of needlework, very often just small pillows. They could be a great gift or just a home decoration.
Our ancestors generally had a kind of cult of embroidery. Girls learned this skill from birth, and by adolescence they had to have a complete set of dowry made by their own hands. It contained not only clothes, but also bedding, which was also often decorated with embroidered ornaments.
The fashion for embroidered pictures on pillows appeared much later – already in the 18-19th century, before that, mostly simple ornamental patterns in various interpretations were in use.
Nowadays, not every woman is a needlewoman. At the same time, hand embroidery is very expensive and in great demand. If you decide to master such a beautiful art, you will have to put in time and effort.
Many manufacturers offer ready-made pillow embroidery kits. They will serve well for those craftswomen who are just starting their creative work and for those who are limited in time. The kit contains a blank for the pillow (front and bottom), needle, thread and pattern.
In addition, you will need sharp small scissors, a hoop and possibly a thimble.
Cross-stitching a pillow – revived traditions of our ancestors
The notorious "cross" is the oldest and most popular embroidery technique at the moment. Why is that? Yes, because it is the simplest, it consists of only two cross stitches, but the work done in this technique can be real masterpieces.
Cross-stitching a pillow is also unique in that it does not require special materials and preparations. As a base, you can choose any fabric, but preferably with visible weaves-cells. It can be linen, tapestry fabric, coarse calico, cotton or a special canvas. We will need a finished stuffed pillow, fabric for the bottom and fabric for the top. You can first sew a pillowcase on three sides and only then proceed to embroidery, but it will be more convenient to do the opposite.
On sale there are kits for cross-stitching pillows – as a rule, they use "stramin" fabric – this is a very dense hard canvas with large weave windows. Threads for stramin are very voluminous, reminiscent of knitting. The disadvantage of such sets is that the crosses will be quite large, but they are perfect for embroidering a children's pillow – cheerful and bright.
If you want to see precisely elegant fine work, then you should start embroidering a pillow from making an embroidered picture. Be sure to leave an allowance of 2-3 centimeters along the edges of the canvas, because this part will be sewn to the back.
Threads will suit any that you like best. It is better not to embroider in one thread, as the picture will turn out to be rather faded. Embroidery of pillows with wool makes the product more practical – such threads are not very capricious.
After you have finished embroidering, you will need to cut the back to the size of the front canvas. Optionally, you can sew a zipper into it (in the middle or on the side) so that the pillowcase can be washed. However, more often the pillowcase is simply covered on three sides, then washed and ironed. After you put the pillow in it, the pillowcase is sewn on the fourth side by hand, not very tightly. This allows, if necessary, to dissolve the seam and wash the product during use.
Delicate and original pillow embroidery with ribbons
Ribbon embroidery pillow at first glance may seem quite complicated. After all, one has only to look at the incredible beauty of products embroidered in this technique (it looks most advantageous when voluminous colors are reproduced with satin ribbons), and you immediately experience genuine admiration. However, you just need to practice a little and get used to how working with ribbons will seem no more difficult than regular embroidery.
To get started, you will need the same usual kit: mesh fabric, needle, hoop and threads (ribbons). Particular attention should be paid to the size of the tapes – when embroidering, tapes from 4 mm are usually used, but you should definitely check whether they will fit into the eye of the needle and the mesh of the fabric.
When working with satin ribbons, be sure to choose a sharp needle with an elongated eye – when pierced, it should not leave ugly puffs, entering easily. The tape should fit in the eye of the needle without twisting. Before starting work, you will need to make a knot at the end of the tape, as we do when sewing. It is worth noting that the ribbons are the same threads and we will embroider them with the help of well-known stitches – a stalk stitch, a needle stitch. However, there are also specific “ribbon" stitches.
These are chain stitch or chain stitch, half loops with attachment, elongated stitches, elongated stitch with attachments, loops, loops in a circle, forward needle, loops with attachment on top, etc. Such seams allow you to create various three-dimensional elements – flowers, birds, insects.
It is better to embroider with ribbons those pillows that will serve for decorative purposes, and not for their intended purpose. This technique is very beautiful, but at the same time, the finished product is quite easy to damage, and lying on it will not be very convenient due to the volumetric texture.
For lovers of creative experiments, we can advise you to pay attention not only to standard fabrics, but also to denim, velvet, silk. On this basis, embroidery with ribbons will look simply chic and unusual.
Carpet embroidery of a pillow – even a beginner can master this spectacular technique
The technique of carpet embroidery is quite effective and at the same time not very complicated. Its essence lies in the use of a special needle, which helps to create a real carpet pile of any length. The length of the pile is calculated as follows: from the oblique cut of the needle to the plastic handle, divided in half. For clarity: if you need a pile of 1 cm, then the needle extends 2 cm.
The thread is threaded into the needle using a special needle threader (in the usual way, this is quite difficult to do, because the thickness of the thread is large). When piercing fabric, always stick the needle in as far as it will go. By the way, you always need to insert it into the fabric with an oblique cut to the left. Carefully pulling the needle out of the tissue, after 1-2 mm, you can make the next puncture. It is important not to raise the needle too high during reverse movements, this leads to the appearance of pile of different lengths and even to the unraveling of the embroidery.
In order for the pattern to turn out beautiful and neat, there are a few secrets. Before starting work, the contour of the future embroidery is applied to the fabric – with a pencil or a special felt-tip pen. First of all, it is the edges of this contour that are embroidered – it is, as it were, outlined. This technique allows you not to make mistakes in the future and not mix up the colors. The outlined embroidery is then “filled in” with stitches of the desired color. This is done from right to left. After embroidering the pattern, you can proceed to the background. There will be no contour here, but the filling technique is the same.
Ordinary linen fabric is excellent for making pillows in carpet technique, because here the presence of visible weaves is not so important. A big plus of the finished product is that it can and should be used for its intended purpose, because of this it will not bloom and will not lose its appearance. Carpet pillows are very soft, "terry", bright – children will definitely appreciate them.
Beaded pillow embroidery is a painstaking work that everyone will appreciate
Beaded pillow embroidery is a special difficult art that requires care and perseverance. If you are not yet a beading guru, you can try a mixed technique: cross-stitch a pillow and then add some interesting accents with beads.
The fabric for embroidery with beads should be chosen according to the type of canvas, with a visible weave. The needle should have a small eye (check beforehand that even small beads can be strung on it). Each bead of beads is sewn with a thread in color using a half-cross stitch. The stitch is very simple, even beginners can handle it, but it is very important to sew the beads evenly.
Most often, beads are not used “alone” – they are decorated with cross-stitch, satin stitch, and satin ribbon embroidery. However, craftswomen can try to embroider the pillow exclusively with beads. To do this, it is imperative to use a special scheme (bought in a store, printed from the Internet or made independently using a special program), which will help not to make mistakes when counting the number of beads.
Beads for work should be chosen of good quality, having approximately the same size. This will greatly facilitate the embroidery process and make it even more beautiful.