rippled hems

Following on from yesterday, in which Lilian told us about her experiments with withdrawing threads after prewashing her fabric, today we look at the effect of pulling bars tight and rippled hems.

In yesterday’s post, Lilian posed the question: “Now I am worried that when the fabric does not shrink after embroidering it, will the pulling together on the threads of the bars, scrunching the fabric up a little, come out after damp stretching? Oh dear, it keeps on posing new questions for us. How tight to pull? Do you pull the threads of the bars tight? In this particular case, it will not be very important, as the embroidery will become panels on a bath towel, so will get laundered a lot, and I daresay never ironed, but there are ‘heirloom type’ projects that you might want to know the answer to this question for, before undertaking the project!”

My reply to her was that I always pull my bars tight. I do this because traditionally, the bars were tightly wrapped, and I like to stick with tradition wherever possible. If I am going to “introduce” a “new” style of embroidery to the world, I’d like to do it as faithfully to the traditional style as I can, otherwise I may as well just make up something completely new!

Lilian’s response:

I asked the question about pulling tight on the bars, because I find that with any drawn thread work I have to be very careful not to pull so tight that the hem is pulled so tight that the edge of it will be longer than the open work and cause the hem to have ‘waves’ or slight ‘ripples’ (I am groping for the correct English word for it). On the light purple doily there is a very, very slight ‘ripple’, gone after damp stretching, but when it is left, it tends to relax and show the smallest of extra width at the seam. An Italian open hem runner I made, also has the problem (but worse), and I found it in a purple runner for my American friend as well. It is not so bad that somebody else will notice it at first glance, but I know it.

I am attaching a photo of the Italian runner.

With the shrinkage after embroidering, I hoped that the ripples would come out, or be resolved by damp stretching. But if you prewash the fabric, will be problem be more prominent? That is my question, concern if you like. Perhaps someone out there has the answer?

It is wonderful to compare notes with you, and via your blog with so many more experienced stitchers. Thank you for your blog, newsletter and private email. I look forward to hearing more about the question of shrinking or not and if you would take the trouble of writing about the rippled hems, I would be very happy if someone has a foolproof way of avoiding that!

Firstly, I get rippled hems too, when working drawn thread work! They just haven’t really ever worried me… I’ve always just accepted that they happen.

I hear what you say about damp stretching getting rid of it for only a while, until the moisture in the air causes it to relax back to its actual state. Damp stretching is really a temporary measure to make something look exceptional for presentation. I use it before photography, or before presenting something for exhibition or to someone as a gift. For those of us who live in dampish environments with high humidity, damp stretching will not provide a permanent result!

My thoughts on the rippling are as follows, and they are just suppositions, so I could be wrong!

If you prewash, the fabric should not change further after stitching as it will have been preshrunk. This means that after washing, it should be as “stable” as it is going to get. If you don’t want it to change, then use it in its most “stable” state.

However, when we remove threads and reweave new ones in, we destabilise the fabric anyway. We should therefore stitch in such a way that the fabric remains as stable as possible throughout stitching.

While mounting the embroidery into a hoop would be my normal answer, when you’re working against a hem, as Lilian is, it’s quite difficult to put a hemmed piece into a hoop in such a way that you can stitch the hem! Also, when you put fabric into a hoop, there is a good chance that the fabric will stretch under the tension of the hoop, and therefore when you take it out again, it will relax and look different than it did in the hoop.

My suggestion – as strange as it will seem (and it may not work!) – is to work it in hand, rather than in a hoop. If you KNOW that it is not rippling as you work, then it also shouldn’t ripple when you’ve finished. That means that if it ripples when you’re pulling the threads tight by binding them and stitching them, then it will always relax back to that state.

However, it just may not be possible to stitch the desired hem (such as is shown in Lilian’s example) without pulling the threads tighter than the fabric surrounding the embroidery. I would say that any time the threads are pulled together with tighter tension than the fabric will actually allow – and sometimes we can pull them together somewhat because they usually ARE happy to move a little way from their regular woven position – that there will be rippling.

The threads have a specific length. They also will have some amount of give (or stretch) – with linen, this “give” is more when dry than when wet, as linen is actually stronger when wet. If you try to make those threads go further than their length and their give will allow, because you are stitching them in such a way as to need them to go further, then something has to compensate for pulling them too far. In the case of a drawn thread hem, it will be the fabric on either side of the drawn thread area. When you have a several layer thickness hem which will have less ease than a single layer of fabric might, then it is probably going to ripple.

So my answer to Lilian is that as far as possible, you should stitch in such a way as to keep the fabric stable, without pulling the threads too far. Minimise the chance of rippling happening as much as you can, by prewashing, and by careful stitching.

However, sometimes, rippling will still happen, because of the particular technique or pattern that you have chosen to use. We are not machines, and our embroidery is not made by machines. Sometimes we just have to accept that things will happen that we cannot stop.

I’m sorry, Lilian, if that’s not the answer you wanted to hear! It is only my thoughts on the matter, and others who are more well informed, or with more stitching experience than me, may have a different or better answer. I’d love to hear the thoughts of others on this!