A little pep talk from Auntie Vetty today, which came about because I needed the answer to how a particular combination of stitches worked. I spent hours yesterday trying many different variations of stitches, spacing etc until mine matched the photo of the historical piece I was trying to match.
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If I’ve never done something before, how do I know if it is going to work?
I don’t.
Usually I don’t know if it is going to work, until I test it out.
You’ve seen me now, testing all sorts of stitches and ideas about stitching, in my videos. You’ve seen the process I go through to work out whether my stitching hypotheses are correct.
testing out different threads and stitches to explore thread twist
I don’t ask someone. (Sometimes I do consult books as reference, and I did yesterday to gather ideas for how it might be done.) Sometimes there isn’t anyone to ask, particularly if it’s a historical piece!
I test it out for myself.
Sometimes I get questions from people like “I’m using 28 count linen. I have some of X thread. Will it work on this linen?”
If I have a question like this for myself, the simplest way to find out the answer is to try it out. (I really don’t know everything!)
You do not need to receive the answer from someone else.
You do not need to be told what to do.
You can figure it out for yourself.
I think some people are so used to working with kits and published projects that they are used to being told what to do, with what thread, what stitch, what spacing, where etc.
Not all embroidery is in kitted or published project form. Not all embroidery starts with a set of instructions for you to follow. While these sorts of embroidery can be very satisfying because you know what you’re supposed to end up with, and someone’s given you the steps to get there, not all embroidery is like that.
Pretty much none of my embroidery is. Much of it, I have to figure out for myself. What thread did they use for this? What stitch is that? How is that stitch done? What thread weight will work for these stitches on this fabric? Why isn’t this working? Why doesn’t mine look like the historical example? How can I reproduce that look and effect? Will it look better if I do it this way?
The answers to all these questions are found by careful study, questioning and experimentation. It may take time. It may be frustrating. But it is learning, and learning is fantastic!
I hope that through my videos, you can see that wisdom does not need to be received. Wisdom can be gained through careful study, questioning and experimentation.
YOU CAN DO IT.
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
Having it all sorted out for you loses half the fun! Stitching without the playing around, the research, the pondering, the learning by doing, the sudden flash of inspiration and the “so that’s why they did it that way!”. I love falling down rabbit-holes of discovery.
I agree, but there are many people who just don’t have the confidence. I’m working on helping them develop it. 🙂
Seconded, and Thirded!
It came as something of a surprise to me to discover that not everyone was willing to just barrel in and have a go…
For me, I think that willingness comes from growing up with a father who “could do anything”. Just getting in there and doing it was modelled to me, and therefore that’s the frame of mind I come to most things with. I’m so grateful for that.
WAY late seeing this post! I see this fear of working it out yourself in almost all textile arts, and am guilty of it myself sometimes. IMHO the needlework police (or quilting police, or garment sewing police, or whatever police applies) have sapped so much of people’s willingness to work things out themselves for fear of being told “you did it wrong – this is the only way”. Other things I’ve seen (and done myself so not casting shade at anyone!) – laziness, lack of time to experiment, fear of ruining precious materials, fear of buying unsuitable materials, etc. Also social media – does anyone ever post anything but their best work? It’s very rare that people post projects that didn’t live up to their vision let alone totally fail. It’s so easy to start thinking no one else has projects go off the rails. For me of these reasons have disappeared since retiring – I have more time to experiment, and salvage materials if something doesn’t work out now. However the precious/wrong materials thing still exists, as I can’t work overtime for a couple of weeks to replenish funds.
There are some materials, methods and guidelines that certainly can improve your results (use the best quality linen you can get for embroidery, or pressing during quilt block or garment construction for example). But it’s rare that not following those “rules” results in a failure. Look at improvisational needlework or quilts – they bend, sometimes totally break, the rules, but the results can be spectacular. And you won’t know until you try.
Thanks for your thoughts, Gail!