A trick for handling silk I learned from spinning it. If your hands are rough, mix some sugar and olive oil into a scrub and give your hands and good old scrub. Wash them at the end to get the surface oil off and you’ll be ready to go.
An Old Fashion SCRUB for the smoothest all-over Skin! Mix fresh plain Yogurt w/Oatmeal Flakes/Cornmeal and a few drops of any Fruit Oil. Mfg Scrubs use crushed Nutshells which are sharp & scratch the skin. The Cornmeal, while a powerful exfoliant, dissolves as you wash!
I saw the title of the video and got excited, this is something I have hoped you would cover! The moment the video started, Ginger Cat's adorable company made my day. As you can see from my profile, I love ginger cats!
Hi Sarah I am learning embroidery in preparation for my knee replacement you saying don’t have your thread too long took me back 55 years to school needlework lessons Mrs newton.(AKA granny) saying “only bad sewers use long lengths of cotton -after it had taken me 45 minutes to thread it !!
What an eye opening look at the wide variety of threads available. I took advantage of the code for the linen thread from Studio Flax & love the way it looks & feels. The unwoven silk was just beautiful, the shine was stunning. Lovely as always to see Ginger cat, I hope he's feeling better after the indignity of his vet visit.
Silk thread can last much longer if you run the strands through beeswax before threading the needle. It's used in tons of extant examples of sewing and embroidery, the thread that remains intact are the threads that have been waxed prior to use. It's a very small amount that clings to the thread, but it does a lot of good to it. It strengthens it, makes it thread onto a needle more easily, and makes undoing knots much easier
Excellent video! I like how you explain each step. Great information about needle size and thread length. Will have to watch again to absorb it all. Please do a video on how to store each type of thread between uses. Especially the very fine silk. See my story below. I bought some of the super fine silk from a vendor online. While I won’t mention them here, I recommend that you ask the vendor if they have a wrapper of some sort around the spools to keep the silk in place during shipping. This gorgeous silk arrived as a rats nest. It was so slippery that jostling around in the package caused it to become unraveled off the spool. I pointed it out to the vendor, with pictures. All they did was shrug their shoulder. Regardless to say, unraveling the rats nest took several hours of patience. I lost about 20% off each spool. A very costly purchase.
If I were to use a DMC metallic I'd usually choose their Diamant thread. I find it much easier to work with than the older "light effect" metallic shown in this video. Diamant is only available in 13 colors at this point, however, so not quite as many options as the light effects threads.
Thank you Sarah another very helpful video. It was interesting to have the comparison between threads. I have never heard the tip about dampening silk thread before, that is very much appreciated.
Hi. It's nice to see you. It's amazing how many different types of embroidery thread there are out there. I think pets can be like children. When my children were young and I was on the phone, they were constantly interrupting and underfoot. It hasn't changed much since they've become adults. We have two black cats. One is a manx. The manx is a very needy cat and always jumping up on me when I'm trying to stitch. The other likes to be left alone. Both the children and the cats are fun to have around though.
Really interesting video Sarah, thank you, and to Ginger Cat too for his cameo appearance! I’ve recently added to my collection of threads and was considering how best to sample them, love the circles idea, it’s a shape that regularly shows up in my design work. Putting on both my Spinning and Embroidery hats, the effect the number of plys the strand of thread has, on the finished item is worth looking at. Two ply threads/yarns tend to be flatter and not very plump, three or more plys produce a much rounder thread/yarn and will fill an area better. When you have three (or more!) ply’s spun together they twist outwards away from each other which is why they look plumper. Knitters will use two ply yarns for lace work to keep the spaces that the stitches create, three ply yarns just expand out and you loose the delicate effect of the lace knitting as they fill the holes. I definitely look at my embroidery threads in a different way after I started to learn how to spin! Love to you and pussy cats from New Zealand 🇳🇿
Very Informative interview with these 10 threads, Sarah. The description with time links really helped when looking @ the screenshots afterwards, many thanks. The splitting of & seeing the white core of the metallic threads, for me, is the most frustrating; even when sewing with it in the sewing machine. Haven't had enough experience to think about shininess with threads; have really stayed withe DMC. With following the Fat Quarter Shop, from Texas, on UA-cam, they are using several different threads, including varigated overdyed threads. For that use, in counted cross stitch, the variation is best seen when each X is completed each time. I thrilled to see that variation in hand work, as before I had only used it in machine quilting on my domestic machine. Excellent video; and especially whenever the Ginger cat whom owns You, decides to join us!
Thank you for this video! I'm designing linen curtains and I have been dithering between perle cotton and linen. I'm still undecided, but you've given me food for thought!
This is one I will come back to for reference definitely. Your videos are so full of informative detail but understandable. Sometimes watching someone else in the embroidery world, I either can’t watch because I don’t like the voice (doesn’t capture my attention) or their hack is so off the cuff, I can’t follow it. Would much rather learn the correct way through you and then do what I may like later 🤷🏻♀️ Thank you Sarah 🙏🏽🙋🏻♀️👍🏽Mia
As someone who learned embroidery 60 years ago and didn't have the thread options we do today, this video was so very helpful! Thank you for taking the time to show us these threads. I'm off to buy some linen now.
I really should watch ALL your videos before launching into new projects & making it up as I go along not knowing what I’m doing! I found this video after struggling with some rayon thread that I picked up in a charity shop. I was drawn in by the lovely soft shiny colours of them. What I didn’t realise was how much it had a life of its own compared to the DMC stranded cotton I’ve used until now & wondered if others had a similar issue with it. The brand I found was Janlynn which I’d never heard of & wonder if it is a poorer quality. In future I’ll use it in much shorter lengths than normal to reduce the knotting! I also found some metallic from the same company but I may need to recover before attempting that. At least at £1.50 for 12 skeins I’ve not wasted much money if I give up on them 🙂
Thanks so much for the very informative video...I am anxious to try a few new to me threads you demonstrated and appreciated the tips about needle choice and the necessity of choosing the right outlining stitch depending on the thread. You are the best teacher! Your hairstyle is beautiful today!
Another wonderful video Sarah, and I trust Ginger Cat has forgiven you for the indignities you've put him through at the Vet! A great tip using a dampened paper towel when using the silk floss, thank you 👏👏💜
Aw, poor little Ging, poorly ‘ick. Hope his test results come back okay. I do love these educational videos Sarah, they are so beneficial for the likes of me. I also appreciate the fact that they mention the needle sizes as well. It really does help. Having recently purchased your e-pattern of the Apple Tree - what a lovely little design that is, very simplistic, but beautiful - I will enjoy trying out the different threads and having a play. I’ve recently been watching your Snowdrop video again Sarah, has there ever been a download of that to purchase. I was quite surprised the other day to find myself pulling the thread through with my little finger, which is something I have seen you do many times. I didn’t consciously take it in, but obviously my brain did, and suddenly I began doing it. Amazing what we take in without realising it. Thank you Sarah.
Someone else has asked fro the snowdrop so i will put it on the free stuff page Shelagh! Gingers test results were all okay, unlike my bank balance now!!!
@@SarahHomfrayEmbroidery Thank you Sarah, the Snowdrop would be lovely. Regarding Vets and bank balances, I spent an arm and a leg last week for what turns out to be basically Gripe Water, hahahaha.
You’ve got me curious now. I’ll have to try silk embroidery thread. Having spun silk hankies, it’s the stickiest fibre I’ve ever worked with! Every minute burr on your hands catches!!
Very informative video, thanks! I love Coton A Broder, in my opinion, it usually looks better than stranded cotton and is more pleasant to work with. The only disadvantage, you need to buy different weights instead of just splitting or doubling up, and as far as I can see, only 25 and 16 weights are still available in a wide colour range. I happen to love the 20 weight, so I might have to look for vintage skeins when my (mostly vintage) little stash runs out.
You are so lucky. Where I live there are only 2 competing shops. One stocks Sullivans stranded cotton, the other stocks limited DMC . Both charge exorbitant amounts. I have been sourcing threads online however from US and Uk many won't deliver or charge like a wounded bull to ship here. China and India carry economic threads at affordable amounts but so far I've only located stranded cottons.
Interesting collection of threads for the last silk thread I have used the machine embroidery thread as it acts almost in the same manner as the stranded silk thread, the use of water is a great idea I have been using wax but I’m not 100% happy with the results when used. I do like the linen thread so will have to look at buying some blank thread as I like to colour my own threads these days. Living in the Outback I am only able to shop online for my threads and as such pictures are not the same as being able to look and handle the product first. Having said that watching you see with them was just as good as I could see how they acted while being stitched. As much as I love silk I think it’s just to expensive to use and so I have tended to look at alternatives but this does mean I’m not able to dye them myself as it takes a different type of dyes to what I use which are for natural fibers only. Have enough hobbies without adding more to the mix 😹😹 Thank you for sharing your experience with the threads defiantly has helped narrow down the options for me.
Also the rayon comes in a whole bunch of different weights so that you can have a very very very fine one as well as a boucle as well as a very heavy one much heavier than even crewel
I am new to hand embroidery and was so pleased to find your channel. You are very clear and easy to follow obviously a practiced teacher. Great info on threads and I love this technique of over stitching a stitched outline. Wondered if, instead of stitching back and forth over and under the circle, could you stitch across come up next to your last stitch then go across the circle which would use less thread or would that distort the shape. Many thanks for sharing xx
This was really helpful! I've been using a pure silk in a huge needle point project. Apparently I decided to jump straight to an advanced needlepoint when my only experience was a kid's cross stitch project as a kid XD But I've really found a passion with it. The problem was that the silk was really expensive and it really didn't feel much different then the rest and it's not COMPLETELY giving me the sort of look I'd like. So it's good to see what else is out there so I could pick a more affordable fiber! I'm really considering the rayon. I think that'd look really nice and make it last, especially if it ends up being passed on which I'd like as I'm picking some pretty big projects from Needle Delights. If you're familiar I'm currently working on Around the Rainbow, we found their booth at the recent Road to California Quilt show.
Thank you for posting this. Im self taught for about 15 yrs now. Not gone any further than the very basic stitches. Just recently sat down to try & make the basic rose. Finally got it down!! 🙌🏼(thank the Lord! Lol!) & decided to take on more. (Feeling quite brave now! Lol)!☺️ Found you & that has helped greatly. My problem is, the only threads I have found & used are the DMC 6 count cotton. A cpl of metallics & one silk. Knew nothing about any of them. Just experimented a bit. Ive never seen any of the nicer & larger threads that you & other embroiderers use. Where wld I even find them besides online? I live in America & all Ive ever seen are the 6 strand DMC small skeins at the regular Hobby & Craft stores. Any suggestions would be Greatly appreciated! Thanks again for yr kind help & videos. God bless! Sincerely, Dona🌹
I don't know as I live in the UK Donna, but I have visited the US alot and the needlepoint stores seem to be the place to go! Have a look and see if there is one near you...
@@SarahHomfrayEmbroidery Thank you! and Yes, normally, my name is spelled correctly with 2 n’s however, my Mother was only 17 when she had me & thought it wld be so cool to spell both my first & middle name with one N! 🤷🏻♀️ Therefore, my name being Dona Lyn, Thanks Mom! Lol! ☺️ but you say them the same way. So grateful my name is not sounding like a donut sound! Lol! Thanks for yr advice Sarah. I will keep an eye out for any needle point stores. Ive only seen one & thats in Missouri, a few states away from me in Texas. Guess I’ll have to search Texas! God bless & thanks for all yr beautiful work & yr kindness to me. 😉👍
Thanks for covering metallic thread. I'm using it on the outline of your free peacock. That thread has fought me every inch of the way! I will take your advice to heart and conquer that thread. The peacock will be very beautiful when I get done. It will just be slow going. I love the shade of your nail polish btw. Any chance of letting us know what brand/shade it is? It's very flattering.
Check out my video on metallic threads Pat for more tips and tricks on how to conquer them! I always paint my nails in several colours so it's my own shade! Pearlescent pink underneath and a pearly bloe/white on top...:)
Can you use pearl cotton with stitches that go into each other such as a split stitch? Or does the single indivisible nature of it make that not recommended?
Have you used thread conditioner instead of bees wax? I have found my bees wax is all hard and its too hard to pull the threads trough. So I got a thread conditioner. But I'm wondering if its ok for silks?
I like beeswax because it's a natural product, not sure what in the thread conditioners. Put your beeswax somehwere warm (don't let it melt though!) to soften it up
What fabric do you use Sarah? I’m interested in making little pictures/names for my grandchildren’s bedrooms and would appreciate your input. Thank you. Xx 💕💕
This is a informative video. I've just bought some metallic threads - first time ever - and although the colour and effect is great - it's a nightmare to work with. Your video gave me some great tips for using the right needles, so thank you! Beautiful cat btw.
By the way, love the cat 😺. As always, super informative. I enjoy cross stitching and have been doing stiching for almost 30 years and still today I don't seem to find the right needle for the project I make. I prefer to stitch on 16ct fabric with DMC thread. Any comments that you can recommend?
Hi Sarah. I was curious about an embroidery floss I never see you use and that is COSMO embroidery floss. Is there any particular reason that you don't use it?. I would love to use all of the ones you have shown us today, especially the linen one. This was a great ides
Cosmo isn't as widely available as DMC or Anchor. In the US at least it's mostly marketed to quilters and is more often carried by quilting shops rather than in embroidery shops. It's also more expensive than DMC or Anchor. It's a great quality thread, though!
I honestly hate metallic thread; it’s a nightmare. Whenever I need a bit, I just use a sewing machine thread and put up with working the stitches that many more times for the benefit of a much smoother thread.
A trick for handling silk I learned from spinning it. If your hands are rough, mix some sugar and olive oil into a scrub and give your hands and good old scrub. Wash them at the end to get the surface oil off and you’ll be ready to go.
You can use fine salt as well if your hands don't have splits. If they do, please don't literally rub salt into those wounds!
Ouch!!
An Old Fashion SCRUB for the smoothest all-over Skin! Mix fresh plain Yogurt w/Oatmeal Flakes/Cornmeal and a few drops of any Fruit Oil. Mfg Scrubs use crushed Nutshells which are sharp & scratch the skin. The Cornmeal, while a powerful exfoliant, dissolves as you wash!
I might end up licking my hands all over ! 😁🤣
I saw the title of the video and got excited, this is something I have hoped you would cover! The moment the video started, Ginger Cat's adorable company made my day. As you can see from my profile, I love ginger cats!
What's not to love about a Ginger Cat!
Hi Sarah I am learning embroidery in preparation for my knee replacement you saying don’t have your thread too long took me back 55 years to school needlework lessons Mrs newton.(AKA granny) saying “only bad sewers use long lengths of cotton -after it had taken me 45 minutes to thread it !!
Ha! Mrs Newton was right...😁. I have a good video on threading your needle by the way ...
Your furry baby is too cute! I do so love your video’s. I have learned so much. I am so glad I found them.
I remember my grandmother referring to rayon as "art silk" - and I can see why looking at the stitching here. It really is lovely and shiny.
What an eye opening look at the wide variety of threads available. I took advantage of the code for the linen thread from Studio Flax & love the way it looks & feels. The unwoven silk was just beautiful, the shine was stunning. Lovely as always to see Ginger cat, I hope he's feeling better after the indignity of his vet visit.
He wasn't happy but I think he's forgotten now!
Silk thread can last much longer if you run the strands through beeswax before threading the needle. It's used in tons of extant examples of sewing and embroidery, the thread that remains intact are the threads that have been waxed prior to use. It's a very small amount that clings to the thread, but it does a lot of good to it. It strengthens it, makes it thread onto a needle more easily, and makes undoing knots much easier
Thank you for the pure silk stitching tips.
Excellent video! I like how you explain each step. Great information about needle size and thread length. Will have to watch again to absorb it all. Please do a video on how to store each type of thread between uses. Especially the very fine silk. See my story below.
I bought some of the super fine silk from a vendor online. While I won’t mention them here, I recommend that you ask the vendor if they have a wrapper of some sort around the spools to keep the silk in place during shipping. This gorgeous silk arrived as a rats nest. It was so slippery that jostling around in the package caused it to become unraveled off the spool. I pointed it out to the vendor, with pictures. All they did was shrug their shoulder.
Regardless to say, unraveling the rats nest took several hours of patience. I lost about 20% off each spool. A very costly purchase.
Online sellers have laws they must abide by Leisongi; it's not fit for purpose, send it back and ask for a refund or another one. x
If I were to use a DMC metallic I'd usually choose their Diamant thread. I find it much easier to work with than the older "light effect" metallic shown in this video. Diamant is only available in 13 colors at this point, however, so not quite as many options as the light effects threads.
Thank you Sarah another very helpful video. It was interesting to have the comparison between threads. I have never heard the tip about dampening silk thread before, that is very much appreciated.
I like the Appleton Crewel Wool thread. The dry look is elegant.
Hi. It's nice to see you. It's amazing how many different types of embroidery thread there are out there. I think pets can be like children. When my children were young and I was on the phone, they were constantly interrupting and underfoot. It hasn't changed much since they've become adults. We have two black cats. One is a manx. The manx is a very needy cat and always jumping up on me when I'm trying to stitch. The other likes to be left alone. Both the children and the cats are fun to have around though.
Really interesting video Sarah, thank you, and to Ginger Cat too for his cameo appearance! I’ve recently added to my collection of threads and was considering how best to sample them, love the circles idea, it’s a shape that regularly shows up in my design work.
Putting on both my Spinning and Embroidery hats, the effect the number of plys the strand of thread has, on the finished item is worth looking at. Two ply threads/yarns tend to be flatter and not very plump, three or more plys produce a much rounder thread/yarn and will fill an area better. When you have three (or more!) ply’s spun together they twist outwards away from each other which is why they look plumper. Knitters will use two ply yarns for lace work to keep the spaces that the stitches create, three ply yarns just expand out and you loose the delicate effect of the lace knitting as they fill the holes.
I definitely look at my embroidery threads in a different way after I started to learn how to spin!
Love to you and pussy cats from New Zealand 🇳🇿
That's a good point Beverley, thank you for bringing it to our attention!
Very Informative interview with these 10 threads, Sarah. The description with time links really helped when looking @ the screenshots afterwards, many thanks.
The splitting of & seeing the white core of the metallic threads, for me, is the most frustrating; even when sewing with it in the sewing machine.
Haven't had enough experience to think about shininess with threads; have really stayed withe DMC.
With following the Fat Quarter Shop, from Texas, on UA-cam, they are using several different threads, including varigated overdyed threads. For that use, in counted cross stitch, the variation is best seen when each X is completed each time. I thrilled to see that variation in hand work, as before I had only used it in machine quilting on my domestic machine.
Excellent video; and especially whenever the Ginger cat whom owns You, decides to join us!
Such helpful information. The Cotton ABroder dyed beautifully.
Very helpful for this beginner. Thank you Sarah !!!
Thank you for this video! I'm designing linen curtains and I have been dithering between perle cotton and linen. I'm still undecided, but you've given me food for thought!
Linen on linen is always good!
This is one I will come back to for reference definitely. Your videos are so full of informative detail but understandable. Sometimes watching someone else in the embroidery world, I either can’t watch because I don’t like the voice (doesn’t capture my attention) or their hack is so off the cuff, I can’t follow it. Would much rather learn the correct way through you and then do what I may like later 🤷🏻♀️ Thank you Sarah 🙏🏽🙋🏻♀️👍🏽Mia
Personally, I will never complain about a bonus kitty!!! 💜
As someone who learned embroidery 60 years ago and didn't have the thread options we do today, this video was so very helpful! Thank you for taking the time to show us these threads. I'm off to buy some linen now.
that was great! learned a lot..I'm saving this video in my needlework list for sure!!
I LIKE YOUR WORK and your 🐈
The Asian pandas I found was after I believe the book you were showing early embroidery. So thank you so much
I really should watch ALL your videos before launching into new projects & making it up as I go along not knowing what I’m doing!
I found this video after struggling with some rayon thread that I picked up in a charity shop. I was drawn in by the lovely soft shiny colours of them. What I didn’t realise was how much it had a life of its own compared to the DMC stranded cotton I’ve used until now & wondered if others had a similar issue with it. The brand I found was Janlynn which I’d never heard of & wonder if it is a poorer quality. In future I’ll use it in much shorter lengths than normal to reduce the knotting! I also found some metallic from the same company but I may need to recover before attempting that. At least at £1.50 for 12 skeins I’ve not wasted much money if I give up on them 🙂
Rayon is quite a springy thread, so yes shorter lengths! Check out my sampling video if you haven't seen this Susie...
This is awesome. Just delving into Sashiko and wondered about all the thread out there. Thank you so much for sharing.
Yes, Sashiko has a thread all of it's own Janine!
Thanks so much for the very informative video...I am anxious to try a few new to me threads you demonstrated and appreciated the tips about needle choice and the necessity of choosing the right outlining stitch depending on the thread. You are the best teacher! Your hairstyle is beautiful today!
Thank you Jean!
Another wonderful video Sarah, and I trust Ginger Cat has forgiven you for the indignities you've put him through at the Vet! A great tip using a dampened paper towel when using the silk floss, thank you 👏👏💜
Aw, poor little Ging, poorly ‘ick. Hope his test results come back okay.
I do love these educational videos Sarah, they are so beneficial for the likes of me. I also appreciate the fact that they mention the needle sizes as well. It really does help.
Having recently purchased your e-pattern of the Apple Tree - what a lovely little design that is, very simplistic, but beautiful - I will enjoy trying out the different threads and having a play.
I’ve recently been watching your Snowdrop video again Sarah, has there ever been a download of that to purchase. I was quite surprised the other day to find myself pulling the thread through with my little finger, which is something I have seen you do many times. I didn’t consciously take it in, but obviously my brain did, and suddenly I began doing it. Amazing what we take in without realising it. Thank you Sarah.
Someone else has asked fro the snowdrop so i will put it on the free stuff page Shelagh! Gingers test results were all okay, unlike my bank balance now!!!
@@SarahHomfrayEmbroidery Thank you Sarah, the Snowdrop would be lovely. Regarding Vets and bank balances, I spent an arm and a leg last week for what turns out to be basically Gripe Water, hahahaha.
You’ve got me curious now. I’ll have to try silk embroidery thread. Having spun silk hankies, it’s the stickiest fibre I’ve ever worked with! Every minute burr on your hands catches!!
A very interesting video. I appreciate the tips. Thank you Sarah!
Very informative video, thanks! I love Coton A Broder, in my opinion, it usually looks better than stranded cotton and is more pleasant to work with. The only disadvantage, you need to buy different weights instead of just splitting or doubling up, and as far as I can see, only 25 and 16 weights are still available in a wide colour range. I happen to love the 20 weight, so I might have to look for vintage skeins when my (mostly vintage) little stash runs out.
Thank you Professor Homfray
You are so lucky. Where I live there are only 2 competing shops. One stocks Sullivans stranded cotton, the other stocks limited DMC . Both charge exorbitant amounts. I have been sourcing threads online however from US and Uk many won't deliver or charge like a wounded bull to ship here. China and India carry economic threads at affordable amounts but so far I've only located stranded cottons.
I buy most of my threads online Elaine, embroidery shops are few and far between especially in the UK
Thank you for doing these videos, they are so incredibly helpful.
Lovely and helpful video as usual and love what you did to your hair. Looks awesome and so healthy! Hugs from Provence
Interesting collection of threads for the last silk thread I have used the machine embroidery thread as it acts almost in the same manner as the stranded silk thread, the use of water is a great idea I have been using wax but I’m not 100% happy with the results when used. I do like the linen thread so will have to look at buying some blank thread as I like to colour my own threads these days. Living in the Outback I am only able to shop online for my threads and as such pictures are not the same as being able to look and handle the product first. Having said that watching you see with them was just as good as I could see how they acted while being stitched.
As much as I love silk I think it’s just to expensive to use and so I have tended to look at alternatives but this does mean I’m not able to dye them myself as it takes a different type of dyes to what I use which are for natural fibers only. Have enough hobbies without adding more to the mix 😹😹
Thank you for sharing your experience with the threads defiantly has helped narrow down the options for me.
I use the rayon thread when I’m doing the Brazilian embroidery style but the threads can be steamed before you use them and then they stay straight
Also the rayon comes in a whole bunch of different weights so that you can have a very very very fine one as well as a boucle as well as a very heavy one much heavier than even crewel
I am new to hand embroidery and was so pleased to find your channel. You are very clear and easy to follow obviously a practiced teacher. Great info on threads and I love this technique of over stitching a stitched outline. Wondered if, instead of stitching back and forth over and under the circle, could you stitch across come up next to your last stitch then go across the circle which would use less thread or would that distort the shape. Many thanks for sharing xx
You can, check out 'Laid work'!
This was really helpful! I've been using a pure silk in a huge needle point project. Apparently I decided to jump straight to an advanced needlepoint when my only experience was a kid's cross stitch project as a kid XD But I've really found a passion with it. The problem was that the silk was really expensive and it really didn't feel much different then the rest and it's not COMPLETELY giving me the sort of look I'd like. So it's good to see what else is out there so I could pick a more affordable fiber! I'm really considering the rayon. I think that'd look really nice and make it last, especially if it ends up being passed on which I'd like as I'm picking some pretty big projects from Needle Delights. If you're familiar I'm currently working on Around the Rainbow, we found their booth at the recent Road to California Quilt show.
Thank you for posting this. Im self taught for about 15 yrs now. Not gone any further than the very basic stitches. Just recently sat down to try & make the basic rose. Finally got it down!! 🙌🏼(thank the Lord! Lol!) & decided to take on more. (Feeling quite brave now! Lol)!☺️
Found you & that has helped greatly. My problem is, the only threads I have found & used are the DMC 6 count cotton. A cpl of metallics & one silk. Knew nothing about any of them. Just experimented a bit. Ive never seen any of the nicer & larger threads that you & other embroiderers use. Where wld I even find them besides online? I live in America & all Ive ever seen are the 6 strand DMC small skeins at the regular Hobby & Craft stores. Any suggestions would be Greatly appreciated! Thanks again for yr kind help & videos.
God bless!
Sincerely,
Dona🌹
I don't know as I live in the UK Donna, but I have visited the US alot and the needlepoint stores seem to be the place to go! Have a look and see if there is one near you...
@@SarahHomfrayEmbroidery Thank you! and Yes, normally, my name is spelled correctly with 2 n’s however, my Mother was only 17 when she had me & thought it wld be so cool to spell both my first & middle name with one N! 🤷🏻♀️ Therefore, my name being Dona Lyn, Thanks Mom! Lol! ☺️ but you say them the same way. So grateful my name is not sounding like a donut sound! Lol! Thanks for yr advice Sarah. I will keep an eye out for any needle point stores. Ive only seen one & thats in Missouri, a few states away from me in Texas. Guess I’ll have to search Texas! God bless & thanks for all yr beautiful work & yr kindness to me. 😉👍
Thank you Sarah it was a really helpful video. Thanks for sharing 🌴💕😍
Thanks for covering metallic thread. I'm using it on the outline of your free peacock. That thread has fought me every inch of the way! I will take your advice to heart and conquer that thread. The peacock will be very beautiful when I get done. It will just be slow going. I love the shade of your nail polish btw. Any chance of letting us know what brand/shade it is? It's very flattering.
Check out my video on metallic threads Pat for more tips and tricks on how to conquer them!
I always paint my nails in several colours so it's my own shade! Pearlescent pink underneath and a pearly bloe/white on top...:)
I wish I had discovered your channel long before but as the adage says: *better late than never.* 1.03.2022, 23:41
thank you!! This was very informative.
Another great video- a fantastic review. Thank you.
wonderful video very informitive thank you
Great video, thanks very much Sarah. Hopefully going to start this weekend. Would you recommend doing a sampler as a beginning exercise?
Video coming on this very subject next week Janie but yes, sample!
@@SarahHomfrayEmbroidery thank you Sarah
I love your kitty!
What type of fabric are you stitching on?
Can you use pearl cotton with stitches that go into each other such as a split stitch? Or does the single indivisible nature of it make that not recommended?
Have you used thread conditioner instead of bees wax? I have found my bees wax is all hard and its too hard to pull the threads trough. So I got a thread conditioner. But I'm wondering if its ok for silks?
I like beeswax because it's a natural product, not sure what in the thread conditioners. Put your beeswax somehwere warm (don't let it melt though!) to soften it up
What fabric do you use Sarah? I’m interested in making little pictures/names for my grandchildren’s bedrooms and would appreciate your input. Thank you. Xx 💕💕
Check out my video on different fabrics for embroidery Jacqui!
@@SarahHomfrayEmbroidery Thank you very much Sarah. Xx 💕💕
that was great and so informative thank you x
This is a informative video. I've just bought some metallic threads - first time ever - and although the colour and effect is great - it's a nightmare to work with. Your video gave me some great tips for using the right needles, so thank you!
Beautiful cat btw.
Love your channel
A. Wry informative video. Thanks! 😃
By the way, love the cat 😺. As always, super informative. I enjoy cross stitching and have been doing stiching for almost 30 years and still today I don't seem to find the right needle for the project I make. I prefer to stitch on 16ct fabric with DMC thread. Any comments that you can recommend?
Check out my video on 'how to choose the right needle' Laura, it isn't an exact science, so hopefully this will help!
Do you sell all the threads that you have used in this video?
We have the Madeira Lanas and some variegated stranded cottons Adrienne. Check out the shop here:
www.sarahhomfray.com/myshop/
Could you please teach how to sew a circle. I’m failing miserably. Also letter and numbers
We have videos on those things Tracy, check out our video library!
Hi Sarah. I was curious about an embroidery floss I never see you use and that is COSMO embroidery floss. Is there any particular reason that you don't use it?. I would love to use all of the ones you have shown us today, especially the linen one. This was a great ides
Cosmo isn't as widely available as DMC or Anchor. In the US at least it's mostly marketed to quilters and is more often carried by quilting shops rather than in embroidery shops. It's also more expensive than DMC or Anchor. It's a great quality thread, though!
I've never heard of it Joyce...
Wonderful
I honestly hate metallic thread; it’s a nightmare. Whenever I need a bit, I just use a sewing machine thread and put up with working the stitches that many more times for the benefit of a much smoother thread.
Check out my video on 'How to use metallic threads' for some useful pointers!