Tex's Guide To Stitching

Couching

By Esther Dix tex

Hello there!
Here is a big chance for you! Learn to couch in 5 easy steps - no, that's not sitting around on a comfy sofa, it's a cool embroidery stitch.
Couching is a way of attaching a piece of something, like wool, to your work. It can be used to write, make a picture or pattern, or whatever you like.
You can couch with anything: wool, ribbon, thread, even wire - experiment!




Step one:

couching step 1
Choose your materials - I have used green fabric and red wool for a christmassy effect.
Lay the wool onto the fabric.

Step two:


Decide on a thread to couch with and thread it onto a needle. I have used gold thread.
Tie a knot and bring the needle and thread up through the material by the wool
couching step 2

Step three:

couching step 3 Take a stitch over the wool and back down through the fabric, holding down the wool.
tex

Step four:

Carry on taking stitches in this way, holding down thewool as you go. (Remember not to actually put the needle through what you're couching - stitch over it.) couching step 4

Step five:

couching step 5 If you want to, you can change the shape of the wool as you go. (You could also try shaping it before you start, and possibly pinning it down depending on what material you're using.) I've bent it at an angle. I've also changed the colour of the thread I'm couching with to silver.

Here is some of the work I've done using couching.Tex

spiral snake zig-zag YTG

© Esther Dix 1997 - 2012

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