Have you ever heard of puffy couching?
I was looking through one of my embroidery stitch books (The Embroiderer's Handbook by Margie Bauer) and saw it in the couching techniques section.
Essentially, a bundle of threads is puffed up between each couching stitch.
To practice: I cut three 12 inch lengths of DMC floss and then pulled apart all 6 strands to create my bundle of threads below.
Smooth out the bundle of threads as best as you can. Fold the bundle in half and secure it to the fabric with a straight stitch.
Bring your first couching thread up and over the thread bundle.
Use your needle to lift and puff the thread bundle section.
Continue to couch down the thread bundle and lifting each section to desired puffiness.
To finish, bring your thread bundle through to the back of the fabric and secure.
Here is the finished puffy couching.
DMC sent me a sample of their new stitchable cork fabric, so I decided to stitch a puffy couching project with it.
To give it a little different look, instead of bringing my thread bundle through to the back of the fabric to finish each color, I left a little tassel on the end.
You can see my puffy couching has gaps in my thread bundle sections. I think it is because I didn't take as much time to smooth out my thread bundles, compared to above when practicing with the red thread.
So, it is important to get the bundles as smooth as possible. (But I still think they turned out ok!)
I liked stitching on the cork - it has a cool texture and it is similar to stitching on a thicker fabric.
I used the natural cork fabric for this project, but they also have a gold flecked cork.
Have you ever heard of puffy couching? It's definitely an easy stitch to give dimension to your embroidery. The tassels and puffy couching could be a good technique for stitching hair ... it reminds me of pony tails! :)
Thanks again to DMC for sending the stitchable cork!!
FYI - if you are interested in purchasing the book Michelle mentioned, here is an affiliate link to Amazon:
The Embroiderer's Handbook. Clicking through this link to buy a book on Amazon is one way to support Feeling Stitchy and keep our all-volunteer work going. We use funds in our Amazon account to do new reviews and giveaways!
