I'm Nancy Zeeman and it's time for Sewing with Nancy.
Today I'm taking an old sewing art and giving it a new twist.
I'm talking about silk ribbon embroidery.
Elaborate stitches with narrow silk ribbon, as featured on this jacket collar, were initially
reserved for French royalty, dating back to the mid-1700s.
More than two centuries later, this art is seeing a revival.
Now it's not limited to handwork.
I'll share with you ideas on how easily this Victorian-style embellishment can be created
by hand as well as machine.
That's what's coming up next on Sewing with Nancy.
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Let's start with a silk ribbon identification.
They come in a variety of widths as well as colors.
First of all, for the width, the smallest are two millimeter wide, four, seven, this
is 13, and we even in this area use silk fabric and cut it on a bias.
You could embroidery with ribbons up to an inch and a half or an inch and a fourth wide.
Two millimeters is about a sixteenth of an inch, ranging to about a one and a fourth
inches, but you'll find them sold in the millimeter widths.
Now when working with this, rather than perhaps yarn or embroidery floss, as you perhaps have
done in the past, you're going to be using the ribbon for the embroidery by hand or as
I mentioned by machine.
And the needle when working with this is extremely important.
There are cruel needles that have large eyes or specialty silk ribbon embroidery needles
as I have here.
And it's important that the width of the eye meets the width of the ribbon.
You do not want to crumple the ribbon in the eye of the needle.
There are two areas to lock the ribbon.
The first is at the top end, which we normally do not do.
We just leave an extra tail.
To prevent that from fraying and raveling, simply place the tip of the needle at the
end of the ribbon and move it down the needle.
And as it gets to the eye, slip it over, the knot being over the eye of the needle.
And now it will be very secure in that you'll have much more thread to use or ribbon to
use in your embroidery.
For the opposite end, to tie a soft knot, what I like to do is fold it at the end, about
a fourth of an inch fold, insert the needle through the fold, and gently bring this knot
down through the ribbon.
And keep a nice soft knot at the end.
Don't pull it too taut.
And that will stay under your fabric very easily.
Now you're ready to do the handwork with your ribbon and needle for fabric.
For handwork, really, there's a few limitations.
You need a woven fabric.
It has to be an even weave, I feel works the best, or a medium weave.
Heavier weaves require a little piercing of the fabric so that you can get the yarn through.
You could use a stiletto sort that you may have for quilting, just to make an opening
in the fabric.
There's even specialty fabric design just for silk ribbon embroidery.
On your sewing machine, there isn't any limitation.
Anything that you'd like to put this on, you certainly may.
That's one of the nice parts about working by machine.
For the hoop's handwork, I'm going to recommend using a wooden hoop, placing the smaller hoop
down first, the right side of the fabric on top, and then the hoop with the larger size
and also the adjustable screw, you make it a little bit larger, there we go, fitting
on top so you have a nice taut drum.
And notice that we have the fabric on top of the hoop.
When working at the machine, we're going to reverse it.
And also, I'd like to recommend, if you have this available, to use a spring-loaded hoop.
I'll show you why this is so kind of important.
When working at the machine, you can work with large areas, and rather than having to
stop sewing and reposition the hoop, you can simply leave this in the machine.
I have the larger hoop on the lower edge, or on the bottom, placing the fabric on top,
and then the hoop inside.
And now notice that the fabric is below the hoop, it's not on top.
As I would be sewing, I could simply just stop with a needle in the fabric, reposition
the hoop, and slide the inner ring to meet the outer ring, and you don't have to take
the fabric and hoop out of your sewing machine.
You'll see how this is so very convenient.
So we have the basic setups, the ribbon in a variety of widths.
We'll be mainly working with the four-millimeter widths, a hand-sewing needle designed for
a cruel or silk-ribbon embroidery, some hoops, and a little sewing know-how, and I'll show
you how to set up the machine for this work right now.
For those of you who have worked with machine embroidery in the past, the setup at your
sewing machine is much the same.
I'm going to start off with the thread.
I'm going to recommend that you use clear thread, the monofilament nylon thread that
we've used in many different programs, making certain that as the spool or the thread is
coming off the spool, it's unwinding from the top, as you can kind of see the glisten
of that clear thread.
This will require that I put on my horizontal thread guide the spool in with the small end
first, a little opposite of what we normally would work with.
Then you can thread your machine with the clear thread.
The next step is to change the tension.
Normal tension setting is at five.
I'm going to put it down to three, or if you have notches, just go down two numbers.
That will give a less tension on this lightweight thread.
In the foot area, remove the presser foot.
I'm not going to work with that at all.
The needle is a specialty needle designed to be worked with this type of thread.
It needs to have a large eye.
A metafil needle or a machine embroidery needle are the two choices, or just a needle with
an extra large eye might work too.
In the bobbin area, depending where your lever is for this, lower the feed dog so you're
not going to have the workings of the feed dog.
You're going to be moving the fabric through the machine by hand.
Then in the bobbin, I have a lightweight thread.
You want it to kind of match or blend with the fabric, making sure it isn't too heavy.
Then you're ready to do the sewing, getting set up to work with machine embroidery, this
time using silk ribbon.
This first silk ribbon embroidery technique features a simple chain stitch.
My tunic showcases the basic stitch that can be created by hand or by machine.
You'll be amazed how easily either technique adds interest to fabric.
We're going to start off by showing you the traditional way of working with silk ribbon
embroidery by hand.
I have the fabric in the hoop.
Everything's set up just the way I demonstrated earlier.
I've taken the first stitch, brought the needle through the fabric at the start of my design.
The design, I have simply just drawn the line that I'd like the chain stitching to take
place.
You loop the ribbon over the design, insert the needle next to the starting point, and
bring it up about a fourth to a half of an inch.
It kind of depends upon the weight of your ribbon.
Now, as my ribbon is coming through here, it's a little tangled, so you kind of fluff
it a little bit, straighten it out, and pull it somewhat taut, but you want it to have
a nice look.
You don't want it too flat next to the fabric.
You simply repeat this chain stitch by looping, insert the fabric next to the base of that
first chain stitch, make about the same width of the stitch.
Let me unloop it from my screw of the hoop, and then pull, again, a little tight.
If you need to fluff it, you can certainly do this, and just loop and continue doing
the looping, stitching, and pulling technique, and always checking that you may want to fluff
out your yarns, or your ribbon, as I need to do right there.
If your ribbon gets tangled, simply invert it and let it free fall, let it hang, so that
all the loops kind of fall out, and then you don't have to worry about doing so much fluffing
in the future.
So, twist, or loop it around, insert the needle, bring it through the loop, and give it a nice
little pull.
You can see that creates a lovely design, quite nice looking.
Now, at the sewing machine, you can create this same chain stitch.
I have the fabric in the hoop, the spring tension type of hoop, place the fabric underneath
the presser foot area, and I'm saying area because the foot is gone.
I've changed the top thread to a light pastel, so you can see the stitching.
At home, of course, you'd use a monofilament nylon thread.
The nice part about using your sewing machine is that you can use a long section of ribbon.
You don't have to cut it in the small sections, because it's not going to fray or rabble,
it's not going through the fabric.
Have the ribbon twice the length that you need.
I have the design positioned right on my fabric.
The first thing I'm going to do is to draw up the bobbin thread.
Just take one stitch, turning the flywheel, pull up that bobbin thread, a little light
to see, but I'm going to pull it up, and then put the presser bar in that lower position,
the sewing position.
At the center of the ribbon, take one tack stitch, and I'm going to be talking about
tack stitches quite a bit today.
I guess I'm doing more than one, about two or three tack stitches to secure the thread
tails.
I'll cut off those extra tails.
Secure the ribbon into place.
The needle is stopping in front of the ribbon, and then cross the ribbons in front of the
needle.
Hold them lightly on the side, and take one stitch, cross, and stitch.
You can use a multitude of sizes of ribbons right now.
When testing this out, you may find that you want to take stitches a little closer together,
depending upon the look that you'd like.
On the tunic that I'm wearing, the stitches are a little closer together than what I'm
doing right now.
By having larger ribbons, you'll have a little bit more graceful design, and just stitch
by stitch.
Really, it goes quite quickly.
I said one of the advantages of working at your sewing machine is that you could put
this on any garment or any fabric.
When I say garment, I mean perhaps something ready-made that you'd like to add updating
to.
You can do that easily by just doing this crossing, stitching, and moving the hoop.
These are the basic chain stitches, either by hand or by machine.
I hope you give these a try on your first silk ribbon embroidery project.
The fern stitch is one of the background stitches on our ring bearer's pillow.
The characteristic of this design is that the three leaves of the fern are the same
length.
As you might guess, we're going to show you how to do this on my hand or by machine.
First of all, the traditional handwork, I'm kind of making a sampler of some of our stitches,
and I have the fern stitch design drawn out on my fabric, just using a marking pen.
Just at the top, you can faintly see where I have the three lines that are equidistant.
I found later that you can kind of eyeball it.
You just need an imaginary line to follow for the placement down the line.
My first stitch came through the fabric at the left of the leaf, and I'm going to wrap
the fabric around my thumb and then insert the needle at the base of the fern and up
through the point of the center leaf.
As the ribbon is wrapped around my thumb, you can see it kind of pulls so that the ribbon
does not have a wrinkle in it.
Pull it.
You may need to fluff it a little bit, if necessary, and then wrap it again around your thumb to
straighten it out.
Put the needle not in the same center point, but close to it, and bring it up at the right
side of the leaf.
Very simple, as you can see.
Fluff it again, straighten this out, and as I'm finishing my first fern side, I'll just
then angle my needle so it comes out at the next fern section, and there's one completed.
We just kind of keep on doing this three-step process of creating this, and I'll just bring
it up again over my finger, smooth it out.
As you can see, if I don't smooth it, it gets a little narrower, give it a little fluffing
technique, and I would continue working in this manner.
Quite fast to put together.
At the sewing machine, you can do the same thing.
We have the machine set up for the same techniques as earlier.
I showed you a tacking stitch at first, and we'll start off with that tacking stitch,
but first I'm going to draw up the bobbin thread.
That's always the first step, kind of like knotting the thread by hand.
You have to tie the threads of the machine in the same manner.
I'm going to tack stitch after I've placed the needle or the presser bar on the sewing
position.
Make sure it's in that sewing position.
I'm going to tack so that the end of it is, the end of the ribbon is over the left side
or the left leaf of the fern, and then I'm going to walk the needle to the side of my
stitch and then fold the ribbon back on itself.
In other words, I'm just hiding that little tacking stitch.
I'm going to walk or stitch right next to the ribbon without sewing through the ribbon
and then sew at the base.
Tack it at the base.
You can tack it as many times as you'd like, and then fold it to the next side.
If you'd like to do the center or the right side, it really doesn't matter.
The choice is yours.
With that clear thread in there, it will certainly not be seen, and you can certainly just kind
of stitch wherever you'd like.
I'm going to tack it at the center.
Now I'm going to fold it and sew it at the top.
It's kind of hard to get your fingers out of the way so that you can see it, but now
we'll do the center at work.
Fold it back down.
One stitch has been formed.
Tack it again.
Now I'm going to walk it along the side, tack it down the center, fold it at the side.
You walk, tack, fold.
That's kind of the sequence of doing this fern stitch.
Let me show this to you on a finished sample so that you can see that it's kind of an interesting
look.
This has the clear thread.
The one to your left has a contrasting thread, and you can see on the bobbin how you're walking
and tacking at the various spots.
That's the interesting fern stitch.
French knots are small details that add interest as well as dimension.
This jacket collar features both hand and machine French knots, as well as a singled
or clustered grouping of the knots.
First of all, the hand stitching with the French knots.
I have the ribbon coming through the fabric where I would like the knot to take place.
I'm going to smooth the ribbon out as before, wrapping the ribbon, which is close to the
fabric, around the tip of the needle, and then pull it slightly tight so that the needle
is very close to the fabric, but yet has enough room so that you can insert the tip of the
needle next to the beginning stitch and pull it through.
Don't pull it just tight.
Let the ribbon relax, and when it gets to the base, you'll find that interesting knot
has formed.
Leave it so that it has a slight amount of dimension to it.
Again, just when working with this, I'm going to insert the needle at the point of which
I'd like the French knot, then wrap the ribbon, that is, around the end of the needle a couple
of times, place it next to the beginning stitch, and pull.
It's really kind of fun to watch how that cute knot forms.
The larger the ribbon, the more interesting the detail will be.
You might want to try some different sizes.
The sewing machine, you can do the single as well as the double French knots.
I kind of like to do double ribbon knots right at my sewing machine.
I'll just show you, first of all, the single one, and always the first step, like knotting
the thread of your hand-sewing ribbon, you're going to pull up the bobbin thread, put the
presser bar in the sewing position, and then lock the stitches.
We have to kind of get your fingers in there to position it, but tack it down, tack down
the ribbon, and then we'll cut off the excess threads.
If you can, stop your needle always in the down position, it'll work so much better.
As I wrapped the ribbon around the needle before, we'll just do it again, this time
with a machine needle, and I found that if I use a little screwdriver or a stiletto at
this point, it works so much better, just to hold everything down next to the needle
and take two tack stitches, and let me just get this positioned correctly, out of the
French knot and then back into the French knot.
If you'd like, you'll be using, of course, the clear thread, then you can clip this off
and you can do some more tacking of that end stitch.
Now I'm going to walk this over to the next position.
If I'd like to have more dimension, and you'll see that you saw that on the jacket, we had
some grape clusters, they were simply done by using two colors of the ribbon, I'll tack
the two colors down, stopping with the needle in the fabric, and then wrap both colors around
once, twice, and possibly three times, depending how full you'd like that French knot to appear.
Now the trick is not to pull this too taut, you'll never get the needle out of the ribbon,
it will kind of hold it tight, but let it relax slightly so that you can hold it down
with a stiletto, or with your finger, and then once, stitching back, and it's kind of
interesting, I like that look, and now just stitch, hold this in, do one more stitch a
little bit closer, then do another wrapping, and that's how we got the clusters of grapes
to form.
This is something that I found with these double threads that I kind of practice a little
bit, but it gives an interesting detail, and quite fast once you've worked with it.
Let me just show that to you again on our finished jacket.
Here we've used a mauve and a burgundy color to create the interesting French knots, and
another thought will be just by machine, just to do one knot, let the ribbon drape, sew
another knot, let it drape, and sew another knot, all done by machine.
In this first program of silk ribbon elegance, I gave you some details of the basics, some
of the background stitches, by hand as well as by machine, working with the chain stitch,
the fern stitch, and then of course you see the little French knots, a hint that I have
is that when working with the end of the ribbon on the underside is to weave it through, rather
than having to knot it, it will be much more graceful, less cumbersome on the front.
Next time we'll have more ideas on working with silk ribbon on Sewing with Nancy.
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I'm so glad that you could join me.
I'm Nancy Zieman.
This is Sewing with Nancy, the second program of my three-part series on silk ribbon elegance,
where I'm showing you how to use beautiful silk ribbons, narrow width to wide width,
to create by hand and machine beautiful works of art.
Today I'm going to start with the lazy daisy stitch.
You could create a daisy or an interesting fuchsia flower, as you can see on this blouse.
Combining some of the basic techniques we learned in our first program, you can have
works of art.
That's what's coming up next on Sewing with Nancy.
In this program, I'm also going to show you the machine technique as well as the hand
technique of the various silk ribbon embroidery ideas, starting today with the lazy daisy
stitch.
I'm working on my sampler, where I kind of have a sampling of the stitches I've shown
you so far, and I've brought the ribbon through the fabric at the center of where I'd like
to have my flower daisy.
Then loop or create a loop of fabric or loop of ribbon, I should say, insert the needle
next to the center point, not right at the same point, but next to it, and bring the
needle point up of half of an inch or so, maybe a fourth of an inch if you're making
a smaller flower, and pull.
Now remember to fluff or separate the ribbon.
If it gets pulled too tautly, it's going to not look very attractive, and then right
at the crest or top of the petal, then bring the needle down, and you'll form a lock stitch
at the top of that petal.
As you can see, it would make an interesting leaf as well as a flower petal, and again,
that is to loop it around.
You want to flatten it and fluff it out a little bit.
One stitch, half of an inch or so, and as it comes through, give it a nice little fluff
and bring it down at the crest to form a little knot at the top.
On the side, I have a finished daisy, as you can see, using that same technique.
Once you learn this technique of stitching, you can apply it to many different designs.
The blouse I showed you earlier, that same idea was used creating the fuchsia flowers,
three to five fuchsia stems are created with a lazy daisy stitch as well as some top areas.
This is a very versatile stitch.
Now to stitch it at your sewing machine.
We're having the machine sit up as machine embroidery without a presser foot.
The feed dogs are lowered.
I would recommend using clear thread in the top, I'm using a pastel so that you can see
it while I'm stitching, but if you use a pastel thread, you're not going to be able to see
this stitching.
The first thing to do is to bring up the bobbin thread by turning the flywheel, grabbing
that bobbin thread, and then placing the presser bar in the sewing position so that you will
not have a thread nest on the bottom.
If you have it in the upper position like this, you'll have a mat of threads on the
underside.
Now I'm going to place the ribbon where I'd like the center to be and tack it down.
Start up, if you can, with a needle in the down position and then clip off the excess
thread tails.
Now we're ready to do some creating of the lazy daisy stitch.
After tacking it down, walk stitch.
Walk the thread to the position where you'd like the top of the petal to be and then simply
wrap the ribbon around the needle, not pulling it taut but letting it gracefully be in position.
Tack one stitch backwards and then one stitch forwards and bring the rest of the ribbon
into the front and simply walk down the center and tack it.
We can do another one.
We'll just simply walk down the thread to the position you'd like the petal to be.
Loop, as you can see, loop the ribbon around and we'll take a tack stitch.
Now don't bring it around to the front so that as you sew you're going to catch it.
Tack it backwards and then forward, walk to the center and we'll bring this forward and
then do another little tacking.
You're really controlling the ribbon with the tension of your fingers, how it's going
to lay.
The nice thing about doing things by machine is that you don't have to worry about cutting
short lengths of thread.
The way you have to worry about it by hand because the ribbon will fray if it's not taken
care of.
There we'll just do some more locking.
With a little bit more stitching I'd have this daisy completed as you can see the lazy
daisy stitch is easy to do.
For a more free form flower idea try a loop petal technique.
Here it's featured in a shade of pink out of four millimeter wide silk ribbon.
Now I'd like to show you how to create this same look with much wider ribbon.
Earlier in this series I gave you the dimensions or widths of various silk ribbon from two
millimeters wide up to 13 and I've even seen 32 millimeters wide.
That's a fourth of an inch or an eighth of an inch rather up to an inch and a fourth
inches wide.
That's quite wide ribbon.
You can use all these techniques in the various ribbon widths but you'll get a much different
look and this I'd like to share with you now working with seven millimeter wide ribbon.
For the loop petal you're going to bring the ribbon up at the center of the flower and
since this is extra wide you really do need to take care to fluff out the ribbon otherwise
it gets very narrow as it comes out of the opening.
So do fluff it out with it.
I like to use the point of my needle and then for a petal just loop it over your finger
or thumb.
Let me get my thumb in the right spot so that it's flat placing the point of the needle
down just a little bit above the base of the petal and bring the ribbon through.
One more time.
There we go.
With holding it with your thumb you can get the wrinkles out and you can make these petals
as long or short as you'd like.
Again having it a little bit of a wider width perhaps you may want to have longer petals.
All depends upon the look and I'll fluff it again.
I like to get it wider and then we'll bring it back on itself and down just above the
base and this one's going to get a little wrinkled because I didn't take the time to
straighten it out but there you can see what not to do but you can see how easily these
petals can be shaped.
Makes them even.
It's a little bit easier to do this when you're at home and not talking but now I'd like to
show you how to do this by machine.
I think by machine it's kind of fun as well.
Always the first step not to be redundant but you have to do this every time is to draw
up the bobbin thread.
When you find that loop pull it and then place the presser bar in the sewing position or
the embroidery position and lock your threads and then cut off the excess thread tails.
The ribbon cinches it extra wide needs to be for this loop flower I think slightly gathered
or tucked in the center and tack it down in the center.
Loop it around a screwdriver in this instance a stiletto around the needle and I'm just
going to tack it with my finger but notice if I push the ribbon next to the needle it
kind of somewhat gathers itself and tack again.
Rotate your hoop again do that same looping and passing technique.
I'll just tack it down I know some people that use toothpicks for this idea you really
can be quite creative with the ways that you work with this free form flower and just keep
looping.
Let me get my hands out of there so you can see and we'll just loop once more.
The narrower ribbon of course would not have as much poof to it as this certainly does
but it's interesting to work with these different widths and I'll do one more petal in this
area and loop it one more time.
Now at the center what you can do is cut off the ribbon and then bar tack it down or perhaps
what you could do is as I did on the ring bearer pillow that I'd like to show you you
can make it continuous to the next loop or to the next flower I should say.
These flowers instead of being singular I made smaller ribbons use smaller ribbons and
then just continuous to the next so that I didn't have to do a lot of cutting.
You can make it continuous or individual the choice is yours.
Your sewing machine and machine embroidery thread can add interesting details to any
silk ribbon project.
Here you can see the small little centers of flowers or mini posies standing alone they're
created at your sewing machine.
Here's how.
Many times I'd like to combine hand silk ribbon techniques and machine techniques and
this is a perfect way to use your sewing machine to add those little centers to flowers.
A machine set up for the basic embroidery techniques no foot I've removed the presser
foot lord the feed dogs the same settings as before the addition being that I have embroidery
thread in the top area of the yellow thread and a machine set for a zigzag stitch rather
than a straight stitch.
I've already drawn up the bobbin thread and I have the presser bar in the sewing position
and I'm just going to lock my threads by sewing in the center a couple of zigzags stopping
with the needle in the fabric.
Cut off those thread tails same story as we've gone through before but now build up that
center of the flower sewing quite a bit to build up that zigzag notice I'm just moving
the hoop just a little bit to get a nice mound of thread in the center and I'll sew a few
more stitches there we go then clip the thread right next to the posy right in the center
and then I'm going to clip it next to the spool of the thread and pull out the thread
color I like to pull out the thread from the needle area that kind of gives my threaded
dental floss cleaning rather than pulling it backwards through the threading mechanism
add your next thread color.
Now change the setting at your sewing machine to a straight stitch rather than a zigzag
stitch you don't have to drop the thread because the bobbin thread is locked into position
and stitch around the mound once twice three times however often you'd like to do this
I didn't cut the thread tail which I should do but here you can see how that's creating
a nice center look and it's really quite easy and interesting to work on I'm going to do
some more sewing on this hoop but let me show you the finished result on a sample this is
the same technique that's on the collar of my jacket here's one stitch again the buildup
of the zigzag stitch with a straight stitch wrapped around or you could group them together
to make a little posy look as I mentioned now this same sewing idea is also found on
this shirt we've referred to it many times but the stamen coming out of the center the
fuchsia is a straight stitch and a zigzag combination here's how to add this interesting
detail machine is still set up for a straight stitch and I'm going to add this accent to
a daisy a new breed of flower we're going to create here but it's handy for me to show
you I'm going to make three stems and simply with a straight stitch moving the hoop stitch
along this line two to three times and I'm going to make several of these we'll make
this one slightly curved it's kind of like drawing you're going to be moving the hoop
to make the change and again normally this wouldn't be sewn in association with a daisy
but for today it will work now at the end we're going to place a bar tack which will
require me to let me put the needle in the up position but require me to use a zigzag
stitch and I'm going to use kind of a narrow little zigzag and you may want to turn the
flywheel by hand just to see the position of it but then build that area up so and then
move to the next end and you will cut these threads after you're finished and just see
where this is going where it's jumping there we get it right in place and so and now one
more and again a little trimming we'll have this all created and that's the simple technique
of adding thread accents here's a contemporary approach to embellishing with silk ribbon
the braid effect was created with a combination of machine straight stitching and hand stitching
the unique stitching duo is ideal for highlighting collars lapels and pockets now for the simple
step-by-step techniques throughout the series I've been showing you how to do many of these
embroidery stitches by hand and then by machine well now there's a new twist we're going to
combine the two techniques using both machine and some hand stitching this is perfect for
ready-made let's say an existing jacket that you'd like a little touch of silk ribbon embroidery
for a contemporary look and to do this we're going to first stitch with matching thread
to the fabric about a half of an inch or a fourth of an inch apart two rolls with long
straight stitches now you can do this just with a straight stitch we put back the presser
foot the feed dogs are up all for normal stitching if you would like to make your sewing just
a little simpler you could use a double needle that you may have in your sewing area now
the double needle the minimum width would be the 4.0 4.0 meaning the millimeter distance
between the needles if you have a machine with an extra wide throw plate opening you
could use the 6.0 millimeter distance and that's what I have in my machine when using
the smaller width of 4.0 make certain that you use the smallest ribbon width that you
have the 2 millimeter wide width of silk ribbon this is very simple to do and I'm using contrasting
threads but we're simply going to be using for real matching thread to the fabric you're
not really going to be seeing this stitch at all until you weave with it wherever you'd
like the braid to be just do the stitching simple as that now for for rows that you're
going to be sewing by a single needle a straight stitch you may want to start at the same point
so that your stitches will be across from each other that is the advantage of using
a double needle that the stitches are exactly parallel to each other and they have the same
starting point now for doing the hand stitching you know so often working with silk ribbon
we have to cut the ribbon only 16 inches long let's say for hand stitching because the ribbon
frays wears out because we're not sewing through the fabric this is why you can use a longer
ribbon length you don't have to spend time taking time out to of course rethread and
knot the silk ribbon now you can use many different stitch combinations this is just
a very simple one making certain that the braid lies flat and I usually take one stitch
at a time as you can see alternating between the rows this kind of zigzag pattern I place
the ribbon kind of where I'd like it usually separating or counting three to four stitches
and just passing the needle underneath the thread of the base basting stitch and then
as you go the next area count three or four stitches whatever pattern you have established
and pull again you may have to fluff the ribbon so that it lies flat and just keep alternating
you'll get a rhythm of doing this hand stitching after you've done this a few times but what
I found it initially when I made the lapel design that I really had to take some time
to make sure those ribbons would lie flat you're not going to see these blue stitches
as you see here it would be matching the fabric you could leave it like this or alternate
with a second row which I'll show you which I've already started alternating where you
had the wide stitch you'd insert the needle for the second row and just pass it through
it's just kind of fun if you were adding this to a ready-made you would not have to worry
about having the knots of the silk ribbon show through on the underside because the
ribbon would be caught in a seam allowance you wouldn't have the under stitching that
you would so often see because you're stitching with the ribbon underneath the basting stitches
so just catch the ribbon if I can do that here we go remember that has to be set at
a basting stitch and it's very simple to work at now for another alternative kind of combining
these two techniques I'm going to show you a stem stitch a stem stitch is a very basic
stitch by hand many of you possibly have done this in the past a kind of a running stitch
where you pass the ribbon above the stitching area and then take one stitch about a half
inch long halfway back to your starting spot make sure you loop this on top and then pass
it on now again if you wanted to do this with a combo let's say you didn't want you wanted
to do this on a ready-made something that you didn't want the stitches from the back
to show run a row basting threads with just a straight stitch and here are several combinations
the first row on my right shows that we have a red row stitching which would of course
match the fabric but you could take rather loose stitches over and under creating again
a kind of a zigzag look or very tightly created and this is what we have in this area where
the pink thread is again it's more of a stem stitch effect where you just pass the silk
ribbon over and under the existing area now for a nice highlighted effect once you've
stitched with ribbon over the first row of basting stitches then thread a second ribbon
and another needle and highlight it go over it again and this will give you another effect
a little bit more dimension and that's how you can combine machine stitches and hand
stitches
let's take a closer look at the silk ribbon braid I stitched it on the detachable lapel
that also goes with this jacket the rows of stitching are about a half of an inch apart
using a straight stitch or a double needle and the weaving over and under the basting
stitches of the machine it's a simple application kind of tailored a little bit more contemporary
than the traditional type of embroidery I've been showing you now third program I'm going
to kind of stretch the possibilities of silk ribbon embroidery and show you some interesting
ways of weaving and working with it in the bobbin I would like to talk about one of the
fine underwriters of Sewing with Nancy I'm sure you've noticed I use Pfaff sewing machines
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I'm Nancy Zieman thanks for joining me on Sewing with Nancy this is the third program
of my three-part series on silk ribbon elegance using narrow silk ribbon to add creative touches
to garments or home deck projects I've covered the basics in the first two programs now for
expanded ideas starting with silk ribbon pin weaving the background of this elegant lapel
was made by weaving silk ribbon over interfacing fusing and then adding a highlight embroidery
let's get started pin weaving is an art that can be used with fabrics yarns ribbons I'm
going to show you kind of the basis of this and then you can add any interesting details
that you'd like the supplies are rather simple the basic supply is interfacing fusible interfacing
cut slightly larger than your pattern piece this is just a square to show you the sample
but if we were making a lapel just cut it the size of the lapel just maybe a half of
an inch larger all the way around the area place it on a padded surface this is a padded
surface to work on you may have one for quilting or pressing it does need grid marks one inch
marks half in March half inch marks excuse me whatever you have at home will work but
it has to be padded for pressing later on we're going to create fabric and to create
fabric you need warp yarns and filling yarns warp are the vertical long yarns the filling
the crosswise yarns the more decorative effects this is the first technique I'd like to show
you placing large head pins a half of an inch apart and you could place them closer together
if you'd like above and below the interfacing sample and then using yarn or ribbon floss
really I shouldn't say ribbon this should be yarn or thread or floss something that
can be curved and it doesn't have to be cut or to lie flat this is a silk or you could
use cotton embroidery floss all six strands anchor it at the base create one lengthwise
yarn wrap it around the pin to the next one and just keep going up and down up and down
when I started doing this it kind of reminded me of many years ago as a child I wove potholders
for my mom and grandmother and this is kind of basically the same thing those little nylon
loops that you put on that interesting frame for those of you old enough to know about
that this is kind of the same concept so you're creating your warp yarns make the yarns tight
or the threads tight you could also use decorative threads the choice is yours just kind of make
it fun you're creating fabric so whatever you'd like make it that way if you'd like
a flat warp this is recommended for ribbons and so since we're working with silk ribbon
the two millimeter or the four millimeter just cut it just slightly longer than the
length needed and pin rather than wrapping around the pins this will make it easier to
have the yarns excuse me the ribbons lie flat so we get the warp established in this area
the filling is a little bit more interesting there you can add a variety of widths even
in clothes the warp yarns are always the stronger the narrower yarns and the fillings where
you get the decorative effects I'm going to use a wider silk ribbon use a safety pin or
in this instance I have a bodkin that perhaps you've used or will use for elastics threading
the elastics through casing and you might guess how this is done very simple over and
under over and under the big key in this instance is that the interfacing has the fusible side
up and it's simply going to hold this in place after we've accomplished the weaving and then
unlock it disengage it straighten it out and cut and I'm making these lengths generous
you wouldn't have to make them quite this long it's important that these warp yarns stay
flat and taut if all possible mention that silk ribbon isn't the only fabric that you
can use for this or or a decorative effect you can use this regular fabric cut by strips
of fabric maybe you'd like to introduce some fabric with ribbon you know the choice is
yours and simply cut it the strip width that you'd like maybe double the width that you'd
like press the ends to the middle if you have a tape maker you could certainly use this
this is a great time to use it to make your own interesting bias tape and then thread
again the fabric under and over under and over the warp yarn so you have a variety of
interesting things to work with after fully covering the interfacing with your warp and
filling yarns cover it with a press cloth I've only have this partially only a portion
of this woven so I'm simply going to press this cover it and then press and I'll make
believe a pressing must caution you make sure it's at a silk setting on your iron you don't
want it too hot we're working with silk ribbon or as in this example and press now after
pressing lightly steaming it I like to press from the underside and here's a lapel that
has been cut out after doing the initial pressing and surged around the edges but I'd like to
give it one final press placing it on the ironing board again with a silk setting just
as a precaution cover it with a press cloth and give it one more press to adhere the fabric
the interfacing to the ribbons now you could leave it just like this this is an interesting
detail by itself just pretty silk ribbons and you notice the highlight of the silk that's
what's so nice about it or perhaps you may want to add additional silk ribbon and techniques
like we showed you earlier in this series our finished jacket has kind of a combination
of interesting things the pin weaving all in tones of black but notice the glistening
effect then the hand sewing with a kind of a fern stitch spider rose but then the other
stitch that kind of meanders through this area is simply a decorative stitch done at
the sewing machine so you can combine arts and elements when working with silk ribbon
or just creating details for yourself I hope you'll give pin weaving with silk ribbon a
try I'm certain many of our grandmothers stitched embroidery designs with cotton floss to add
an artistic touch to their crazy quilting to update that art we've added embroidery like
stitches by machine with silk ribbon to the jacket lapel it's an ideal way of achieving
an intricate look with just a push or a twist of a button the button push or twisting that
I'm referring to is setting your machine for a decorative stitch I'm going to place the
silk ribbon in the bobbin sew from the wrong side of the fabric and magically find the
silk ribbon technique on the right side of the fabric the trickiest part is just winding
the bobbin I've threaded the tail of the ribbon through the opening of the bobbin and I use
by the way the hand sewing needle to get it through that small little opening and rather
than threading the ribbon through the normal tension guides that I have on my machine for
winding a bobbin I'm simply going to hold the ribbon with my hands holding it flat so
that more ribbon can wind on the bobbin when starting just kind of hold that tail and wind
slowly and kind of work out a little bit to get the ribbon in the right places and I've
just wound a small amount for you and clip off the excess tail of that ribbon you may
want to wind several bobbins at this time because you'll find that this stitching uses
a lot of ribbon so why many interesting colors and if this type of stitching is perfect for
crazy quilting because you have small and short traditionally little stitches or seams
now to insert the bobbin in the bobbin case I have kind of two options for you one we're
going to put it through the tension guides and one we're going to bypass the tension
if you're going to put it through the tension guides which is the way we used it in our
sample making it's necessary to slightly loosen the tension on your bobbin case now this is
where I know a lot of you cringe when it comes to times of what do I do with this bobbin
setting I like to put a dab of fingernail polish or a marker right where the two normally line
up and let me get them lining up again and moved it slightly so that they're one across
from each other but then with your fingernail or a screwdriver move it slightly to the left
loosen it by using the or turning the screw to the left place the bobbin in the case and
guide the thread through the normal tension guides and see how this is coming out if it's
smooth or if it needs to be a little bit looser just simply turn it and then when you're finished
doing this technique you put it back to the normal settings now the other option for a
more texturized stitch that has more nubbiness because you're not going to have any tension on
this bobbin at all place it in the bobbin case and instead of going through these guides bring
it to the large opening and we've done this before in sewing with Nancy let me get in the
right spot here we go and it comes out very easily so either of those options will work you may want
to practice that on your machine now working with stitch lengths and stitch patterns is quite
important you want a stitch pattern decorative stitch that's very open a zigzag stitch is perfect
a large wide zigzag I have a decorative stitch set up on the machine and I'm going to just
lengthen the stitch just a little bit make it as long as you can test on a sample but the longer
stitch will give a more interesting look to your ribbon let me show you on a sample how the stitch
looks in the normal setting and then how it looks with embroidery in the bobbin you might guess we're
going to be sewing from the wrong side of the fabric but look at this interesting texture but
it's always necessary to lengthen that stitch we're not using any stitches that have satin
areas filled in notice they're very open and some of them are geometric or their curve but
again they're not satin stitched or heavily stitched in that area when working with crazy
quilting you're going to piece some sections of fabric together we've done it a kind of tone on
tone with black and different colorations and the trick is on the underside the wrong side to press
the seam allowances in one direction and you're going to sew close to the stitching line but over
the seam allowances so that you have a stabilizer or an extra layer fabric for the stitches to work
in I'm going to stitch as close as I can to the bobbin or excuse me to the stitch line I've drawn
up the bobbin place my fabric underneath the presser foot close to that original stitch line
that way I'll look like it's kind of sewing over the seam and just so let me first of all put this
back to the sewing position there we go and then so and really you can get interesting looks just
by doing this little stitching when I pull this up and clip the threads then you get to see the
interesting details and this ribbon has been passed through the tension of the bobbin case
but at a looser tension and notice the interesting detail you of course would use thread that matches
the fabric in the top so that you would have a balanced look let me show you again the
interesting details of our crazy quilting concept using a sewing machine all the different stitches
where the stitches are at the different piecing elements this is a fun technique to try sewing is
an art and these basic chambray shirts were given a focal point with a touch of silk ribbon embroidery
but take a closer look not all elements are actual stitches the art of silk ribbon embroidery can be
an illusion some of these stitches are created by fabric pens I'd like to show you this now I've
shown you the basic elements for silk ribbon embroidery by hand and by machine but now here
are some specialty items that kind of go beyond the basics when working with ready mates if you'd
like to add an embellishment as we did to these shirt collars it's difficult to put the fabric
into a hoop it's impossible to do that so rather than using a hoop I'd like to show you how to
stabilize the fabric from the top rather than stretching it in a fabric hoop or I should say
a wooden hoop or a spring tension hoop to do this you can use a stabilizer traditionally we put a
stabilizer underneath the fabric when using decorative stitches or satin stitches whatever
the case may be but in this instance you can use just this basic stabilizer that tears away after
you're done stitching just tear it away but first draw the design on it earlier in the series I had
you draw the design right on the fabric well here you could do it on the stabilizer and then the
stabilizer can be positioned on the fabric and pinned into place and it has stabilized the fabric
without having to insert it into a hoop it works quite well in that manner now when doing this on
the fabric there are some guidelines make certain that you have enough stabilizer so that you have
about a half of an inch around the design and then you could also consider buying or finding at your
favorite store the stabilizers that have designs already printed on them so there are a couple of
options draw it yourself purchase something but either way this is a great way of working with a
ready-made of applying the design on top then simply pin the stabilizer on the right side of
the fabric you can see I've started to get my needle ready to do some of this hand work this
would also work for machine work as well just giving you the design I always kind of like to
know what I'm going to stitch and this way I have the design prepared for me the top area really is
stabilized by this tear away type of area and remember to fluff those stitches and separate
them so that you have a pretty look it's a dimensional look in a few minutes I'll show you
how to keep that dimension even if you have to steam or press the area so that's one way of
adding an interest to garments that really you couldn't put in a hoop the pins sometimes do
get in the way and if that happens you may have in your stash of things or your collection and
adhesive spray that may be used for some craft items so what you could do in which I have done
earlier and let the dry according to the instructions is spray the back of this according to the
instructions it has to dry a couple of hours but now it's tacky on the back and then you could
simply place it on your design just finger press it down and then you don't have to worry about
sewing around pins and getting the ribbon caught in the pin areas either way works this just is a
little time-saver idea after you've worked on the stencil or I should say not stencil but stabilizer
placing your design into place then you can remove it I would recommend using a very detailed design
for this technique perhaps what you may want to do is use a simple one we worked on a knit on this
example and knits and silk ribbon embroidery may not seem too compatible at first but really they
are once you take one additional step I'll show you how to remove this but just right now let me
show you that on the underside there's a layer of fusible interfacing this gives it stability to
the fabric so it's not going to stretch like knits so often do in the width of the fabric then after
creating the design tear it away and you may need the to find your tweezers that you use for surging
but it comes off very easily as you can see and you have your design in place and just a little
time tear it all away it's all positioned and you didn't have to get this shirt in a hoop to get the
design positioned so keep that in mind when working with this told you earlier that some of these
stitches weren't actually stitches but they were drawn in areas this other shirt collar has an
interesting combination of hand stitches and drawn in stitches you could use a cross stitch pen a pen
that's designed for marking on fabric something permanent that can just be marked over in this
area I'll work on my little sampler that I've been showing you some of the stitches on earlier
but it's if you'd like to doodle this is your your time to kind of shine because the intricacy of the
stitches can be added by just pinning it into place I wouldn't recommend doing this for everything
but this is kind of nice to get a small detail in maybe use a pen to create the initial embroider it
with some flowers there's many ways that you can intertwine the two types of techniques give that
a try now for care this I think is really quite important because after you spend time creating
this great masterpiece with silk ribbon then how do you press it well keep in mind that any of you
that may have a scrap of velvet or a velveteen at home this is a perfect pressing tool for silk
ribbon place it on your ironing board the leftover velvet and velveteen that is with a nap up and the
nap will absorb the design of the fabric placing the details next to the nap you can press along
the edge but when it gets to the inner design then just steam and never flatten never do this
just steam it above a couple of inches above the area if you're worried about having your fabric
water repellent or if you have to perhaps wash it what we have found works well as to use a
water repellent spray spray the fabric after before or after you have embroidered and let it dry and
then if you have put that water finish on it when I give you a little drop of water see how it runs
right off the edge so that way your design would be kept neat and clean and these are some options
with silk ribbon embroidery it's time to wrap up this series but before I do I want to show you
one of our final projects I've removed all the stabilizer from the silk ribbon embroidery and
what a great way of keeping fabric knit fabrics in shape plus transferring the design without
having to use a hoop I hope in this series I've inspired you to try some silk ribbon embroidery
whether by hand by machine or in combination of both it's a fun art thanks for joining me bye for
now sewing with Nancy has been brought to you in part by Pfaff simply the best European line
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