Lessons

Lesson Info

Cross-Stitch Supplies

Hi and welcome to introduction to crossed it. I'm fiber artist and jewelry designer lease anderson schaefer and you might recognize me from some of my modern needlework designs for my brand selma rose. Or maybe you've taken one of my classes. If you live in san francisco are on the west coast, I'm really excited that you could be with us today. Needlework is an amazing process and it's a great tool to have in your crafters toolbox, whether you're just starting out or you're a little bit more season when it comes to fiber arts. It's a wonderful tradition to start in your family as well, and one that's grown in my family. I learned cross stitch from my grandmother's elma when I was nine and immediately fell in love with the attention to detail and the slow nature of the process and through the years I got better at it and I learned from really quietly just watching her and observing and she's one of the reasons why I love teaching it this class is going to be a tremendous value to you ev...

en after your first watching, because one of the great ways to learn needlework and really understand it is to be able to pause and go back and review stitches together. That way, if you're just starting out or you're working on a project at home later on, you can come back. You can watch a specific stitch and then move back to your own project in this class, you're going to be learning seven stitches today, super exciting and it's really going to set you up to work on your own projects at home as soon as you finish watching this course so welcome and let's get started ok, I'm going to run through some supplies first with you there's not too many things to go over in terms of supplies and resource is, but a couple of my favorite things about cross stitch in general are one there's many different ways to change the look of something so cross stitch is basically you're using you're making stitches using an axe and all cross stitch patterns when you do this at home when you become more advanced or you take one of the more advanced to cross stitch courses are based on odd numbers, so all that means is that you always want to have a center and you'll see as we go over the stitches, you'll see things there in threes and fives and sevens and things like that, but that's something to keep in mind at home when you're wanting to learn more the other way to really make it look very different is with color it's basic exes and crosses but using color and different number of threads you can have so many different possibilities and the fabrics come in different colors to we'll go over that a little bit later, but just from the get go to get you excited there's numerous numerous ways that you can change it up as you're working. So a couple of the resource is I want to introduce you to from the get go is we're really lucky because chronicle books gave us some really beautiful books to look at for these classes, this one I rely on heavily from their stitch encyclopedia siri's they have a whole bunch of these there's one for knitting too and I believe crow shea but this is the one for embroidery and this is also relevant to cross stitch tio there's different stitches in here there's a little um crossed it section, which you can see, but this is just a great reminder it's a little bit difficult to learn just this way, but it is good to have as a refresher for later on and then this is something that I think all of us if you're doing anything that's involving any sort of sewing or needlework, this is a great book tohave, especially if you're working on something in cross stitch that has some finishing work or maybe you have an old linen that you've bought it alameda antique flea market one of those really great places, you might have to do a little finishing work around the end, or you might want to know more about the fabric. This is sort of a reference book and a resource book for all different kinds of selling, plus it's, super beautiful, super beautiful looking and there's great projects in it. So these books I'll have direct links in your resource section that you can download with the course, so you won't need to worry about that. You'll be able to get directly to it. So the first thing I want to cover his needles that's not all that complicated, but you do need to know there are specific needles just for in embroidery and other types of needlework, cruel work and things like that that have thicker threads it's up to you which ones you like to choose? Most of them have a little bit of a larger circumference. The's air the ones that I use here. Sometimes I like to use one with a larger eye than the other it's completely up to you, but the needles will usually say embroidery on them and that's how you know you're on the right track and then within the embroidery needles. There's different choices you can make in terms of the size of the eye the only way it really makes a difference in your project is if you feel like you want to use all strands of the thread that's something we'll talk about later but most embroidery thread has six strands and if you feel like you're doing something where you want to use all six, then maybe you want to use something with a larger I and again, everything is clearly linked in the resource guide should be able to find it well, threads have tons of options, and for me this is the most exciting part about crossed it because like I said, once you get the stitches it's really repeating a pattern, but the threat is one of the ways that you can really change things up, so I brought a couple of different options. We're not going to be using these today, but these air different things that you can find on your own at specialty shops and again there's some resource is listed but thread for needle where it comes in all different materials there's whoa this is a beautiful sort of worsted wool and I believe this one is hand dyed but then there's variegated this is a silk ray on blend this is a cotton silk blend this is cotton, this is hand dyed and variegated in different colors and this, I believe, is a silk blend so there's difference in terms of what you might want to use them for different in strength and some of them have sheen's to them. I really like to use cotton. This is what the cotton looks like basically for strength, but also because I do have a product based part of my business and I create jewelry with needlework concepts on it. I really need to make sure that I have the same color lot of available, even if it's a couple years from now. So one of the great things about cotton flaws, especially dnc, is that their colors air pretty much right on. And if you can see there's there's little numbers there, can you see if you can see it? But each color has a number and a bar code yours might on the tables to be coated? They might not. But if you are shopping in a store and you're looking for a color there's a color a lot and there's a number so even years from now, if I'm working from the same color palette, I can go back and chances are the color will be available. So that's, one of the reasons why I really like the cotton it's there than the colors are reliable. Yeah, in terms of the thread, yeah I don't for my own purposes for my jewelry, but in terms of doing more of a fine art piece yeah, I mean that's a really exciting thing to d'oh you get different effects and certainly the wool is going to look different coming through the fabric than the cotton the khan has a little bit of a sheen the will is a little bit more dull yeah, so when you're using thread besides color, one of the other ways to get a different effect is the number of strands embroidery thread cotton thread comes like this it's it's twisted together, but if you untwist it a little bit you'll see there six individual pieces sometimes they look really tiny but there's six individual strands typically and I do different things, but for this course I'm going to recommend that we use three strands I like using three strands for cross stitch, especially when creating samplers and learning stitches because when you're talking about really small stitches like this where the heart is, if you're using all six strands it gets super congested and you're not going to be able to see the stitch as clearly so for learning purposes with crossed it definitely he's the three we'll talk about how to separate a little bit later for other things if you're doing projects in the more advanced class where we're talking about customizing your cross stitch, we're going to be using all six strands because we're talking about doing something that's seen from further away but for learning purposes for the little samplers we're going to be making today even for something if you were adding crossed it to linen napkin or a placemat tablecloth something like that three strands is definitely the way to go and I think that's pretty universal I don't think I'm being overly creative but you'll see ok so then once you figure out threat or you don't you can make these decisions simultaneously then you get to decide on fabric which comes in a lot of different colors you all have tan that it's about this like this color right? I'm using this blue just because it gives a really bright contrast with the colors so it will be a lot better to see on screen but this is kol it's called eight a cloth a idea and it's standard cross stitch fabric there's lots of different companies that make it it's in the resource guide and places for you to find it but basically it's all that means is that somewhat like needle point fabric if any of you are familiar with needle point that has the holes in it that's all eight o'clock it is a swell it's just softer it's not a stiff and rigid and the reason being is so that you can easily get it on and off of a hoop it comes in different gauges or cole sizes so we're using fourteen which means the whole is relatively large the higher the number I think it goes it even goes up to like twenty eight really so really super small holes where if you're doing a basic cross stitch a little teeny tiny acts it's like so small you can barely see it but some patterns call for that and it will say this is the cloth we recommend to use it if you're going by pattern but I use the fourteen for pretty much everything I d'oh for the fine art pieces for teaching and for jewelry just works really well for me it comes in a bunch of different colors you can buy, you know pre made but then there's a lot of really wonderful resource is online where its hand died painted you could die it yourself I painted sometimes you can do wonderful things with that it's cotton so anything you can do to cotton you can do to the fabric but it's another really great great way to change up your designs so something like this you know looks totally different on a different color fabric with different color thread and if you're doing something for home decor it looks really nice to do like a set of maybe the same pattern but in different colors so with the threat and fabric you can do a lot to change your designs really quickly and easily so the next thing that you definitely need is a hoop so groups are pretty basic there wouldn and there's an inside piece that's just one piece and then the outside typically depending upon the size uh this might be of slightly sturdier material for this class were using foreign troops I really like foreign tubes it's like just big enough but not super big that kind of freak out that there's too much to look at but I use a hoop for pretty much everything and hope you can use to actually have a finished piece like this you can just do that and that's it and you can this's just fabric on the back and then some glue you can talk everything or you can hand so the fabric that's coming around and the fabric that's touched tucked in here is just this that hangs out or people hang them like this. I keep all my samplers with the fabric out and this is just how I keep track of my stitches. But people use hoops now is a finishing element so it's not necessary really anymore to remove it from the hoop when you're done but you can and all that looks like is just unscrewing it popping out and because it's cotton you can iron it, steam it you can do anything to it on a lot of people will frame this and in the more advanced class, we're going to be doing a law hanging with it. So it will be something that's on a hoop and then flattened out so you'll be able to see that process there. But hoops or grade. They're really important when you're learning, because you're going to want to have the fabric kept tight while you're working on it, and you can get them in different materials to I like the wood. They come in plastic, they come with rounded edges, some for some people, that's, easier. You can use whatever you want, but for my purposes, they're just like the wood. I think they come and more sizes, too, that way.