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Hi everyone. Last week I set out to complete a bell pull which was bought for me as a gift five or six (or more!) years ago. It's on even weave and I've now discovered that, even with a magnifier I can't see the weave well enough to stitch it. Very cross! I think my eyes must have been better when I started it, but now I have different sized images in my two eyes which makes attempting to do close work impossible. However, I thought I might give crewel embroidery a go as it's using wool, there is no thread counting and I love the Jacobean patterns. Has anyone else tried this? Any tips or advice? I've got 'An Introduction to Crewel Embroidery' by Mave Glenny, which is good, so that's a start!

By the way, as I've completed half of the bell pull, I'm going to frame it as is and it should still look very nice.

I'm sorry about the bell pull. Which design is it? Perhaps someone might volunteer to finish it for you?

I've done a bit of crewel work (before the Great Tapestry escapade). It probably is more forgiving than detailed embroidery, no counting threads, although it does require a certain exactness when doing some stitches, like split stitch for example. There are some really wonderful kits for crewel work, too. But don't forget ordinary embroidery. There are a LOT of zentangle sort of designs out there, which are great fun and don't require detailed work at all -- just colour. And then there's "tapestry", using wool on a much larger canvas -- some of the new designs also use crewel stitches, and are very beautiful.

As Serinde says some stitches in crewel embroidery do still require quite good eyesight, but then you are free in choosing your stitches so you could just Not Do Those . And yes, there are great "freestyle embroidery" or "surface embroidery" designs out there which use printed or iron-on designs and basically need fillinh in (or outlining) in whatever stitches you like.
I can really recommend some of Kelly Fletcher's designs, if they happen to be your style! See my review of her 12-design kit here and here.

If wool is what you would like to try, I did several of her floral freebies in crewel wool - here's one to give you an idea:



They work beautifully in silk too

Oh my they are absolutely beautiful Mabel!

Thank you so much for your helpful replies. Well, I've had a look at your review of Kelly Fletcher's 'Classic Creations' kit, Mabel and have bought it! I also downloaded those free floral designs which are beautiful, especially when stitched in wool as you have done. Absolutely gorgeous!

It's a nice suggestion to see if someone else could finish the bell pull, Serinde, but I'm quite happy to frame what I have done. I have stitched enough for it to look like a complete project.

I've been knitting and crocheting a lot over the past few years and have done very little stitching. However, I developed osteoarthritis in my thumb joints which made knitting etc. very painful. I had a trapeziectomy two years ago on one hand, which was successful - some loss of strength, but no pain at all now. Now the other hand - my right - needs an operation. That's one of the reasons I came back to stitching as I thought it would be less of a strain on my hands.

Thank you again for your ideas.

I cant put it better- they are really absolutely beautiful .

What a shame about the bell pull but I am glad that you can frame what is done as a lovely picture Genevieve.

So glad you have jumped in the water and decided to do some crewel embroidery, there are some lovely patterns out there and I look forward to seeing your updates in the months to come.

Mabel those 2 you have stitched are totally awesome.

I bought that kit after a recommendation from Mabel. Haven't done any yet but I did do this some while back.



It's a Hawthorne design I bought from Sewand sew.
Very easy and they do have other designs.

I love that, Wendy - one very happy puffin. I'll have to have a look at Sewandso myself. Thanks.

I've been looking at fabrics for stitching embroidery. I've got some 32ct Belfast Linen and also 28ct Cashel Linen. I know that Linen Twill is recommended for Crewel Work, but wondered if other fabrics would be as suitable. What did you stitch your floral designs on, Mabel?

Looks thoughtful to me, or busy deciding something. I love him.

He is a cutie Wendy and busy pacing and working out a problem. Enjoy stitching him.

Genevieve2 wrote:I know that Linen Twill is recommended for Crewel Work, but wondered if other fabrics would be as suitable. What did you stitch your floral designs on, Mabel?

It's been a while since I stitched them but fortunately I keep a record of my finished projects

The wool one was done on white Legacy linen twill, which is a nice fabric for this sort of thing (and comes in a soft white rather than the oatmeal shade that most twills are) but not easy to source in the UK; in fact I ordered this from America once when I was feeling particularly flush. It was nice to work on but not so nice that I'd spend the money again!
The silk one was done on a piece of 48ct cream Gander linen I happened to have in my stash.

If you want to go for linen (and why not ?) I've found that anything meant for counted work (like the Zweigart linens) has quite an open weave for this sort of embroidery (fair enough - it is, after all, meant to be counted!) but it's OK if you go for the very high counts; I'd say a 40ct minimum, and preferable higher. Unfortunately these tend to be expensive, and several shops only carry them in white, not off-white or cream. But there are plenty of non-count linens out there which will work very well, and they tend to come in plenty of colours. I've got some pieces of Essex linen which I'm hoping to use for two goldwork projects, but they'd work fine for any surface embroidery.

For anything like the Kelly Fletcher kit I'd use a plain cotton (advantage: lots of colours available!) with a calico backing. Another fabric I like, although it's not exactly traditional, is cotton duck (also comes in lots of colours). I've used that for goldwork and it looks good. It's thick enough not to need backing if you don't want to bother with that (although for goldwork I usually do, to give me an extra layer for fastening off and on in), yet it's got a soft feel, not too stiff. This is the one I get, which I think is a 7 oz. weight.

Hope that helps!

Thank you, Mabel, that's extremely helpful. I've spent some time today looking for fabrics that you mentioned, but also came across Osnaburg. Would this be OK for crewel work, do you think? As this is a new venture for me, I'm watching the pennies! I also wondered about heavy weight muslin, not necessarily for Crewel Embroidery, but in general. I've also been looking for 100% cotton in white/ivory and have had some difficulty. There are so many prints out there and not even our little fabric shop in the village has any! But I will keep looking. Thanks again.