Busy Needles

Busy Needles / Pattern Library / Stitchery — 1 Comment
6
Jan 10

Couching

Traditionally couching was done on a a felt or fulled woollen cloth or soft suede. However, it can be worked on any closely-woven fabric. The use of an interlining is recommended.

You can use pretty much any kind of cord; thicker ones like Russia braid are suited to large designs with straight lines or gradual curves. Narrower, more pliable cords like heavy crochet cotton and fine macramé yarn are good for smaller designs that feature intricate curves.

Other good fibres to experiment with are knitting chenille, silk /rayon rat or bugtail, metallic threads.

Embroidery thread is commonly used for the couching stitches, however if you are going to try underside couching you may want to use a sewing thread that can withstand the force required to pull it tight with out breaking.

Surface Couching.

couching-diagram1

The cord is stitched down with the couching thread using small evenly spaced stitches worked over the top of the cord.

Underside Couching

underside

The cord is laid on the ground cloth as with surface couching. However. the couching stitches while worked as with surface couching are pulled tight so that they drop below the fabric, pulling some of the cord with them.

Give it a Go…

  1. Choose or draw a pattern to couch.
  2. Use dressmakers carbon or a dressmakers pencil to draw the pattern on the fabric.
  3. Tack or otherwise affix your interlining.
  4. Using a large chenille needle take your cord through the fabric at the starting point of your pattern and leave about 3-5cm of the cord on the wrong side. If you are using a thick cord you might need to use an awl to make a hole and use a wool needle.
  5. Use surface or underside couching to work your design.
  6. At the end of the design/cord pull the cord through the fabric again, if possible hiding it underneath an overlapping cord. Finish the final couching stitches to hold the cord in place
  7. Finally, on the wrong side sew the ends of the cord firmly together to stop them from working loose. If the ends don’t meet on your design, sew the ends to the interfacing, making sure that the stitches are not visible on the right side.


Where to get supplies - UK based suppliers

You can get selection packs of felt from Bugs and Fishes

Embellishment yarns from Cotton Patch

Busy Needles / Crafting / Gallery — 1 Comment
5
Jan 10

Gallery - Couching

The Gallery for this issue looks at Couching.

Couching Example - Bayeaux Tapestry

Couching Example - Bayeaux Tapestry

Couching is a very old embroidery technique and is one of two employed in the Bayeux Tapestry. Also known as ‘Laid Work’ it is similar to applique, but instead of cloth being applied, threads and cords are sewn to the  ground fabric using fine stitches in either the same or contrasting colour.

During the Middle Ages couching was used to decorate Church vestments using gold and silk threads.

The couching on the Bayeux Tapestry is ’surface’ couching, where the stitches holding the woollen threads in place are visible on the ‘right side’ of the work. Later, by the 14th century this variant was largely replace by  ’underside’ couching where the stitches were not discernible.

In Japan the technique is known as shusu and is used to apply the gold-foil wrapped threads which are otherwise too thick to be stitched into the fabric.

Couching on Wikipedia

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