New - well forgotten old.
The statement by Mademoiselle Bertin, the modiste of the Queen of France Marie Antoinette, has been relevant for almost 200 years. Indeed, fashion moves, if not in a circle, then precisely in a spiral. Vivid prints are replaced by a cage, then stripes, plain fabrics, shiny, embossed and prints again. New technologies, new materials, but the silhouettes are the same as they were 20 or 30 years ago. And quilted fabric came into fashion again. Rhombuses, stripes, squares ... But what if you want romance, sophistication, smooth lines, but at the same time stay in trend? It was then that a technique such as trapunto came to the rescue.
Is this embroidery or stitch?
Essence
Trapunto technique - volume embroidery. In the classical variation, the contours of the main pattern are embroidered on a two-layer basis: as a rule, these are flowers, feathers, curls, geometric shapes. Then, on the lining layer, the fabric fibers are pushed apart and the pattern elements are stuffed with cotton or other filler. In addition, free space is filled with an arbitrary background line (lines, grid, spirals, waves, echo), which, if necessary, are also filled. This process is time-consuming and requires maximum perseverance and care.
There is a second way to perform trapunto. It appeared relatively recently, but most masters choose it. The essence of the method is that between two layers of fabric a layer of sheet filler is laid in advance, after which the lines of the main pattern and background are performed. Due to the fact that the filler is initially based on, additionally stuffing products, as a rule, is not necessary. This significantly saves both time and effort. It is also worth noting that the use of a solid filler sheet allows one to achieve the same thickness for similar elements. Although the modern look of trapunto can no longer be attributed to embroidery, but to stitch.
History
This technique has very deep roots. Its homeland is the island of Sicily, where in the III century BC. e. village girls had fun creating voluminous canvases. Mostly these were plant motifs or geometric figures, but there were also plot options, for example, the story of Tristan and Isolde. Girls embroidered patterns on a double canvas, after which they filled elements with rags, cotton or thread, giving them volume.
At the end of the XVII century, embroidery in this technique conquered the high society of Europe. Since that time, they began to choose snow-white expensive materials, for example, cambric, which, coupled with the complexity of the process, led to the fact that only very wealthy families could afford such things, and even then only on holidays. For example, a trapunto bedspread was laid on the wedding night. They gave a blanket for the birth of children, and baptismal sets for baptism.
Due to technological progress and automation of production, products have become available to a wider circle of the population, however, they are still associated with wealth, luxury and sophistication.
Tools and materials
Before you start creating products using the trapunto technique, you need to prepare the following materials and tools:
- Paper.
- Pencil.
- Light box (carbon paper).
- Water soluble marker.
- The cloth.
- Filler.
- Scissors.
- Needles.
- Threads.
- Hoop.
- Sewing machine.
This list may vary slightly depending on the preferences of the wizard. For example, instead of a marker, you can use soap or a pencil, and the light box can be replaced not only with carbon paper, but also with a well-lit window.
In addition, beginners trapunto technique is better to master manually and on small products. This will make it possible to better understand the essence of such embroidery, to experiment with thread tension, to select the best materials, and also to understand whether the beginner will continue to engage in this type of creativity or not.
Sewing machine
The sewing machine greatly simplifies the process of working with the product, but here there are several nuances. Firstly, it must be powerful enough to produce a large number of lines without resetting settings and overheating. Secondly, you need a special embroidery foot that does not close the view and allows you to easily move the fabric under the needle. Thirdly, the machine should have a free-wheeling function, that is, it should give the opportunity to freely move the fabric not only back and forth, but also to the sides or at an angle. This is what will make the lines as smooth as possible, and the ability to stop in a position where the needle remains inside the product will facilitate movement along the pattern without interrupting the seam. The ideal machines in this case are specialized (for stitches) or those that have the quilting function or just the letter Q, which, in fact, is one and the same.
On a classic household machine, you can also work in the technique of trapunto, but at the same time you need to choose simple, small designs that can easily be turned around the needle. You will also need to carefully monitor the thread tension settings and do several approaches so that it does not overheat.
the cloth
The appearance of the finished product directly depends on the material. In order for the embroidery using the trapunto technique to look as attractive as possible, it is necessary to use a thin, but dense plain material, which has plain weaving. Typically, cotton, satin, cambric or chiffon are chosen for these purposes. You can also use other materials, however, on fabrics that are too dense there will be practically no volume, and on fabrics with loose weaving, for example, satin, a line matching the long sections in the structure will disappear. This material, of course, can be used, but at the same time it must be positioned so that horizontal or vertical lines do not pass parallel to the shared thread.
The lining fabric can be chosen the same as the main one - then the product will be double-sided - or else. The main thing is that it does not stretch, otherwise the entire volume of embroidery will go down. And if the classical technique with subsequent filling will be used, then the structure of the fabric should be loose enough to be able to spread the fibers, fill the element with filler, and then restore the weaving. You can take a dense fabric, but in this case it will be necessary to make incisions on each element, then fill it and sew a hole.
Filler
Today, there are many fillers that are suitable for applied creativity. Classic cotton wool and foam rubber are almost never used, because both eventually acquire a yellow tint. In addition, the product with cotton wool is difficult to care for, and the foam rubber begins to crumble over time. Also, synthetic winterizer is not particularly used. This is due to the fact that finished products with such a filler cannot be ironed, since it sticks together and it is no longer possible to restore the volume. Therefore, the most optimal fillers at the moment are holofiber and spanbond.
Threads and needles
It is very important that the lines of this embroidery are neat and inextricable. Therefore, the choice of threads plays a large role. It is better to stay on polyester and acrylic. They, unlike cotton ones, do not fluff up when rubbing against a needle and are more durable. As for color, everything is individual here. The embroidery made by threads, both matched to the fabric and contrasting, looks beautiful. In addition, you can use several threads of different colors in the embroidery to diversify the pattern.
The needles should be thin, long and have a large eye. It is in this case that large holes will not remain on the material, and the thread will easily slide behind the needle. It is advisable to use a new needle for each job.
Stages
When all materials are selected and prepared, you can begin to create the product. There are a lot of workshops on trapunto technique, but all of them include the following stages:
- Design drawing.
- Transfer to fabric.
- Formation of the basis.
- Embroidery.
- Edge treatment.
Each stage is very important in work and has a number of features.
Drawing design
A drawing is usually used modular, consisting of many repeating elements. You can find it both in specialized magazines and on the Internet. However, there is nothing more beautiful than creating a product according to its own sketches. In order to draw a symmetrical image, it is enough to apply only half of the module to the sheet, and then reflect it with a light box, a bright window or carbon paper. After the module is ready, it is transferred to a plastic sheet or paper, forming a finished product sketch. You can also use the graphical editor and its image editing capabilities.
Fabric Transfer
After the sketch is ready, it must be applied to the fabric. It is better to do this using light box. But if the fabric is sufficiently translucent, just put a pattern under it and circle all the contours with a washable fabric marker. Colored soap is also suitable, but it is inconvenient for them to circle small details, and besides, part of the picture may be erased during operation.
The second method allows you to transfer the picture as accurately and quickly as possible. To do this, you need to put a transparent plastic sheet on the sketch, circle the pattern, then lay the blank on the fabric with ink down and gently iron. As a result, the pattern is printed on the material.
Base formation
This is one of the most important stages. First you need to prepare the fabric - wash and iron. If a synthetic winterizer will be used as filler, then the finished product can no longer be subjected to active heat treatment. When buying fabric, you need to keep in mind that in this case not only the shrinkage parameter after washing is taken into account (usually 10% in length), but also the volume shrinkage (from 7 to 10 percent along the entire perimeter is mandatory). It is also better to cut an initially larger material size than is necessary considering all shrinkage. If the dimensions of the finished embroidery correspond to the desired size, the excess material can be cut off, but if the embroidery turned out to be smaller than necessary, then it can be supplemented with background lines or arbitrary elements, bringing the size to the necessary.
The basis itself should be laid out as follows:
- The bottom layer is to place it face down.
- Filler. If we talk about syntepon, then its density should be 100 g / sq. m. More magnificent material will not only give additional volume to the main elements of the picture, but will make the canvas with background embroidery coarse and thick. In addition, the hoop capabilities and the height of the foot of the sewing machine must be taken into account. With an excessively large base thickness, the machine may skip stitches, which will violate the integrity of lines and the appearance of the product.
- Top layer - lay face up.
All layers must be fastened together with pins, and if the dimensions of the canvas are large, it is better to glue the edges with water-soluble glue.
Embroidery
The trapunto technique itself is quite simple: you just need to embroider the contours of the drawing, moving from the center to the edges. In this way, unnecessary creases and creases can be avoided. The stitch length should be approximately 2 mm. After all sketch lines have been sewn, you should proceed to the background line. You can pre-apply its contours to the fabric with a marker or move in random order. The denser and finer the background ornament, the better the main volumetric elements will be visible. Extra threads should be fixed and hidden inside the work.
The finished embroidery must be soaked for 15-20 minutes in warm water so that the marker lines completely dissolve, then gently squeeze through a towel (the product cannot be twisted) and dried on a horizontal surface. Already dry the blank to check for the need to impose an additional background line or additive filler in the elements of the main picture. At this point, the embroidery itself is ready.
In addition to the classic monophonic embroidery, there are several options for giving brightness and color. The simplest is embroidery along the contours of the factory print. You can pre-embroider stitch elements on the upper part of the base, sew colored fabric according to the principle of applique, but the most interesting way is to use the trando shadow technique.
It consists in the shadow coloring of the work. For example, in the classical variation, volumetric elements were filled with colored threads for knitting, which, shining through the top layer, and gave a "shadow" color to the product. In order to create a similar color in the version with a three-layer base, it is necessary to sew a felt sheet on the wrong side of the upper layer and embroider only those parts that need to be given this color. Then cut off the excess felt, stepping back from the line of 1.5 mm, and sew all the other colors. After the shadow color is sewn, you can proceed to the trapunto technique itself.
Important! In this case, the felt must be sewn with water-soluble threads so that there is no duplication of the pattern line.
Edge processing
No matter how beautiful the embroidery may turn out, messy edges at the root will ruin the appearance of the product. You can close the edge with a slanting inlay: for this, you must first sew the base around the perimeter, stepping 0.3 cm from the edge so that it is not thick, and the layers do not move during processing, and then sew the braid. In this way, double-sided products can be processed.
But if you sew a pillow using the trapunto technique, you will need to either connect two embroideries or embroidery with material for the back of the product. You can also use a wide border, placing the volume in a kind of frame, like a picture. This will allow you to focus on the necessary element of decor.
A good master class on trampunto technique for beginners is presented in this video:
Despite the many nuances, painstaking work and a rather complicated technique, even a novice master can create a unique thing with voluminous embroidery of trapunto, whether it be a tack, vest, element on outerwear, a pillow or coverlet. The main thing is not to be afraid to start a new one and remember that royal luxury and grace can be done with your own hands.