Stitchionary---how to Frankenstitch, part one

I was sent a lovely email with a request to learn how to "Frankenstitch" by Lise (another Albertan, exquisite beading!), after seeing Beautiful Bones in Cloth/Paper/Scissors, and decided that i would share with everyone, not just privately. I was going to post this on Halloween, but writing it took a little longer than planned :}

Back in March of this year,I started keeping a "stitchionary" file of things that worked when i was first working on my Artist's Body series. These are from Beautiful Bones, Mitochrondia: Incubation 1 and my current project My Heart Has A History.

 

 First of all, this is not rocket science. You just have to forget some of the rules about embroidery we've all strained to achieve when first learning to keep stitches even, fabrics flat and threads untwisted. Fuhgeddaboudit--none of that applies here.

Find yourself a fabric that is mottled in appearance: this can be a hand dye, something previously overlooked as "ugly" or frayed "holes-and-all" scraps. Any of these can be a cotton, rayon, silk or even a shifty synthetic :} You need a "batting"---- i use flannelete, old or new (but washed: sheets, diaper material, old PJ's!) or something of similar hand and weight, as it gives enough body but still has some drape when the whole is complete. Lay your top fabric on this and DON"T worry about straightening or being on grain! Frankenstitch is a way of "leveling the field"---the more bumps and borgles you have, the better. In fact, you can cut your top fabric slightly larger than the batting, pull it in to fit and pin all the edges to hold together. (Use safety pins on the reverse so they don't stick you or snag the working threads.)

You can use any thread that will fit through any needle for this; just be aware of how much friction there is as it goes through your fabric. I use either 6 strands or 3 strands of embroidery floss, depending on the feel of the piece. One strand if using an embroidery floss or fine thread would snap because of the tension used in this technique, but could be effective if the stitches are smaller on a finer fabric. Experiment with perle cotton and any heavy machine thread as well.

Video in next entry--and maybe the one after that too!

On a side note, did you know that Mel Brook's "Frankenstein" is 35 years old now?!?!?!?!?!?! Some of us "Classics" just get better and better :}

lesson on Frankenstitch coming!

I promised to show someone how to do this technique. I'm trying to do a couple of small videos so will post later this afternoon. Stay tuned!