Using linen from fabric store?

[seedreemer]

Has anyone ever used linen from the fabric store to stitch on? You know, the stuff you buy by the yard/meter to make clothes with? I might try some. I was looking at it the other day, but I didn't feel like standing in line to get some cut. It'd be considerably more affordable.

Surely I'm not the first person to wonder about this.

[fccs]

I'm only guessing here, but I would think the thread count of linen intended for clothing or decor would be much higher than the usual 28 or 32 count we use for stitching.

[Mrs Milkybar Kid]

It may not be an evenly woven linen, ie not the same number of stitches wide as high. Doesn't stop you from stitching on it of course, your stitches might just end up more rectangular than square .

[NeedleAndFork]

I wondered the exact same thing last year, and decided to experiment. I found that none of the linens I tried (I bought 6 inch cuts of several of them) were an even weave. This meant that a block of 10 stitches wide and 10 stitches tall wouldn't be square, but rectangular. If you're working on a pattern that can take the distortion, and your eyes can handle the smaller count (the fabric I ended up using was 30 x 40 count) then it's worth a try. I did a couple of christmas ornaments on some plainweave last year and loved how they turned out. I posted pictures of my initial experiements here on the forum too - you can see them here: http://www.crossstitchforum.com/viewtop ... on#p575737" target="_blank" target="_blank

A note that looking back I realize I should have mentioned in that post - those pictures are MUCH larger than the actual fabric is. Someone mentioned burlap in that thread thinking that's what I was photographing since the weave looks so big. But in reality, the photo with the hoop in it will give you an idea of scale- that hoop is a 4" hoop. The weave is actually quite small, but the strands of thread in the weave are thin, so the holes are visible. This is the opposite of what I found with most linens in the fabric department of JoAnns. There the linens I bought samples of had much thicker thread and smaller holes. This made it much more difficult (though not impossible) to count stitches compared to evenwoven linen.

[seedreemer]

Very interesting, NeedleandFork. To look at your pics it certainly doesn't look that small but having looked at it in real life I know how tiny those holes really are. I didn't realize it would be distorted though. I'm glad I didn't bother.

Christy

[NeedleAndFork]

Very interesting, NeedleandFork. To look at your pics it certainly doesn't look that small but having looked at it in real life I know how tiny those holes really are. I didn't realize it would be distorted though. I'm glad I didn't bother.

Christy

I wouldn't use it for something like a HAED.. but if you're making small items like ornaments, especially more rustic/simple designs where a slight distortion won't hurt it, it could work. I've considered trying out a LHN patterns on it - they're simple enough that they probably would look just fine at a slightly different height to width ratio. Here's another sample stitched on the same fabric:



Unless you compare it to the pattern you wouldn't even know that the end result is a bit wider in proportion to the height than it was designed to be.

[richardandtracy]

This is what they must have done in the past, before Evenweave, Hardanger & Aida. Basically any pre 1850 embroidery must have been done on whatever was available in the local shop/weaver's. There wouldn't have been anything 'special, just for embroidery'.

It's interesting to see people thinking about going full circle & right back to the roots of the craft.
It amused me recently when I saw in the book 'Ramage at Trafalgar' (written in the 1960's by Dudley Pope) how the eponymous hero's wife wanted some French embroidery threads that had been smuggled in to England, and it struck me that French embroidery floss - DMC this time - is what we're using, almost 210 years later.

Regards,

Richard.

[NeedleAndFork]

This is what they must have done in the past, before Evenweave, Hardanger & Aida. Basically any pre 1850 embroidery must have been done on whatever was available in the local shop/weaver's. There wouldn't have been anything 'special, just for embroidery'.

If I had to guess based on my limited knowledge of weaving processes, I would think the order of development was from plainweave (non-evenweave) to aida type fabrics geared towards those who wanted an easier way to make even crosses - maybe at first it wasn't even completely square but just a technique of weaving that formed the holes. Then I imagine evenweaves came later - as it must take more technology to maintain a perfectly even count between the weft and warp. This would explain why evenweaves cost so much more than plain weaves. Of course, I don't think that they cost THAT much more to weave to justify $90 a yard prices compared to $8 - $12 a yard that I see for plainweave linen or $3 a yard for the plainweave cotton I posted images of above. That in part is because it is a specialty item for a craft, so there is a higher markup. Just like that red fishing line stuff for gridding is sold at such a ridiculous markup when all it is is regular fishing line in the appropriate weight for gridding. I think to a certain point in this economy it the markup has started to cause a backlash, where people are starting to look for other options that are more reasonably priced such as regular sewing fabric as an option when even weave is not absolutely necessary.

OT note: I finally got so irritated at Chrome for underlining every instance of plainweave, aida, and evenweave in the paragraph above as a spelling mistake that I went ahead and added them to the dictionary so it doesn't keep prompting me to fix them. So much better! Now I don't feel like an illiterate bum each time I submit a post with what looks like a dozen spelling errors.

[seedreemer]

Richardandtracy, you know I hadn't even thought about what they used 150 years ago. How interesting! I've got a book with some extreme close-ups of old samplers that I'm going to look at later.

Needle, no I'd never know that was slightly distorted. It looks just fine to me and lovely. I don't do HAEDs and anything else I do that requires solid stitching is done on Aida so I might try some store bought stuff for a small project. As my eyes have gotten older though I find myself preferring a larger count so we'll see how it goes.


Christy

[Lain]

I use linen for stitching small project. I have used them to make pillow cases. But I had to try out a few different linens to get what I like.

[seedreemer]

I just remembered I did a small project on burlap once and it was taller than wide. I enjoyed the big holes though.

Lain, those are lovely!