Do-it-yourself thread paintings - master class

Hand-made wall decorations give the interior a special charm. Pendants, panels, flowerpots, lampshades - the list goes on for quite some time. A variety of materials are suitable for such crafts. Much can be done from the remnants of wool or shreds. The needlewomen are usually reluctant to part with the waste products - what if they come in handy for something? And it’s really useful. If you are interested in paintings of threads with your own hands - the master class will not take much time. In our article, we will talk about different methods of manufacturing such decorative elements.

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What can you think of?

Do you constantly have small balls of thread? Well, this is just what you need to make the paintings. But first, think about which genre you prefer. DIY thread patterns are different:

• embroidered on fabric;
• embroidered on cardboard;
• knitted;
• made in the application technique;
• flocked.

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Art embroidery

This ancient genre is still popular today. The true masters of their craft sometimes do not differ from paintings. They can please the eye for many years and even centuries - there are threads that almost do not fade. This type of needlework has only two drawbacks - the process is very long and laborious, requiring patience and dexterity.

For the manufacture of paintings most often used several types of seams:

• cross;
• half cross
• various smoothing options.

Important! As a basis, it is best to take a fabric with plain weave. If there is nothing similar at hand - you can use any, but then you need a canvas.

For work you need:

• sharp scissors;
• wide-eye needles;
• thread floss;
• hoop;
• carbon paper (for surface);
• sketch;
• scheme (for cross and tapestry).

Cross and half cross?

These are counting seams. Of course, a picture with a cross or a half-cross can be done according to the sketch transferred to the fabric, but it’s better to prepare a diagram after all. You can find it in books on embroidery, on specialized sites, and also do it yourself.

To do this, you need one of the computer programs:

• Stitch creator;
• Crosti;
• “Embroidery is Simple.”

With the help of this rather simple software, you can turn any picture into a circuit, including a picture that you take yourself.

A half cross is good for embroidering landscapes with wooden architecture - a very interesting texture is obtained. The cross is often used for embroidery still lifes. But in principle, both seams and other seams can do anything.

Important! The sewing order can be any, but it is better to start with a fragment that is filled with threads of the same color. It is more convenient if the initial fragment is in the corner of the picture - then you definitely will not get lost in the bill. As with stitch embroidery, knots should not be.

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Where to get a sketch for the surface?

Finding a sketch for a stitch painting is no problem - it can be any drawing. This type of seam allows you to make paintings with subtle color transitions. The main thing is to choose the right thread. There are a lot of drawings for ironing both in needlework books and on the Internet. If you wish, you can do it yourself, the benefit of modern computer technology it allows you to:

1. Find a suitable image on the Internet or scan with a resolution of 300 dpi.
2. Open it in Adobe Photoshop.
3. Set to black and white.
4. With the “eraser” option, delete all unnecessary lines, leaving only contour lines.
5. Print what you get by setting the required dimensions for the printer.

There are two ways to transfer a pattern to a fabric:

• through a carbon paper;
• spraying method.

Carbon copy method

Carbon paper is now most often sold not in office supply stores, but where they sell items for sewing. Use it like this:

1. Fold the fabric on the table face up.
2. Straighten it carefully so that there are no wrinkles.
3. Apply the carbon sheet with the print side to the fabric.
4. Place a picture on top, also face up (you can pin it with tailor pins so that it does not slip).
5. Circle all the lines with a pencil or ballpoint pen.

Spraying method

For this method, you need a pin or needle, as well as crushed chalk or tooth powder:

1. Make punctures along all lines of the drawing at a distance of 0.5 cm from each other - the holes should be large enough.
2. Prepare the chalk (if there is no tooth powder, the chalk can be drained in a mortar).
3. Apply a pattern to the front of the fabric.
4. Fill the contours with powder.

Important! Before applying a drawing, a new cotton or linen fabric should be washed, or at least wet and ironed.

Embroidery

As a rule, only the space inside the contours of a picture is filled with a smooth surface. The background is fabric. But there are exceptions when there are practically no empty sites.

Important! For the production of paintings, the one-sided surface is most often used - the front side consists of long stitches located parallel or at a slight angle to each other, only dots remain on the wrong side. Need to embroider so that there are no knots. The knot is not tied at all, and the end of the thread is hidden under the stitches on the front side.

It’s better to start the work like this:

1. Pass the thread into the needle (if you have a floss, cut a piece of the desired length from the skein, separate 2 or 3 threads).
2. Bring the needle from the front side of the fabric to the wrong side, leaving a tip 1-1.5 cm long on the front side.
3. Having skipped 1 warp thread, bring the needle to the front side and pull out the embroidery thread completely.
4. Make a stitch 1-1.5 cm long.
5. Bring the needle to the wrong side, pull the thread.
6. Skip 1 weave thread, put the needle back on the front side.
7. Thus, fill in the entire fragment of the figure, which should be made with threads of the same color.

Important! The two-sided surface is called so because the pattern is obtained both from the front and from the wrong side. Accordingly - the thread leaves twice as much. This option is more suitable not for paintings with the wrong side facing the wall or covered with cardboard, but for curtains and other similar things. In the manufacture of panels there is no point in wasting extra thread. As for the order, you can start with any fragment.

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DIY yarn paintings

Murals crocheted or knitted look interesting in the interior. You can do them in two ways:

• knit in the form of a single web;
• knit individual parts, and then sew or paste on the background.

Option 1

This method is no different from knitting a regular straight web with a pattern. The main knitting is hosiery, that is, the alternation of the front and back rows. For knitting, you need a pattern that is done using cross-stitch programs.

The manufacture of knitted patterns has its own characteristics - this applies primarily to the transition from color to color:

1. Start knitting with the foreground color.
2. Knit the required number of loops according to the scheme.
3. Enter a thread of a different color, hooking it from the wrong side to the previous one.
4. Knit the estimated number of loops with a new thread.
5. Pull the first thread along the wrong side and continue the row - or enter the third color.
6. The wrong side also fits in the count, only the thread, when switching from color to color, should remain on the same side.

Important! For paintings that fit into one fabric, it is better to choose threads of the same thickness and close in quality.

Option 2

The picture can also be crocheted - it's even a little easier than knitting. You can knit:

• double crochet;
• simple columns;
• half-columns.

The only difficulty is the transition from color to color. In principle, when crocheting, the thread can be torn off and fixed each time. But this is not necessary:

1. Start knitting with the main color according to the pattern.
2. Go to the complementary color, and lay the main thread over the loops of the air chain or columns of the previous row, then they will be hidden under the new columns.
3. Having finished calculating the number of columns with additional color, switch to the main color.

Option 3

If you want to make paintings of threads with your own hands from individual parts sewn onto the background, it is better to crochet, and some delicate elements can be made using a special knitting fork. For the background, it is better to take a plain solid fabric:

• drape;
• cloth;
• gabardine;
• velvet;
• dense plain silk.

Important! A sketch can be very rough - just outline the background where the details will be. But for the parts themselves, you can make cardboard templates, especially if the elements have the same shape.

The simplest version of this picture is a composition of flowers. There are a lot of ways to crochet flowers, but you can also make them composite, from several circles or ovals. Leaves can be in the form of stripes or triangles. The order will be as follows:

1. Chalk out the locations of the parts.
2. Link all the elements.
3. Pin them to the background with tailor pins.
4. See if you like the composition.
5. Correct the elements if they are not in the way you would like.
6. Sew the fragments with threads in tone - you can do the same, but it is better to take thinner.

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Thread and glue paintings

Making embroidered and knitted patterns requires a certain amount of needle or crochet skill. Beginning needlewomen have a very difficult time. But what if, right now, inspiration has come and I want to do something beautiful, but experience is still not enough?

Nothing is impossible. A beautiful original panel can be made without any skills in needlework, armed only with patience and some tools and materials. You can make a picture of threads with your own hands in two ways:

• sticking pieces of thread directly to the fabric;
• sticking them first on a cardboard template, and then on the fabric.

Option 1

For a flocked picture you need:

• the remains of threads of different colors and different quality;
• dense fabric for the background;
• PVA glue;
• thin brush;
• Organizer
• sketch;
• piece of oilcloth or polyethylene.

Important! As an organizer, you can use, for example, matchboxes or any other small boxes, each of which contains pieces of threads of the same color and quality.

Since you have to work with glue, it is better to cover the table with oilcloth or plastic wrap, and then:

1. Cut the threads into pieces 2-5 cm long.
2. Put them in boxes.
3. Put a drawing (on dense fabric it is better to use a spraying method).
4. Decide which details will be painted in what color.
5. Lubricate one of the fragments with glue.
6. Fill the fragment with threads so that one tip is glued and the other sticks out.
7. In the same way fill the remaining sections - each with its own color.
8. As a result, you will get something like a terry rug.

Important! You can arrange the threads in rows or circles, the main thing is that they lie tight and the fabric is not visible.

Option 2

Thick woolen threads are suitable for this type of panel. They can be cut, but if round parts are expected, it is more convenient to take long pieces and stack them in a circle:

1. Make a sketch.
2. Cut out the basics from the cardboard - circles, leaves, flowers, houses, animal figures and in general everything that is supposed to be according to the plot you invented.
3. If the thread is long, you can insert it into a thick needle, pierce the bottle with PVA with a needle and stretch the thread so that it is saturated with glue. But you can smear the base, and then lay the thread on it.
4. Paste all the blanks with thread.
5. Glue the blanks to the background with the same PVA glue.

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Cardboard embroidery

With this technique, you can create very original images. You need:

• color cardboard - thin, but quite dense;
• awl;
• needle with a big eye;
• cotton threads “iris”, “poppy”, “snowflake”, you can use the mouline thread (it is better to divide the skein into 2 parts, 3 threads in each);
• pencil.

The sketch will be quite simple - outline the position of the elements and their approximate contours (for example, for a flower panel it’s enough to draw several circles of different sizes). If the cardboard is thick, use an awl to make punctures along the contours. Then everything will be simple:

1. Pass the thread into the wide-eye needle, but do not tie the knot.
2. Bring the needle and thread from the wrong side to the front.
3. Pass the needle and thread into any other hole.
4. Fasten the thread from the wrong side in any convenient way (for example, tie it to the main thread).

Stitches can be arranged in different directions.

Important! It is better to embroider round elements from the center, that is, each time bring the needle and thread to the front side in the center, then lay the stitch towards the hole on the circle and again lead to the middle, but on the wrong side. The remaining parts can be embroidered with parallel stitches or even in two layers - in the manner of a darn.

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DIY nails and thread picture

Does the combination of threads and nails seem something extreme? In vain. They combine very well with each other, especially if:

• As a background, take high-quality plywood.
• Cloves are also not suitable for everyone - you need wallpaper, small ones, but with beautiful hats.
• It will take another hammer and maybe a pencil.

Important! In this way, it is best to make fantasy or floral arrangements. Plywood should be very high quality, without any cracks, swelling and peeling. Before making a panel, it can be tinted with a stain.

Operating procedure:

1. Mark out locations for future details. If this is a flower, then you need to put a mark in the middle and draw a circle (you can use a compass, but not necessary). If you want to make a house - draw a rectangle with a window and a triangular roof, as children do.
2. Drive along the contours at small intervals wallpaper cloves, for the flower, drive the same nail in the middle.
3. Tie the end of the thread to any of the nails with any knot - if only it would not untie. A flower and other round elements are best to start from the center, rectangular - from the corner.
4. Pass the thread to the clove opposite, and wrap it in one turn.
5. Pass the same thread to the clove on the opposite side, next to the first, and also wrap it in one turn.
6. Thus fill the entire rectangle or square.
7. You can make a second layer by arranging the threads perpendicularly already stretched.

Important! If the element is round, fill it by passing the thread from the center sequentially to each clove on the circumference and vice versa.

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Insert into frame

Any picture made of threads or other materials, made by yourself, you need to draw:

• For embroidered panels, the most common wooden or metal frames are suitable, which you can buy or order in a baguette workshop.
• For knitted paintings, this option is also suitable, but such products will look good in wicker frames - from ordinary or synthetic twine.

Important! Glass in all these cases is not necessary.

• As for flocked canvases, it all depends on the quality of gluing. If the threads sit securely and do not fall out from the slightest blow, feel free to hang your rug on the wall without any frame.But if the fabric and threads are thin - you have to use a frame with glass. It is better if it is thin metal, as for photographs.

The panel of nails and threads is usually quite strong, the most important thing is that the cuts are of high quality. You can deal with them in three ways:

• just clean so that there are no protruding splinter;
• toned with a dark stain;
• burn.

Important! You need to think about the frame before you begin to make the picture.

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Stock footage

In this article, we have offered you many interesting ideas for creativity. Now you just have to choose the option suitable for you and proceed directly to the design of a picture of threads with your own hands with accuracy, interest and patience.