Yule Present 2017 Leads To New Skill

Yule Present 2017 Leads To New Skill

I mentioned a couple of blogs ago how Laura from Alyssa Rose Boutique (https://www.facebook.com/Alyssa.Rose.Boutique/) had given me a great deal of craft items. These included some tools I had never seen before.

Small Tool

  

Medium Tool

Since they had originally belonged to Laura’s Gran I thought I would ask my mum if she knew what they were. She had never come across them either so time for an Internet Search!

Large Tool 

I should mention at this point that the Large Tool I couldn’t really see because it was incorporated into a project started by Laura’s Gran. Therefore I knew that the tools were old, metal and used for some kind of sewing craft.

I used various descriptions to search through images. I finally found what I was looking for and I was lucky enough to find a website linked to the photograph.

http://www.knitting-and.com/embroidery/kays.html

I heartily recommend going to this site as it will explain far more than I can. A brief synopsis is that the tools are from the 1920’ – 1930’s and known as Kay’s Practical Embroider.

Kay’s Practical Embroider

This is the set after I had got them out of the material and cleaned up. What I learnt is that there are two sets. There are others that are just small leaves/petals and two small circles. I am not entirely sure whether this is a complete set or a mixture of both.

This craft work is known generally as Plush Work, Chenille Work or Amish Stump Work. As far as I can tell from my research that there are differences between the three and I think Plush Work is the best term.

The principle is like that of making a Pom-Pom. Wind yarn around the template and then cut along the middle and remove the template. I decided to try and finish the project Laura’s Gran had started.

Laura’s Yule Present 2017

I was very nervous doing this but I think the result is quite good. For those that are interested the Three Red flowers were done by Gran along with the leaf and stalk of the largest flower.

I did the infilling of the petals and the dark green part of the large flower. I also finished the pink flower and other stalks plus the embroidered leaf and the plush leaf.

I wasn’t quite sure what kind of yarn had been used before but I decided to use embroidery silks. This gave a lovely soft feel to the work.

So thanks very much Laura that is another string to my craft bow.