My nailbinded and embroidered hat is finally finished! *happydance* And you can tell that it is my absolute favorite as I am wearing my new nailbinded and embroidered hat nearly every day for several hours. 😀
And before you ask – no, my sweetheart doesn’t object to it as he knows that I am always at least a little bit cold. Everyone who has met me during cold weather can tell that staying warm is definitely one of the main objectives of my life. But that’s not only because the cold makes me feel uncomfortable. No, it’s far more than that. Being cold is normally followed by being ill and I really don’t enjoy being ill. Therefore I rather stay warm and cosy and healthy! 🙂
…and this nailbinded and embroidered hat keeps me definitely warm and cosy. *giggle* Not only that, I think that it’s also a quite unique hat and looks pretty cool on my head, if i may say so. 🙂
…and one of the things which I love about America is that people actually appreciate if you are wearing things that are different or have a rather unique style. I had several people coming up to me who told me that they loved my hat while I was running errands in town. Back in Austria it would have just earned me some weird odd looks from the side… Yeah, I love living in America where I can be me – as crazy or as simple I wish to be… 😀
Yeah, nailbinding and embroidery – two of my favorite hobbies combined together. That also doubled the fun for me while I was working at this nailbinded and embroidered hat… 😀
But let’s take a closer look at how I embroidered my nailbinded hat – enjoy! 😀
As you can see on the pictures above and underneath, I started with a small satin stitch embroidery at the bottom. I did this to create a visual focus point which gives the eye some more detail to look and focus at. Though is quite similar in color, it is different enough in its shape and surface to provide a slight visual counterpoint to the otherwise quite simple and similar looking embroidery which I added along the border.
Continuing from this small satin stitch area I created some wavy lines and swirls by using the rather simple but effective chain stitch technique.
I really love this technique as it is not only very easy and fast to execute but it is also a slightly stretchable stitch – but only if you don’t work it with too much tension. As nailbinding is also quite flexible and stretchable due to its nature, chain stitch is a good stitch to embroider it with. When you are embroidering swirls and wavy lines you don’t really need to be that careful with the tension as the swirls and wavy lines normally provide enough give by itself to keep up the overall stretchability.
However, should you ever want to embroider straight lines with chain stitch on nailbinding, I highly advise you to be very careful with your tension! Every tension you add here restricts the stretchability of your nailbinded weave quite a lot and therefore can and will have a big effect on the size and wearability of the piece you are working at!
But back to the project on hand – the blue embroidery on the grey nailbinded surface of the hat already looked very promising. However, “promising” or “looks nice” is not what I am normally aiming for. As past projects have often shown me, it doesn’t need much to elevate a project from the status “nice” to “I love it” and I had the feeling that adding some simple white to the embroidered line might just do the trick here…
Well, what shall I say – I love it when a plan comes together! The white yarn worked in the simple stem stitch technique added just enough detail to make the embroidery stand out without distracting the eye too much from the overall piece! …and I love the subtle effect it creates! 😀
…and btw. here a picture of the backside of what you can see above:
I was once asked how it is to embroider on nailbinding. Well, it’s not the same as embroidering on a piece of fabric with a simple plain weave but on the other side it is not that much different either.
The main difference is that I have to pay much more attention to the surface I am working with when I am embroidering on top of nailbinding. With every single stitch I have to create enough “body” – what would be otherwise the fabric when it comes to “normal” embroidery – for the stitch by using the threads and loops of the nailbinding itself. Enough “body” is needed so the stitch actually follows the direction I am giving it and it also makes sure that the stitch itself upholds the stitch size I intend it to have. This is especially important due to the stretchable nature of the nailbinding as I want to uphold the integrity of the original look – which means that I want the stitches to fall back into their original postition and length once the tension is released again.
…and btw. do you remember the flap technique I wanted to try for the sides:
It’s so easy – so much easier than the technique I used before! …and I love the effect!
Well, I hope you enjoyed today’s posting about my new favorite nailbinded and embroidered hat. Btw. I looked through the file section on my computer and found several images of other nailbinded and embroidered projects I made in the past which you might like to see as well… 🙂
However – enough about nailbinding and embroidery today – I have to start cooking dinner for my sweetheart and then explore the 2 color spiral nailbinding technique a little bit further… Wonder how it would look with 3 colors like green, red and white… Hmmmm… 😉
More about my nailbinded and embroidered hat can be found here:
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