Sal kantha - first few stitches

I'd like to share and emphasize a couple of things before taking off.

I'm writing this because some of you have e-mailed me saying that you consider yourself as a beginner and hope these tips helps.These tips are for beginners only so if you are an advanced stitcher then please skip this.

- Transfer the pattern as neat as possible

- Do not use cheap plastic hoops.Please buy a good quality wooden hoop.

- While fixing the fabric in your hoop make sure that the fabric is along the grain which means the fabric threads should be straight and not diagonal in your hoop and it should be stretched drum tight.

- Do not hold the fabric in your hand and try to fix it in the hoop.Instead place the inner ring on your working table or any flat surface,keep your fabric on top of it and then push the outer ring on top of that.Tighten your screw and pull evenly on all sides of the fabric by rotating your hoop until you get the tension right.

- The floss/stranded cotton threads has 6 strands.Mostly we need only 2 strands of thread for kantha embroidery.You have to separate the strands and join them again to avoid twists while stitching.

- I prefer to stitch with 16'' length thread.You could also measure the thread from your finger tips to elbow and cut it off which will be 16'' length approximately.

- To avoid puckering of fabric do not pull the stitches tightly.

Come on in…. Let's start stitching.

I have stitched the inner line of the eye-shape with 'running stitch' which called as 'kantha stitch' in kantha embroidery using 2 strands of black Anchor stranded cotton thread.

The tutorial for running stitch is here

                                               

The stitch length and the distance between two kantha stitches should be less than ¼'' .

Stitch route is very important in any surface embroidery especially in kantha embroidery .I started to stitch at one tip of the eye-shape, worked around and ended it close to the starting point.

If you choose to work the kantha stitch by stabbing method ie going down and coming out of the fabric by keeping the needle at 90 degrees then it's fine but if you choose to do this by sewing method then my suggestion would be not to pick more than 2 stitches at a time.

If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment here.

P.S. Don't forget to come back next wednesday for the kantha update.

Happy stitching!

Anita.