Steampunk Needle-Punched Vest
A note from Carol Nunns, Sew Generously, St. Charles, Illinois:
I wanted to try BERNINA’s Needle Punch Accessory, but I’m truly not a daisies and vines person. I was looking for a way to make needle punch texture work for me…something simple with interest. The vest was a very easy Kwik Sew pattern (Kwik Serge 3791). It was made from a lightweight wool fabric that we have at Sew Generously. Again, the vest didn’t really lend itself to anything floral or dainty.
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I liked OESD’s Steampunk collection #12378 for its lightweight stitching and current look, so I used a couple of the designs for this project. I wanted to add texture, depth and color using needle punch, so I added a bit of digitizing to the design using BERNINA Embroidery Software 6. First a placement stitch for the roving, then I created a couple of circles that worked within the design to punch down the roving. (Instructions for digitizing the circles were in Amanda Whitlatch’s February Software Sampler webinar.)
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It worked out really well to combine needle punch with an already-digitized design. With the needle punch tool and stitch plate on the machine, I “embroidered,” (punched) the background circles for color. For more punching on the roving, I just ran the “thread color” again, and the machine punched another round. Then I switched back to embroidery, and finished up the design.
Bonus: The backside of the embroidered needle punch looks awesome!
(I’d love to play with this more, I just need more than 24 hours in a day.)
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One comment on “Steampunk Needle-Punched Vest”
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Carol, this turned out so cool! I love the needle punching combined with the embroidery–definitely need to try that.