How to make a tapestry with your own hands?

Exquisite tapestry, created by yourself, can harmoniously fit into almost any interior and become its main "highlight". Its manufacture is not particularly difficult and is affordable even for beginner craftswomen.

In order to make a tapestry yourself, you will need a special needle, twine, threads suitable for needlework or multi-colored yarn, as well as a wooden stretcher in the shape of a circle or square, standing on legs of different heights.

Besides, in some cases, canvas and scissors, as well as a decorative frame in which the finished product will be placed, can come in handy.

The needle should be taken special, since a simple device with a plastic handle can quickly break. A better solution would be to purchase needles with a wooden base, and they should be of different lengths and diameters. The working length in this case ranges from 3.5 to 7.5 centimeters. The thickness of the main needle cannot exceed 2-2.5 millimeters, but varieties with a diameter of less than 2 millimeters are suitable for cotton-based work. For wool and synthetics, the use of needles with a thickness of 2 to 2.5 millimeters will be optimal.

The wooden frame should be selected so that the size of the frame is larger than the size of the planned picture, that is, to create a tapestry with sides of 40 centimeters, a frame with sides of 50 centimeters is required. The margin on the sides should be left at least 5 centimeters.

Threads are recommended to be selected with resistant coloring. They can be cotton, linen, woolen or artificial. As for the quantity, it is better to immediately purchase material with a margin. You can embroider a tapestry on different fabrics, but for the first time it is recommended to use a loose linen cloth with a loose thread weave. Expensive paintings are usually created on natural cotton fabrics, and synthetics are most often used for budget work.

Before you start making a tapestry yourself, the craftswomen should study the independent creation of a semblance of a loom, that is, a stretcher, which will be both the basis and the decorative frame of the product. The construction will require wooden or bamboo sticks, small cloves with a hammer, as well as quick-drying glue. Having measured the sizes of the trellis, it is necessary to transfer them to wooden blanks. For example, for a square tapestry with sides of 30 centimeters, a frame with a width of 50 centimeters and a height of 70 centimeters will be convenient. Frame components are cut so that each pair in the corner is connected into a triangle. Between themselves, they are then fixed either with nails or with glue.

Further along the upper and lower planks, it is necessary to drive the cloves symmetrically in one or two rows. One row is more suitable for children, but adult craftsmen traditionally use just two. It is better to make pencil markings and act carefully with a hammer so as not to destroy the wooden frame. The gaps between the cloves depend on the thickness of the base: twine or linen thread. It is customary to maintain a centimeter gap in the first case and a five-millimeter gap in the second.

The next step is to pull the twine. Having securely fixed it around the first upper nail, you need to go down and wrap around the first lower nail, and then go to the second upper nail. The whole frame is processed in a similar way, but in the last section the tip is wrapped several times, after which it is trimmed.

Having prepared the machine, it is necessary to fill in a woolen thread into it and proceed to direct weaving. It is worth adding that in the case when the frame remains to be a decorative frame of the tapestry, carnations should be driven on its wrong side. Sometimes warp threads are simply wound on the horizontal slats of the frame.

Any workshop on creating a tapestry at home will, in fact, require step-by-step to follow the same steps. Having decided on the shade of threads, you should deal with the existing methods of weaving, of which there are a huge number.

• The simplest one is linen, when the working thread passes through the warp threads through one.

• If you manually weave in a pattern-forming way, then the working thread will have to bypass all the warp threads twice.

• With the twill method of tapestry knitting, the main thread will need to be passed only between the odd main ones. Since the work is carried out in rows, it is important to be able to change and combine shades.

• For example, this can be done in the palace-style way, when the thread, reaching the border of the flowers, is turned back, and the row continues with a different color. In order not to create gaps, two working threads can braid the bordering main.

It will be more convenient to fix the sketch on the frame so that the warp threads are higher. For volumetric weaving, use of “braids” alternating with ordinary rows, or tying knots, is suitable. Carpet technique is also useful here, that is, fixing individual fragments of yarn on warp threads.

In general, even before working with the machine, it makes sense to study less complex techniques, for example, creating a tapestry on cardboard in the form of a circle in a frame. First of all, a circle is cut out of thick cardboard using a plate or a pan lid. Any thread is suitable for work, with the exception of terry and acrylic varieties, characterized by excessive "pull". Notches are made on the circumference, and the working thread is fixed by a knot in one of them. The thread is bent so that the work is always carried out on the front side.

Creating a non-woven tapestry on a fabric basis requires the use of a cotton canvas with sides equal to 50 centimeters, a special hook, scissors, hoops and colored synthetic threads. A pen or felt-tip pen will allow drawing on the wrong side of the fabric. To fix the base on the hoop, you should thread the thread into the hook, possibly using a thin wire. The thread is introduced into the surface until a loop is formed, and it is very important to monitor its tension. Movement should be reciprocating, and the needle should be directed only strictly down.

Another unusual way is the manufacture of a completely simplified non-woven tapestry, which is ideal for children's creativity. Felt, drapes or cloth are used as a base, on which pieces of the same fabrics, but of different colors, which create a pattern, are then pasted. For example, a house, the sun and a tree cut out of a drape are fixed on a felt cloth. Next, one synthetic cord slightly opens and is used to form branches, while others are used for clouds. Seams are made along the length of the felt while maintaining a gap of 2 to 5 millimeters.

During the working process, it is recommended to pull the thread "slide", and then lower it, laying along the figure. From time to time, the entire product should be slightly tightened with your hands in different directions. At the edges of the tapestry, the threads should be tightly stretched. If for this they are too thin, then you can pull them into two additions. If necessary, a rope is tied to the extreme threads, and it is also pulled to the sides of the subframe.

For weaving a tapestry it will be useful to use different short stitches.

1. Half-cross involves the creation of a seam in one plane and is used most often.
2. The continental stitch is characterized by the absence of straight lines from the inside, since they go at an angle and are much longer than from the front side.
3. A straight stitch is made strictly up, down or across. Using grips requires stitches that slightly overlap the previous ones.
4. The woven stitch is sewn in such a way that a whole row overlaps the adjacent one and forms a weave.
5. The stitch with a loop is accompanied by stretching threads that mimic the villi.

In the next video, you will learn how to make a do-it-yourself tapestry machine.