In one of my earlier posts I mentioned attending a workshop to learn to tufted a rug, which was a recently popularised technique where you can create personalised rugs using a mechanical tufting gun. But there is also 'punch needle' - a much older technique that precedes tufting, involving the manual punching of thread into the cloth by hand using a punch needle.
When I went to the tufting workshop, my one disappointment was that I would not be able to justify the cost and space required to tuft at home. Plus the noise that's produced by the tufting gun would surely be a nuisance to the neighbours. However, this is where punch needle has the advantage! The manual punching using a needle means it's quiet, space-efficient, and low-cost!
I'm writing this blog post to document my first attempt at making a punch needle coaster. My biggest inspiration is a Youtuber called KonominTV, who makes three-dimensionally-looking punch needle works by skilfully trimming the edges of her work.
So my plan is to make a cat coaster in a similar fashion. And here are the tools I used :
a punch needle ( 3.5 mm size and 2.2mm)
an embroidery hoop (I'm using )
embroidery cloth (or monk cloth)
4ply yarn in various colours matching a cat's fur colour
standard embroidery threads, to make the smaller facial details
a pair of scissors
Luckily for me, I only had to purchase a punch needle kit as I already have everything else as leftovers from a previous embroidery project!
Before I begin, I should clarify that punch needle is often used to work on the 'back side' or 'wrong side' of the finished work to create the fluffy rug effect, as the punching surface has a neat embroidery-like look, whilst the other side - depending on the depth of each punch - often have much longer loops (see image below).
I wanted my cat coaster to have facial details with an embroidered look, to contrast from to the the fluffy rest of the head, so I actually turned my hoop around, and worked on the 'correct side' of the canvas instead. I must admit in hindsight, that this might not have been the smartest decision, as the details risk getting pulled out when working on the rest of the coaster - creating the details using traditional method of embroidery (with a stitching needle) might have been more secure.
Next, I turned the hoop to the 'wrong side' and punched in the rest of the coaster, one colour section at a time, from the outermost outlines and working my way inwards (see image below). This was a very therapeutic process, similar that feeling of colouring in a colouring book.
Now that the punching is all done, next comes the fun part!
Turn to the 'correct side' of the canvas, the work looks like a mess - the facial details are all hidden under the crowding of neighbouring yarn. But fear not, we can clean that up!
Take a pair of sharp scissors, and patiently and gently cut through all of the loops - unless you prefer the look of loops! In fact, you can use the appearance of the loops to your advantage, for example if you were trying to achieve the look of a Spaniel's curly ears.
Next, trim the entire work to even out the height of the yarn, and tiny up the edges. This process is how I imagine how a dog groomer would trim an overgrown Pomeranian.
The trimming around the facial details is a bit more tricky, as you need to reduce the height of the yarn as it gets closer to the details - so have your scissors at a 45 degree angle.
And finally, to finish the coaster, I trimmed and hemmed the cloth border around the coaster and sewn on a similar shaped felt fabric as a backing of the coaster. A lot of people use fabric glue on the backside of the work to make sure that no yarn gets pulled out by accident in the future. But as this was only a practice piece, I have skipped this part!
Here is the finished coaster! ✨✨✨
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