Yet Another Cockade Tutorial (Part 2)

In this post I'm going to show you a few things you can do with the technique you learned in Part 1 of this series. These photos are imperfectly categorized, but as you read along you should get the idea.

Hopefully this will give you some ideas so that you can go and make your own unique cockades!

1. Tail variations.

In Part 1 I chose to tuck the tails of the ribbon into a loop so that they don't show. Here are a few cockades where I left the tails dangling out.

Two cockades with their tails left out. Both ribbons are
1 inch wide, and the loops are 2 inches long.

Closer view. I like the tails to separate, and they tend to
want to stay stacked on top of each other (which is
another look worth trying).

This one has the tails left out and every third loop is extra
long. 1 inch wide ribbon with 2 inch long loops.

2. Ribbon width variation.

In this variation I've used a wider ribbon, but the length of the loops are the same: two times the ribbon width. A wider ribbon, of course, results in a larger cockade.

An unfinished cockade made from 1 and 1/2 inch wide
ribbon, with loops 2 times the ribbon width. This is a very
large cockade, measuring almost 6.5" across. The cockade
from the Part 1 tutorial is pictured for comparison.

3. Loop length variation.

In this variation I changed the loop length to one times the ribbon width. With the one inch ribbon, this made a wonderfully springy little cockade.

The loops on this cockade are 1 times the ribbon width (so,
1 inch here). It's finished with two brass beads stacked on
top of each other.

This one looks great from the back, and would have worked
equally well with the back as the front.

4. Stacking variations.

I made another cockade with a one inch ribbon, with two inch loops, but instead of attaching it to the felt, I stitched the loops to each other.

Don't cut the thread after making the loops. Instead of
stitching the loops directly to the felt, after pinning them
to each other (Step 5 in Part 1) stitch the loops to each other.

I made another cockade from a much wider ribbon (two and a quarter inches wide).

This cockade is made from a massive 2 and 1/4 inch wide
ribbon. The loops are 3 inches long (yeah, that's not really
a multiple of the ribbon width, but it worked for the look
I was after).

The back side of this one also looks really great.

I then stacked one on top of the other, and stitched the back sides of the top cockade to the bottom cockade.

I stitched the smaller cockade on top of the bigger one and
finished it with a brass button.

This one also has a lot of potential on the back side (sorry,
photo came out a bit dark).

Here are a couple where I added a ruffle instead of stacking multiple cockades.

The unfinished cockade here is a 1 and 5/8 inch ribbon with
1 inch loops (ok, I'm ignoring the proportions again). To the
back of it I've stitched a simple knife-pleated ruffle.

This cockade is made from 1 and 1/2 inch ribbon with
1 and 1/2 inch loops. The lower layer is loops cut and sewn
individually to the back, a total cheat to save ribbon.
I also attached the tails separately. It's finished with a
brass button.

And that covers all the cockades I've made in experimenting with this technique. There are a few other variations I want to try, so stay tuned for future pics.And please share any cockades that you've made! I love to see other people's creativity.

Yet Another Cockade Tutorial (Part 1)

There are quite a few tutorials on the web that explain how to make a cockade. So why am I adding another? For a simple and selfish reason: I figured out a method that works for me, and when I wanted to show some friends I couldn't remember the details anymore, and had to figure it out all over again! Hence, this post is as much for my own reference as perhaps to teach anyone who happens upon it.

Anyway! My method is based on a tutorial I found at instructables.com, with tweaks and additional steps to make the process easier. Here's what you need:

1. Ribbon. I'm using a one inch wide grosgrain in this tutorial, and suggest you use a ribbon at least one inch wide for your first cockade. I haven't tried any other type of ribbon for this type of cockade, and imagine satin and wired ribbons would work just fine, but for the first time grosgrain is the easiest material to use.

2. A small piece of felt. I'm using a polyester eco-felt, made from recycled materials.

3. A ruler and air soluble pen, or chalk, or anything that will come out without water.

4. Thread to match the ribbon, thread wax, and a sharp needle. If you haven't gotten into the habit of waxing hand sewing thread, I highly recommend it. It helps keep the thread from tangling around itself.

5.  Lots of sharp pins. I like using steel silk pins because they are VERY sharp, and don't leave any mark after they come out.

One inch wide striped grosgrain ribbon.
I like using striped ribbons, because the stripes
make interesting shapes in the finished cockade.

Step 1: mark fold points on the ribbon.

Mark folds on the ribbon.  I'm making 2" long folds here.
Leave a generous tail, at 3-4 times the length of the folds.

I'm experimenting with measurements in multiples of ribbon width, the way Candace Kling does for flower making. Here I'm using 2 times the ribbon width, so my folds are two inches long. The air soluble marker was a bit hard to see in the photo, so I've gone over them digitally. Since the marks will fade, I only make about a dozen marks or so, and mark more as I go along.

Step 2: fold the loops of the cockade and pin them together.

First fold and pin.

Second and third fold, makes your second loop. Pin.

Many folds later, I have 4 loops (counting on the left side).

In this step you make the loops of the cockade. I'm right handed, so I keep the roll of ribbon to my right. I make two folds at once, one to the left, one to the right, so that I have one loop, when you look at the left side. Pin each loop to the previous loops. After the first loop, there isn't really any way to pin through all the layers, so I pin through just enough to keep the top loop in place.

Finished stack of loops. Leave a generous tail
at the beginning and end.

I find 10 to 12 loops makes a nice cockade. Sixteen is great for a denser cockade. More than 18 is probably overkill.

Step 3: stitch the loops to each other.

For this step I use a matching thread, doubled up and knotted at the ends (for demonstration purposes, and laziness, the thread here is white). Pass the needle through the tail and through both layers of the first loop, close to the corner. Secure the thread.

Start by going through the bottom tail and the first loop.

Secure the thread by passing the needle between
the threads and under the knot.

Finish by pulling taught.

For the remainder of this step, you are essentially back stitching each loop to the previous loop.

Pass the needle through the first and second loops,
close to the corner. Be sure to go through all layers.

Pass the needle through the second and third loops.

Repeat, two loops at a time, until you've gone through
the whole stack and the end tail.

Take an extra stitch through the last loop and the bottom tail, to secure the thread. Do not cut the thread off!

Step 4: remove the pins and connect the start and end. 

Remove all the pins.

Pinch the tails together and stitch through both twice.
At this point you can tie off the thread.

Yes, the thread has mysteriously changed color here. I needed a better photo of this step, so took one of a cockade I made after the one in this tutorial.

What to do with the tails: you can leave them hanging out, and trim them at an angle in or a dove tail. Here I made another loop from one of the tails, folded the other
tail inside, and stitched the end of the outer tail to the inner.

One tail is folded into an additional loop and the other
tail is tucked inside. I then stitched the outer tail to the
inner near the cut end.

Step 5: arrange the loops.

Turn the cockade over so that the stitches are on the underside.

Arrange the loops so that they're all going in the same direction.

At this point I like to pin the loops to each other so that
they are spaced evenly.

This is the bottom side of the cockade, but note that this
can also be your top side, which results in a slightly
different style.

Step 6: attach the felt and finish the center.

A piece of felt on the back of the cockade supports the loops and helps them maintain their spacing. It also gives you a foundation to, say, attach a pin back or a clip, something to stitch to if you want to attach it permanently to something.

Cut a circle of felt smaller than the cockade.

Pin the felt in place and whip stitch it in place.

Finish by putting something in the center to cover up
the hole. Fancy buttons, beads, or flowers work well.
Here I've used a pearl bead.

And now we're done! I hope this tutorial is clear. I welcome any and all feedback, and am happy to edit this tutorial so that it works for everyone.

This is now an abominably long post, so I will end. In Part 2 I'll talk about a few variations, and show you some of the cockades I've made in the process of learning this technique.

Happy stitching!

Machine Embroidery for a Large Parasol: Step-by-Step

I've gotten a couple of requests to explain the process of doing machine embroidery. In this post I'll go through the steps, using as an example the embroidery for a parasol canopy. Restoring this particular parasol is something I've been working on in fits and starts for years and hey, it's time to get it done.

To manipulate embroidery designs, I use a popular software application called Embird (www.embird.com). It's immensely powerful, and quite a bit more affordable than the software put out by the sewing machine companies. I can arrange embroidery designs right on my machine, but I find using a computer far easier, flexible, and more accurate.

For this project, the first step was to scan the pattern for the canopy's panels (the process of making the pattern isn't relevant here, so I won't get into it). I uploaded the scan into Embird, and created an outline of stitches out of it. This is so that I know what area to fit the embroidery into; I won't actually stitch out the outline in this case, because it won't fit into the hoop and isn't strictly necessary (it would merely be handy).

Outline of the canopy panel (blue triangle), over the hoop (tan area), in Embird.
It doesn't actually fit in the hoop, I'm only using it to figure out how
to place the designs. I'll erase the outline from the final design.

Next, I picked the designs I want to have go onto the panel. These designs are from OESD (www.embroideryonline.com). I use purchased designs whenever I can. I've created designs from scratch before (a process called "digitizing") but doing so can be very time consuming. So, I try to find patterns that will do the job before I consider digitizing something from scratch. Here, I already had these patterns from earlier projects, so only had to pick what I wanted.

The design contains five purchased elements (four pictured here) from OESD.
Since I already had these elements, I didn't need to digitize any from scratch.

The next step is to arrange and duplicate the design elements. I shrank or grew the elements to fit the space, both of which can be troublesome. The software is good, but not perfect. When you grow a design, it may not increase or add stitches quite right, which creates distortions. When you shrink a design, it may not reduce the stitch sizes right. Shrinking is more difficult, because it can result in super-dense areas that can't be stitched out. Here, I had to futz with the rightmost elements, to shrink them and reduce the stitch count (and the oak leaves still ended up too dense. Oh well.)

When arranging these elements, I tried to place them so that the jumps between them are really short or insignificant. My machine trims jump stitches on the right side, but not on the wrong side. Thus, jumps on the wrong send will get stitched over, making them harder to remove. So, since I need the wrong side to look as clean as possible, I tried to keep the jumps short.

At this point I checked that trimming codes and stop codes were in the right places. This design is all one color, so I wanted no stops. I also made it trim almost all (but not all) the jumps.

You'll also notice fine blue and red lines running down the middle of the hoop. These indicate the right and left areas of the hoop. With this large hoop, the machine stitches all of one side, then all of the other, so the design needs to be placed such that stitches from one side don't overlap into the other.

The finished design. I grew some elements and shrank others to get them
to fit the space, checked the trimming and stop codes, and checked
the left-to-right placement in the hoop.

Normally, you would now check that the design is ok, by doing a stitch out, on scrap fabric, of all or part of the design (it's a good idea to test elements you grew or shrank). I confess to being rather impatient with this project, however, and forging ahead.

The base fabric for the canopy was a medium weight, cream linen.

The base fabric for the canopy: medium weight, cream linen.

For the top thread, I used a cotton quilting thread. I figure this approached what might have been done historically. Also, it has a slightly heavier weight than sewing thread, closer to that of rayon embroidery thread (but without the shine of rayon). For the bobbin I used a poly sewing thread. Generally, I embroideries come out better if the bobbin thread is really light weight, and thus there's specialty "bobbin thread" for machine embroidery. As far as I know, however, it only comes in white and black, which wouldn't work here, since I expect the back side of the embroidery to be seen.

Left: poly sewing thread, for the bobbin.
Right: cotton quilting thread for the top.

The next step is to hoop the fabric and stabilizer. Since I expect the wrong side of the embroidery to be seen, I used a water soluble stabilizer underneath the fabric.

Layering order when hooping: lower hoop, stabilizer (water
soluble in this case), fabric, and upper hoop.

And away we go!

The machine goes to work.
For the first panel, I hung around and
kept an eye on it, but after the first
I wandered off and did other things.

After one side finished, I rotated the hoop and continued on the other side.

After one half is done, rotate the hoop
and do the other half.

And now the whole thing is done.

Finished front side.

Finished back side.

Before I popped it out of the hoop, I trimmed any remaining jump stitches on the front side, and also the jump stitches and dangly threads from the back side. Leaving the fabric in the hoop keeps it taut and makes this step go faster. My favorite tools for trimming are a pair of long tweezers and short thread snips: the tweezers raise the thread from the fabric, and the thread snips can get close to the surface of the fabric.

Tools for cleaning up extra threads: tweezers and
thread snips.

Once I cleaned up jumps and loose threads, I removed the fabric from the hoop, I trimmed away extra stabilizer, re-hooped, and started the next repeat. I was stitching along the selvedge edge of the fabric, so once I had four repeats, they went into my kitchen sink for a short soak, and then over a rack to dry; once dry, they were ready to cut out.

Four panels getting a soak to remove the stabilizer.

And that's it!

Except: I need the other four panels to complete the canopy.

This, it turns out, is a large design, with over 55,000 stitches. Frankly, that quantity of stitches takes a long time to stitch out. I also learned that with this large hoop (the largest that fits the machine), the embroidery arm moves more slowly than it does with smaller hoops. Thus, each panel took a veeeery long time to stitch out, approximately THREE hours of stitch time. That's stitch time, which excludes time to change bobbins, rotate the hoop, and deal with broken threads (It happens. Often. You learn to live with it.) And I needed EIGHT panels!

I had wanted to finish this parasol before a certain date. I totally failed. So, I say lesson learned: pay attention to the stitch count! I could have simplified the design, and some areas are still too dense, which didn't cause problems but means the time wasted on unnecessary stitches.

I'm going to wrap this project up soon. As of this writing, I still need the eighth panel. I also need to do the restoration work the frame needs. When all of that is done, I'll report back. Stay tuned.

Parasol Workshop, Part 2

EDIT 11/25/11: I removed the canopy from the parasol and just got 'round to putting it back on, so I retook the photos for this post. Sorry it took so long!

EDIT 8/10/11: I realized that I made a small mistake in explaining how to attach the canopy to the ribs. I've removed the incorrect photos. When I get around to doing another parasol restoration, I'll post new photos.


Hot on the heels of Part 1, here's Part 2, so that my gal-pals can finish up the parasols they were working on yesterday. Gals, I expect finished parasols! And photos!!!

In this post I'll explain how to attach the canopy to the frame, in somewhat nauseating detail, so that hopefully this process is clear.

What you need: buttonhole twist, preferably silk (I used cotton-covered poly, because that's what I had handy), and a needle with an eye large enough for the buttonhole twist, but no so large that it won't pass through the hole at the tips of the ribs.

First: put the canopy on the frame. Yes, really.

Second: attach the canopy at the tips of the ribs.This is where the buttonhole twist and needle come in.

1: Fold the fabric over the rib.

2: Pass the needle through the folded fabric, and through the hole in the rib tip.

3: Pass the needle through the fabric and the hole again.

4: There should be a loop underneath the rib tip. Pull the ends of the thread so that the loop is taught.

5: Make one overhand knot. Don't unthread the needle, so that it's ready for the next one.

6: Make a second overhand knot, so that you have a square knot.

7: Make a third overhand knot.

8: Trim, leaving short tails.

Next: attach the canopy to the ribs.This helps the canopy to behave properly, and I've seen it done, in some form, on every antique parasol I've ever seen. I'm going to go a little quicker here.

1: at a point 1 to 1/2 inch below the hinge (towards the rib tip), pass the needle under the rib and through the seam allowance, twice. Because this is a very small canopy, I'm putting these stitches about 1/2 below the hinge. On a larger frame, 1 inch works better.

2: tighten, and make three overhand knots like you did on the rib tips. Trim the extra thread, leaving tails.

3: repeat 1 to 1/2 inch above the hinge.

I'm going to stop here, because I'm going to finish attaching the canopy in a manner more similar to how the original canopy was done (a slight variation from what I just explained).

I did finish attaching the canopy to the frame, which makes this parasol ready to go...but, of course, I can't leave well enough alone! This parasol will also get a lining (just like it had originally), and TRIM. But more on that later.