The thread art technique in this tutorial should be very easy for anyone who has used a needle and thread before. Its versatility makes it ideal for kids projects, home décor DIY, or gift making. The technique can be applied on a few different mediums, including fabric and card stock. You can change the size of the needle and the type of thread on the same piece to add texture and color choices are virtually unlimited. It works equally well for freeform geometrics as it does for actual pictures of things like fish, butterflies or even the Star Trek symbol.
Materials
Paper plate (for practice)
Fabric, card stock or other medium that can be sewn through
Needle
Thread (sewing thread, quilting thread, embroidery thread; solid or variegated)
Picture frame or embroidery hoop (for hanging and displaying the piece)
Pencil
You will be working with angles (as shown in photo) to create your piece. Think of each angle like the corner of a graph, with points along each side and the corner standing for “0”. Each side will be made up of points on the graph. One side will be lettered ABC and so on and the other side will be numbered 123 and so on.
The first thing you need to do is mark a pattern on the paper plate. Once you understand the method, you can come up with complex designs and images, but for now, just start with a basic angle. It should be approximately the same as the area between your fingers when you make a peace sign “V”, or about a 45 degree angle. Once the basic outline has been drawn, you need to mark the dots, about ¼ inch apart down each side of the angle, starting with the center point. There should be an equal number of dots on either side of the center, so for now, use 12 on either side. For this practice run, go ahead and mark the numbers and letters also. Make the corner point “0”, with numbers running down the left side, and letters down the right.
Use the needle poke through each dot. This will save you from having to draw the pattern on both sides! Thread your needle. Starting from the back of the plate, sew through the “0” dot and pull the thread through to the knot. Sew down through dot 12, pull tight, then sew up through dot 11. Sew down into dot A, tighten, then up through dot B. From dot B, you will sew to dot 10, and so on, until you have sewn through all edge dots once and into the center twice. Your last stitch will be from dot L back to dot 0.
