The Petit-Point Tutorial - at last!

Yesterday it was not looking good - had myriad errands that had to be run, and the weather was not sunny - so the light wasn't ideal for pictures - but too many delays make for never doing things at all - so out to the studio I went.

This tutorial will be in two parts - I did run out of time to do it all at once. Plus, there's a lot of pictures, so I didn't want to overload you with graphics!

Without further ado - the Tutorial!

Petit-Point Tutorial

Here is a picture of one of my petit-point pieces – the finished product that we will create – in a different color!

The first thing we need to do is gather together the materials to make the petit-point. You will need:
Perforated paper
Caron Watercolours Fibers – color of your choice
Colored markers
Big Eye Needle (one that the eye is the entire length of the needle)
Scissors
Perfect Paper Adhesive

It has been my experience that some of these materials will not be at your local craft store, and you will have to obtain them online. I will give you the sources I use – and if you find more – great! Let me know what they are!!

Where I buy:
Perforated paper – heavyweight paper with little holes punched – it is made to resemble Aida fabric used by cross-stitchers. The source I use is one that not only has the paper, but also the Watercolours fibers – love it when that happens.

The site is: http://www.nordicneedle.com/

The paper you will find under “Stitching Accessories”. There are two sheets per package – I always buy white, but it does come in colors too.

The Watercolours fibers are made by Caron, and are found on this same site under – amazing – thread! There is a huge selection of color combinations, it
will be hard to choose which ones to buy! You have been warned!
Colored Markers – these are available most everywhere. I use Prismacolor Markers, but any kind will do. I like these because there are so many color choices!

Big Eye Needle – this same site: http://www.nordicneedle.com/ has these too.
The eye of the needle is the length of the needle, and it is long enough to hold onto while making your stitches.
Scissors – any household scissors will do – make them small enough to cut the
Paper along a line of holes and cut the fibers.

Perfect Paper Adhesive – This I only use if I am attaching my finished piece to something else. Any kind of paper adhesive would work as well. This is widely available at craft stores.

The basic materials:

Step One: Cut the paper to size. You can make the petit-point any size you like. My little pieces are 24 holes wide by 19 holes tall – measures approximately 1 ½ by 1 inch.

The whole sheet of paper:

I have found that making a ‘master’ petit-point piece is very helpful – I cut one to the size I want, but then only use it for a pattern to cut out the ones I will be using – saves on measuring, counting, etc…

The basic materials photo above shows the cut-out piece of perforated paper before coloring.

Step Two: Color the paper
I usually use two different markers to color the paper – it gives depth, and looks better in the background. There will always be a tiny bit of the background showing – along with the borders around the outside.

I first colored the paper with red-pink:

then with orange:

Don’t forget to run the marker around all the edges – leaving them white makes them stick out! Not a good thing!

Step Three:
Then cut off a length of thread from the Caron Watercolours – I usually measure out as far as my arms will stretch out – and cut it that length. (Think that measures out approximately a yard). Here I have used the color Deep Sunset.

Here is the thread cut:

The thread is 3-ply, and I only want to use one, so I have to separate it from the cut piece. This does mean your thread will go three times as far….and that’s a good thing!

Step Four:
Here is one ply of the fiber separated from the other two:

That's it for today!! Tomorrow we'll get to the actual stitching and finishing up this tiny project!!

I would appreciate any comments/feedback on this tutorial - as I have never done this before - just wanted to give something back!