Dressing a Scroll Frame

Since refurbishing my scroll frame, that I wrote about in my last post here, I've now attached my linen to the frame. That too was quite a lengthy process. The book Whitework by Lizzy Lansberry, a Royal School of Needlework publication, and Jenny Adin-Christie's video on dressing a slate frame were both very useful guides (although a slate frame and a scroll frame are slightly different). These photos are a record to remind me of how I did it.

 To begin, I ironed the shop creases out of the linen and pulled a thread one centimetre from the edges.

That made it easy to fold over a straight hem and machine stitch it in place on all four sides. It's a fine linen and I thought it needed reinforcing. The side hems weren't a problem when the linen was later rolled onto the scroll bars, though it could be the case with a heavier linen.

With plenty of pins to secure the linen in place, I stitched it to the cotton twill tape on the top roller bar, beginning in the centre and working outwards. Years ago someone gave me an unused ball of DMC Cordonnet 100. It's a nice strong thread for attaching the linen. I had to use a little slip of folded paper to coax the dense hard thread through the eye of my needle.

It was awkward stitching close to the wooden dowel and with the pins close by, so stab stitching was the best option. I found it interesting that the stitches are better worked at right angles to the dowel rod.

It's seldom that I use a thimble but this time my fingers soon got sore and out it came.

This is half way with the linen attached to the top and bottom rollers. I was able to roll up the excess linen and tighten the wing nuts to hold it really taut. So far so good.

Along the sides, I attached twill tape to the linen after I had rolled up the excess linen. This might not be the best way to do it, but if the thick tape was attached and then rolled up with the linen, I thought the layers of tape on the sides of the rollers might distort the fabric once it was under tension. It does mean that if  I need to unroll and work on that bit of linen, I'll have to re-attach the sides. For now that is in the distant future and by then I might have other plans for that small strip of linen.

I used Thread Heaven thread conditioner on the rough dry string so that it passed more easily through the tape. And the vicious-looking upholstery needle poked through the thick twill with ease. I was a bit skeptical about it. However, I soon became comfortable working with the long curved needle around the obstruction of the wooden sides of frame.

And here it is, all framed up. Setting up the linen in the scroll frame seemed like a lot of work, but once the string was tensioned, the linen was as tight as drum. There are no creases in sight, and it was well worth the time spent.

Working on the frame is on hold for now because I'm preparing to go to a family reunion in South Africa soon. I will take a couple of small embroidery projects with me. After all, what is a holiday without a little embroidery?

'Till next time, happy stitching! 

P.S. 30/01/2023 Jessica Grimm also has a video on dressing a slate frame here.

Nuts, Bolts, Dowel Sticks and the Laughing Cavalier

Linen is notorious for creasing. I want to do some pulled thread on a 50 count linen but this small, neatly folded piece proved even more difficult to press than usual, despite an eventual thorough drenching. If I wanted to avoid creasing the linen with a round embroidery frame, it seemed like I would have to exchange my usual small hoops for a larger, square frame. 

Years ago my father made me a scroll frame after I had seen one at the Knitting Bar in Benoni. The shop assistant recommended that I put my 'tapestry' of the Laughing Cavalier onto an embroidery frame and showed me one that had been set up in the shop. 

The Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals, courtesy Wikipedia

My budget didn't stretch to a frame after totting up the pile of tapestry wool I needed. Instead, my dad listened to my description, dug around in his garage, and two days later I woke up to find, thanks to both my mom and my dad, my canvas mounted in a scroll frame, ready for stitching. All I have left of the frame are the wooden side bars. 

Two new dowel sticks, some twill tape and I thought I'd be ready to try out the new linen in my treasured old scroll frame. It wasn't quite so straightforward. The original dowel sticks had been used for something else and were missing so I had no sample of the correct size. And the nuts and bolts on the side bars were solidly corroded in place. 

The local hardware store helped find suitable bolts and matching wing nuts. The dowel sticks were however either too big or too small. After much thought and consulting the trade catalogues, the conclusion was that the original ones might have been Imperial rather than metric sizes. We finally settled on a larger dowel. 

I plan to work some samples of pulled work and want to mount the whole piece of linen.  Much measuring and discussion later, my husband cut two lengths from the dowel stick long enough to accommodate the width of the linen. After sanding them they slipped snugly into the side bars. 

The next step was to attach cotton twill tape to the dowels. First idea was to use a hammer and small nails. But we couldn't bury the nail heads deeply enough. Thanks to google, my husband found a staple gun that looked like it would do the job. And it did.

It was easy to tap the staples well into the twill tape so they couldn't snag on the linen. Now I can mount my lovely fabric.

The experiment to resurrect my old scroll frame took longer than I expected, but I'm very pleased with the result. My dad would have been delighted with it.

'Till next time, happy stitching.

The Birds and an Experiment

These have been in my sewing cupboard for a very long time. If you remember the Knitting Bar in Benoni, now long gone, you may have seen something similar in their window. They were not only a wonderful knitting shop but also sold embroidery supplies. I want to see whether I can use them again.

On another note, spring seems to arrived quite suddenly and we have been sitting out on the patio watching the rainbow lorikeets zoom past. Then there are the kookaburras with their amusing laughing call who are swooped mercilessly by the noisy miners, an extremely territorial bird. This little kookaburra sat cheekily eyeing the fish in the fish tank - until the noisy miners spotted it and chased it off.

Lately the galahs with their bright neon pink chests are back, waddling around hilariously in the park. It's interesting to see how carefully they choose which grass seeds to eat.  

Spring is also the start of the rainy season here and we have had our first lovely rain. The lorikeets are far too quick to photograph, but before the storm there were about fifteen fussing and squawking  in the big trees and then racing off across the park. 

Brisbane has had an unusually cold winter and the lovely warm weather is very welcome, not only for  for the birds, but for me as well. 

'Till next time, happy stitching.