punchneedle globe WIP (part 5)
Ah, this is an exciting moment: I think this will be the final WIP post for my punchneedle globe, because…
That’s right, I’ve finished punching the northern hemisphere!
(FYI, it looks wrinkly in the pic above because I’ve just taken it out of the embroidery hoop, and there’s no point in pressing the surrounding fabric because it’ll all be trimmed down shortly.)
Now all I have to do is stitch up this half into a hemisphere shape, as I did for the southern hemisphere (pictured below), and then keep my fingers crossed that it’ll all match up when I put the two halves together!
Will the top half match the bottom half?! That remains to be seen…
That final seam is going to be the hardest part of all. I’ll have all that pleated fabric you see in the pic above, from both halves, to wrangle (I think I’ll trim some of the excess from what you see above before I begin). And, as if that wasn’t enough, I’ll have to stitch almost half of it from the outside (instead of working inside-out, as I do to stitch the flat circles into a hemisphere). That’ll be more difficult in this project than hand-sewing the final seam closed in a normal sewing project, because the loops of the punchneedle stitches splay out over the seam I want to sew from both sides, so I think it’ll be tricky to get my needle close enough to the edge of my embroidery to create a close-to-invisible seam. But I’ll do my best!
Please keep your fingers crossed that this all comes together as I’d hoped – it’s been a huge and time-consuming project, and I really won’t know if it’s going to work out or not until I’ve made the final stitches and I either have a globe or a big lumpy mess…
Stay tuned for the nailbiting conclusion of the punchneedle globe project! 😀
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Cora Shaw said
Wow I can hardly wait to see what this looks like!
Cora
Wendy said
This is looking pretty exciting! I did some punchneedle when I was young (I tried pretty much every craft I could, fibre, paper, paint, etc), but nothing as crazy intricate as this!
Are you going to stuff it, or trust that the fabric will hold its own shape?
June said
It definitely needed stuffing to round it out – it looked very 12-sided until I added the stuffing 🙂
Meg P said
This project has me in AWE! I can’t hold the punch needle tool, so I’m envious, too! Extra good karma as you finish it! peace, meg
June said
Thanks, Meg! I wonder if you’ve only tried one of the cheaper punchneedle tools? I wrote a post about the different types of punchneedles a while ago – the one I use is very comfortable and much easier to hold than the basic ones.
Maven said
Very cool. I’ve been wondering about tinkering with punch needle stuff. How easy is it to get hooked on it as a new fiber addiction?
June said
Very, VERY easy. It’s really easy and satisfying; I just don’t understand why it’s not more popular! And there’s still a lot I’ve barely touched the surface of yet: punching with thicker/thinner threads; using different fibers; changing the loop length – lots of possibilities for future experimentation there!
And a quick sales pitch for myself – if you’d like to try punchneedle embroidery, I’d recommend my eBook, The Punchneedle Handbook, as a great introduction to punchneedle, with lots of tips and troubleshooting included for beginners 😉
Miriam said
With your skill and usual attention to tiny details, I’m pretty sure it’s going to come out amazingly. I’m still pretty awestruck at the planning that went into trying to do this.
June said
I wish I had your confidence! Yes, there was a lot of planning – I spent hours looking at NASA photos of the Earth, drawing and colouring my design, and mocking it up in paper before I even started anything else.
My main worry is that the base fabric stretches slightly in one direction but not the other, and as I punched my stitches extra-densely for this project, that has altered my finished dimensions slightly. I just hope it’s affected both halves in the same way so they’ll match up, even if it won’t be a perfect sphere…
Corvus said
I have crossed all fingers, all toes, and my eyes. Can’t wait to see the finished product!
June said
Thank you! I’m really really hoping it all comes together…
Jessica said
I can’t wait to see it completed, I’ll cross my fingers that it all works out perfectly but please sew quickly as I need both hands for cooking Christmas dinner…
June said
Hahaha! Okay, I’ll try my best to get it completed before Christmas Day 😀