Stitch-outs with WonderFil threads

Razzle and Dazzle from WonderFil Threads

As you can see, I still haven’t solved my unraveling problem! But it probably doesn’t help that I have been toting my Razzle and Dazzle threads around in a zip lock bag so that I could have them handy for my hand stitching!  A friend of mine has suggested a solution – I just have to get into my local quilt shop to see if they have the product she has told me about. If I have any luck I’ll let you know!

Picking thread combinations

Once I got my rat’s nest all tidied up I was ready to get to work. I figured the best way to pick threads would be to lay my new Mirage threads beside the Razzle and Dazzle threads that I have and see which combinations look like they would work best. The rust-colored thread doesn’t look like it will work with any of the other threads, but maybe I will try it on my stitch-outs.

Let’s get ready to stitch

To do my stitch-outs I picked a white tone-on-tone fabric, but I think any fabric without a lot of pattern and contrast would work fine – you just want to be able to see how the threads look together without any distraction from the background fabric. I decided to try couching single threads first with the black and white Mirage thread. I set my machine to a short straight stitch and put on my open-toe embroidery foot. I set a mug on the table in front of the right side of my sewing machine and put my Razzle thread inside to keep it from rolling away. I filled one of my bobbins with the Deco-Bob thread and put it in the bobbin casing. I started at the edge of the fabric, placing the Razzle thread under the foot and holding the ends of ALL three threads in my left hand as I started stitching. I did a small straight stitch back and forth to hold everything in place and then set the machine to a narrow zig zag. I stitched along the Razzle thread, making sure that the zig zag stitch passed over the thread each time the machine stitched.

Tension tips

The Deco-Bob thread worked great in the bobbin. I had to adjust the tension a tiny bit, just to make sure that the bobbin thread wouldn’t show up on the top of the fabric. The correct tension for this type of stitching is a little different than for machine quilting, as it is OK for the top thread to show a small amount at the back. Since the Deco-Bob thread is very fine there was little added bulk on the back of the fabric which is especially important when you are doing decorative stitching.

WonderFil threads steal the show

I tried different single threads first and then worked my way up to 2, 3 and 4 couched threads at a time, changing the combination of colours as I went. When I was using more than one thread, I tied them all together with a knot at the end so that they were easier to manage. I also placed all of the threads that I was using at the time in the mug in front of the right side of my sewing machine.

My open-toe foot worked fine, but I did need to pay close attention to the threads that were being couched – especially when I got into 3 and 4 strands at a time. A couching foot would do that work for you, so if you have a couching foot be sure to use it! When I added more threads I increased to width of the zig zag stitch and then also tried out some of my decorative stitches. The Dazzle threads have a nice metallic thread running through them and I decided that I liked them the best when couched with the Mirage thread.

Keep on stitching

My stitch-out sample is getting more and more full, but I think I will try out a few more colour combinations before I decide what type of project to make in order to use this new technique. Have fun experimenting with your couching foot and tomorrow we’ll keep playing with our Mirage, Deco-Bob and Dazzle WonderFil threads!