The Avid Embroiderer Presents - Candlewicking for dimension in your project. A Freebie for use all year long.

Just for fun, here is a design I did a couple of years ago - enjoy




Candlewicking is as old as the 'old west' and as fresh as any of today's trendy designs. Created in America and made by innovative women as they settled the old west with their families.

Living a bleak existence, creating a home required some ingenuity. They 'repurposed' clothing, sometimes to the point of separating fabric into thread. But that thread was neither practical nor strong. Stores were nonexistent. But they were resourceful and they used the wick of homemade candles. With limited availability, creating a satin style of stitch was not feasible. This stitch has depth with multiple crisscrossing the thread. But, they can be spaced to conserve the wicking.

Candlewicking, aka, the Colonial Knot or the Figure 8 knot, was born. 

Originally, the women used unbleached muslin, off white, and wicking that was white. Post project, the fabric was washed in very hot water that shrunk the fabric and allowed the stitches to be more visible. Candlewicking tended to have a natural puckered appearance.

For a traditional project, you can use a heavier cotton thread. A general recommendation is to use a 30WT cotton in place of the 40WT rayon/polyester you normally would use. Remember, the lower numbers are heavier threads and higher numbers are lighter threads. My recommendation is to stick with the 40WT because, machine embroidery does not have the advantage of being able to select the optimum position to place a stitch. Additionally, I have created (the Freebie below) a design with about 15 points. 

So, for your embroidery pleasure, here is my version of the "Candlewick Stitch." I created two sizes, one is 6mm (1/4") and 12mm (1/2") which is larger than the original designs. 

You have heard the name, now is the best time to get Embird right here at AnnTheGran. Did you get a chance to check out it out yet? You have 30 days to evaluate the program (it is complete - you can make and use a design with the Demo Version!!). Not only those great features, but ATG is adding a $20 Gift Certificate to purchase what ever you please! It is a limited time offer, don't miss out to save some money.


My very best wishes for you and yours. Of all the 'wishes' you get this holiday, mine is the 'wishiest ❣'  Thank you for fitting me into your life.
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