How to Get the Directions
Tricia’s Blog #4 on the Plaited Braid Stitch. When Tricia sent me these blogs she copied Linda so she’d be prepared for your calls and emails.
We have had a lot of requests for the plaited braid directions. As of yet, I haven’t made my set of directions for this stitch. So we won’t be putting them on the internet yet and I am not sure if I will get to it before the project is done.
Fine Lines is out of print and the parent company is bankrupt, so you can’t purchase back issues as far as I know. That said, Leon’s website (I looked for this website to post a link but couldn’t find it. Mary sent it www.leonconraddesigns.freeserve.co.uk/pbs.htm Thanks, Mary) has some information on it and Linda Connors will sell you a set of her color directions (6 pages). I recommend that if you are interested in trying them out, you can email her at: calxrds@aol.com.
She is aware that a flood of email would come someday when I was ready to blog on this. (You can also order online, like I did. www.calicocrossroads.com I clicked Hand Embroidery, online searchable catalogue, and put in plaited braid stitch. Email or call if you have trouble.)
The next secret is using the right thread and needle to do the stitch in gold. If you are interested in this, we could put together a little spool of thread (the one we will use on the jacket) and the needle (japanese #9 or #10) and sell it to benefit the project. Drop us a line or place a comment in the blog. I expect the thread in about a month and could have it reeled into smaller amounts.
Tricia
I am smiling in a bemused fashion here. Did she say “IF you are interested”? That’s pretty funny, Tricia.
Tags: , Calico Crossroads, Leon Conrad, Linda Connors, plaited braid stitch, Tricia
July 5th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Leon Conrad’s web site:
http://www.leonconraddesigns.freeserve.co.uk/
July 5th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Here’s a link to Leon Conrad’s page with the plaited braid on it:
http://www.leonconraddesigns.freeserve.co.uk/pbs.htm
MC
July 5th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Yea, right, “if” I am interested in the thread and needles. Sign me up, put me down, mark my name in blood, whatever it takes. . . :}
Deb Powell
July 6th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
I am really taken by how VERY different the stitch looks on Leon’s on-line pictures and in Linda’s — due, I assume to different threads.
Tricia and Jill — Am I right that Leon’s photos are more like what we see on “our” jacket? And in the historical pieces do you see as much variation — lack of “prefect” consistency — in the stitch as in Leon’s curved samples (as seen at http://www.leonconraddesigns.freeserve.co.uk/pbs.htm)? I’ve been working really hard to try to get my attempts as completely consistent as possible. .. and will feel MUCH better if even the pro’s allowed themselves a little more latitude. In particular, as in the photos, I’m getting a neater, tighter v-shaped stitch at the top of the stitch as I work it. . . . on the left in the first curved picture and on the right in the second one.
Tricia. . . any tricks on how to even out the other side of the stitch? Any one else having the same problem?
July 7th, 2008 at 9:25 am
If you decide to do the spool of thread and needles, I’d be most interested. I’ve been following this project since the beginning and have been totally in awe of the workwomanship. I also forwarded your blog info, as well as info about Plimoth Plantation, to a new friend in Norway who loves to do “stichery” – I can’t wait to hear what she has to say!
July 7th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Please add me to the list of those interested in the “thread and needle” set! I’d also be curious to know how similar this thread is to the gold metal thread used for the lace. In many of the examples of embroidered clothing with metal-and-silk lace I’ve seen in museums, the threads (both silk and metal) of the embroidery seem to have been used to make the lace as well. In the case of the Laton jacket this probably didn’t happen, since the lace seems to have been added after the jacket was finished, but it makes me wonder if there was a distinction made between metal thread for embroidery and for lacemaking at that time.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:20 am
Yes, Please sign me up for the kit
I’ve been playing with the stitch and it does flow very nicely–after the first few inches. I assume
that like any craft, it’s practice practice. By the time one finishes several dozen yards of it, it should be fairly even.
Ta
Carol
July 8th, 2008 at 11:44 am
You can add me to the list of people interested in a gold thread kit (if that wasn’t clear from my previous questions
). I’ve got several needles already but I’m happy to add another to the collection, especially if it keeps the needlemaker in business.
I’d be interested in knowing if the process of the making this thread is different than that of making the lace thread. I know that it is definitely not the same thread. This has a silk core and the lace thread is not silk (cotton if I remember) and the lace thread is also much thinner. (When we started trialing threads for the lace we did try something as thick as one of the backup threads, but it really was too thick. The lace would have been very bulky with a thread as thick as that being used for the goldwork.)
Will this thread eventually be something that is commercially available for those people crazy enough to want to do a lot of this work? Or is it only being made now for the jacket?
Robbin
July 9th, 2008 at 4:27 am
I’d like my name to go on the list also. Like Robin, I have some needles but it never hurts to have some spares. I’d be interested to know how it is made and how it compares to/differs from the metallic threads we use in Japanese embroidery. Anything bigger that size 2 is considered too thick to stitch with, it is difficult to tell the thickness in the pictures but this looks thicker than #2 so why does the wrapped gold not shred with all that stitching?
I must go back to the earlier post that compared different gold threads and see what was said then.
CA
July 10th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
ME,TOO! ME,TOO! I don’t think there’s anything I won’t buy to support this project! Every special treat goes in my Embroiderer’s Story carrier. There’s still plenty of room for more and looking forward to the wonderful ideas from Trish and Wendy. I don’t know if I can do the braid but I will enjoy trying it. Til then, I’m glad there’s still plenty of embroidery to do.
Cheryl
July 29th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I’m interested in purchasing this also when it becomes available. I did this stitch years ago, but would love to know if I was doing it correctly!
pat
July 30th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Have the directions, ign me up for the needle and thread…