Beginner's Crewel - Blocking

I have been a little bit wary of the task called 'Blocking' so it was wonderful when Lyndsay from the Embroiderer's Guild decided to demonstrate this for us at one of our New Member sessions. And use my piece as the sample!

The purpose of Blocking is to ensure the ground fabric is wrinkle free and ready to be made up. It also helps the ground fabric and threads 'settle' into the design and improves its general appearance. 

Lyndsay made this look so practical and straightforward, an excellent demonstration. As with most things, having the right tools is half the battle. So, in preparation Lyndsay brought in:

• a piece of board (this can be anything as long as it is soft enough to hammer the pins into)
• some white plastic bags - not supermarket plastic but a bit heavier. (If you only have coloured plastic bags then turn them inside out. The main thing is not to have anything where you think the colour might run)
• old pillowcases (or layers of fabric) - your local thrift or op shop being a great source for these. Again you want to make sure the fabric is white or colourfast so you don’t risk staining your own stitching
• a hammer
• plenty of Push Pins 
• spray bottle of cold water

On the board, lay the white plastic bags then a pillowcase, then:

• lay the piece of stitching to be blocked face down onto the pillowcase
• hammer a pin into the centre of one side
• repeat doing this on each of the other three sides, stretching fully as you go
• continue to hammer in Push Pins, moving from side to side and continuing to stretch out the fabric as you go
• expect the Push Pins to be about 1 inch apart to ensure an even stretch

If you feel the need to measure and block to a square then you can get that fussy but for the piece being blocked this was not necessary:

• using the spray bottle and cold water, spray over all the piece and ensure it is wet through. It wasn’t dripping and we weren’t in a wet area so no need to literally flood the piece
• cover with a second pillow case and then leave it to dry

Extra information:

• All four edges of the stitching were reinforced beforehand with some waste cotton drill securely attached to the linen twill. It made the edges nice and sturdy and meant we were putting holes into that rather than the linen twill
• The cold water also removed all last remnants of the blue transfer pen used to transfer the design (another very good reason not to use hot water)
• Lyndsay was very careful to ensure nothing she used would cause any colour to run – there was even some discussion of having to wash threads before they are stitched if you don’t know they are colourfast but no-one had actually ever done this and certainly not with Appletons
• You can remove a Push Pin and re-stretch to get the piece even if you wish
• You can block the same piece more than once if you need to

Blocking removes the need to iron Crewel Embroidery but if you feel you must do this always face the Crewel Embroidery face down into a towel so as not to flatten all that work you have just done.