Tambour Hook

After watching several videos last year, I became interested in getting what I now know is a tambour hook for myself. I was especially interested in the pace it seemed to offer. I found a Lacis one at Walmart for $16 (here's the link).

For this post, I decided to make a simple design featuring my blog's
name and URL. As you can kind of see in the sketch I wanted to keep it simple. But, as you can see in the finished photo, I kept adding on as I saw fit.  The scallops, which are hard to see in the sketch,  were always planned, but as a single line.  I ended up adding everything else.

Next, I really wanted to do something I haven't done before.  And that was adding beads. I wasn't going to do it at first, but then I thought to myself, "If not now then when?" Again, I turned to Youtube. The beads that make up the L, H, and two Os were done from the underside right side up. I followed this tutorial from Sarah Homfray Embroidery. The lower beads, below the scallops, were done from the right side. The video I saw for this wasn't really a tutorial, but it really helped me. It's from Alexandrina Dordea and you can find that video here.

When I first started beading I had a really hard time and had to take several breaks. It also didn't help that I was doing this on muslin instead o something like organza.  But, I eventually learned the technique.

And finally, I don't really have the proper frame yet (I'm shopping around), so I kind of jury-rigged two different set ups. The first was with an embroidery hoop sandwiched between two heavy books. However, once I expanded on what I was doing, I figured it wasn't going to work. I didn't feel like constantly removing and replacing the fabric. I took foam from my serger's packaging, cut out a square piece of it, and pinned my fabric to it. During the process I realized I messed up. I should left  some foam on top to pin the fabric to. That's why I decided to try and use felt to mend it. It sat a little weird, but it was good enough.

I initially started and finished this in November, but I had other plans. In total, this took about three weeks on and off. If I had continuously worked on it with breaks, it probably would have taken about three days.

Last, but definitely not least, here's the list of the Youtube Channels (and other places) I watched. I definitely recommend checking them out if you're interested in learning tambour embroidery.  Or to see pretty Embroidery:

• Sarah Homfray Embroidery
• Robert Haven
• Mary Corbet, and her website: Needle 'n Thread.
• Tatiana Kozorovitsky
• Alexandrina Dordea, and her Instagram.

Thanks for reading.