Update on the Birds on a Branch rug. I lost a bit of motivation after deciding I didn’t like the diagonal striped border. The knots were not lining up well, and it was becoming a jumbled mess the more I added. Here is what it looked like last.
I had two choices – remove the knots in the border or start over. At 11 hours of work, it wasn’t a terrible thing to restart, but I decided to try removing the knots. If I couldn’t salvage it afterwards, I would have at least tried.
You can’t just rip stitches when every stitch is a knot, because it will destroy the fabric. Instead, I took a fresh X-Acto blade, wiped it completely clean to remove any oils and slid the edge under the heads of the knots on the front side. This is as scary as it sounds.
After shaving the knots, I used packing tape to lift the threads and fuzz left. There were three places in the fabric where there was some minor damage – not true holes but very thin, worn remaining fabric.
I ironed on some fusible interfacing to the back in order to patch those areas. It’s very thin material, so it wouldn’t build up any bulk while still providing more substance for the stitches to grab onto. This would lock in the thin cotton between the stitched threads and the interfacing fabric.
I opted for a solid border, which I already like better. I might make it wider later on. The diagonal striped border would have been nice, but it was too hard to manage with freehand knots in such a small area. A vertical striped border would have been too geometric with the organic bird and branch patterns of the interior.
I didn’t count the time of the knot removal and redo, but I was able to stitch more after that was done. So, this is now at 14.5 hours of work.
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Design notes: Birds on a Branch – Sue Bakker design, re-charted in Pattern Maker Pro and printed on cotton, French knots
