I’m not an expert on punchneedle, but several people have contacted me about it so I decided to make a blog post with some of the things I’ve encountered. I haven’t finished a punchneedle rug, but when I do I will add those instructions here.
Find the largest (highest resolution) image of your design as possible if you are adapting from a real life design. This will help you capture as much detail as possible. Print the image in the finished size you want in the house, test out the fit and adjust as needed.
Make a high contrast printout in the final size (shown on the left in the photo below). You can do this with any program that allows you to adjust the brightness and contrast of an image. You need to be able to see the design through the tracing paper.
Trace the high contrast printout using Aunt Martha’s Tracing Paper and a Sulky Iron-On transfer pen in black (as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases). Simplify the detailing. You can stitch in more detail, but you don’t have to draw it all in. (Note: I’ve since found fine tip transfer pens at Sublime Stitching which offer a better pattern for fine needlework. See this post for more info.)
The recommended fabric is “weaver’s cloth” but I’m not sure exactly what that is. You can purchase it from the same place that sells the needles. I went to Joann and bought a poly/cotton, relatively sheer woven fabric. You don’t want anything bulky. I bought a Dee Lite Ex. Small punchneedle (website defunct as of 2024) and adjusted the dark blue stopper as close to the tip as possible while still getting the loops to stick.
The pile on my rugs is roughly 1/16″ high, about as short as you can get it without issues.
You’ll need needle threaders, but I think those come with the punchneedle. Take really good care of these since a bent one won’t work and you can’t use the needle without one. I keep mine in a folded Vermont Covered Bridges map since it’s the right size and doesn’t bend.
Get a no-slip hoop in the appropriate size (my review here). You’ll want a little room around the rug design but also consider the size of any rugs you want to do in the future. The fabric has to be as tight as you can get it, otherwise the loops slip out during stitching.
Follow the package instructions for the iron-on transfer to your fabric. Be sure to take into consideration your hoop size when you place the design on the fabric. You will be working from the back, with your finished design away from you. Your transfer will be “opposite” of your original, but the final piece will match your original. In other words, you don’t need to flip your design.
Here you can see where the hoop would pull on some areas if not large enough to frame the entire design.
And, you can see where I had cut my fabric too close, so I had to sew on some additional fabric.
Buy DMC embroidery floss in your chosen colors. You will need more than you think. Punchneedle takes a lot of thread. Wait for a sale or a coupon, but buy a lot of each color, especially backgrounds. Make sure the dye lot numbers match, too.
When working with the floss, I’d cast the skeins onto cardboard bobbins first (as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases). Then, you will cut a long, long, long strand to work with while stitching. Once you’ve done some stitching, you’ll see what I mean about wanting a long strand. Otherwise, you spend all your time threading the needle. You’ll need to separate the floss into individual strands as shown here. This method cuts down on knotting.
Here is a good video on threading the needle and punching. She is using a larger needle and more floss strands than you will for miniature projects, but the technique is exactly the same. I don’t think it’s possible to describe the technique in words, though.
Some miscellaneous tips for punching:
- Get a good pair of sharp embroidery scissors.
- Pay attention to the direction of your needle when stitching. You want the open part of the tip toward you with the thread trailing.
- Keep in mind that punchneedle work doesn’t look like anything good until you get a large area covered.
- Start with outlines. You’ll want at least 2-3 “rows” for each line you want to show up in the final design. Once the fill colors abut the outlines, the lines will “shrink” visually in the final design.
- Try to get as many loops as possible by controlling how much space you skip in between. You can always go back and fill in, but it’s better to do this from the start. Since we’re using 1 strand of floss, you want a lot of loops to get full coverage.
- Punch until the thread runs out. You can snip the start and finish ends right to the fabric. Be careful not to pull the thread once you’ve made loops because they will come right back out.
- If you end up with loops that are too tall (sometimes the needle will push a previous loop out of place), just snip them level with the pile on the front.
- If you don’t like an area, you can pull it back out and move your fingernail against the fabric to close up the weave…then start over.
If you’re interested in the comparison between punchneedle and French knots, here is the Bees and Trees rug in French knots compared to the Prairie Rug in punchneedle. The pile is definitely finer with French knots, but punchneedle takes considerably less time and is still convincing in miniature.
I hope that answers most of your questions and points you in the right direction.
