Thread nubs, gotta love them. I would love to hear how you cut without them showing. My best friend Claudia and I Love Hardanger and will be stitching as a group at stitch night every week Emmie Bishop’s Christmas Star. Some of our group have not done any Hardanger and it would be great to have an intelligent answer for these nubs.
Thanks Roz,
Brenda Hass
Northglenn CO
Roz Answers:
I was hoping someone would ask this question! Some fabric is easier than others when it comes to eliminating those little fabric nubs. The looser the weave of fabric, the easier it is when you do it this way:
A. When you are sure your stitches are correct and the stitches to cut line up to the other side where you will cut the same fabric threads, here is how you begin. Insert the tip of the embroidery scissors into the fabric at the base of the first of the four fabric threads to cut. Before you cut, be sure the tip of the scissors is showing out of the fabric, four fabric threads away. You will cut four fabric threads at a time. But, don’t cut yet.
B. Use your thumbnail to gently pull the fabric back from the threads you will be cutting.
C. Push the blades of your scissors as close to your stitches as possible without cutting your stitches.
D. Apply gentle pressure towards your stitches as you carefully make the fabric cut. When you have cut the fabric threads, the stitches will go back into place, covering the cut with no nubs showing.
E. IF there are still some small nubs, use the very tip of your scissors to snip one nub at a time. This is one reason why your Hardanger scissors has to have a very sharp fine point.
If you are cutting a stiffer fabric, like Congress, sometimes I actually cut one fabric thread at a time, using the same technique with my thumbnail as above.