Hardanger technique (embroidery)

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

Among all the variety of needlework that modern craftswomen are fond of, a special place is occupied by embroidery - one of the most ancient areas of applied art.

Sacred meaning

Once upon a time, with the help of embroidery, girls used to decorate their costumes, put amulets on the shirts and belts of their lovers and denote their belonging to one or another genus.

Now this craft has lost its sacred meaning, but still all over the world men and women decorate themselves and their homes with handmade embroidery.

Hardanger embroidery is one of the most ancient types of this art. It will be discussed in today's article.

A bit of history

Hardanger - embroidery with openwork patterns, which originated in ancient Egypt.

Such basic elements as square, cross and rectangle are traditional signs that came from Syria and ancient Egypt.

The most popular sign for which hardanger embroidery is famous is the eight-pointed star. She is one of the most important symbols embroidered by Indians.

The name of thisdirections are identified with the longest river of the same name in Norway. For these reasons, historians are still arguing about the country in which hardanger was originally born.

It is known that hardanger is an embroidery that has adorned all national wedding Norwegian costumes since the 17th century, so many associate it with the Scandinavians.

In the 20th century, this delicate openwork embroidery spread throughout the world. Craftswomen decorate with it not only clothes, tablecloths and towels, but also some interior items, such as Christmas decorations.

The main principles that distinguish hardanger embroidery

The book "Embroidery Hardanger" marks the main positions of this type of stitches strictly ordered in size and quantity.

Similar in meaning include such embroidery trends as Cypriot lefkaritika, Russian lattice sewing and hemstitch.

Hardanger embroidery refers to countable types, but unlike, for example, hemstitch, it can fill the entire decorated product.

Here are the main positions of this style:

• The main condition that must be observed when embroidering with the Hardanger style is that the fabric you choose must necessarily have an even weave, because the main element of this technique is a 4 by 4 square.

• All groups of satin stitches of this technique consist of five stitches by four squares.

• One more condition: if you embroider one row with vertical stitches, then the row coming after it must have horizontal stitches.

• Hardanger embroidery forbeginners is quite difficult, so if you have no experience yet, we advise you to line the fabric.

• If necessary, move the thread, winding the needle under the stitches, then the wrong side will also look beautiful.

• In the event that if you run out of thread, thread the needle to the wrong side and pass it through the next three stitches, then thread it in the opposite direction through two stitches, bypassing the one from which the thread came out the first time through, secure the design with textile glue. • Remember that hardanger is embroidery that does not tolerate any knots!

Materials and tools you need

• Fabric matching the measurements previously described (linen material works well) or canvas.

• Speci alty embroidery needle with rounded tip.

• The threads are thick enough to cover smooth segment. Pearl, iris are perfect, less suitable, but acceptable - floss (in this case, do not separate strands of threads).

• Thin threads for making openwork elements. For these purposes, you can take a floss, dividing the strands into separate threads, or an ordinary sewing thread "10".

• Small scissors with sharply sharpened ends (you need them for cutting openwork patterns). These can be special scissors for embroidery, but in the absence of such, you can use ordinary manicure ones, having previously treated them with alcohol.

• Large, preferably wooden, hoop.

• Tweezers (you can use ordinary eyebrows).• Glue for textiles (it is needed not only to secure stitches,when the thread runs out, but also for finishing the edge of the product).

Preparing fabric

Hardanger - embroidery is quite whimsical, so if you are a beginner, we advise you to prepare the material on which you are going to embroider.

Let's go through all the fabric preparation steps for beginners.

• To begin with, we advise you to print the pattern you want to embroider in full size.

• From this printed picture, determine what size material you need.

• Cut out a piece of fabric, which will be larger than its printed prototype by 2 centimeters on each side.

• Stepping back 2 centimeters from the edge of the cut piece, sew with a "needle forward" seam all the edges of the product, as follows: each stitch should take 4 cells and between stitches also there should be a distance of 4 cells.• Treat the edges of the product with textile glue (those free 2 centimeters around the entire perimeter).

Hardanger embroidery workshops

As mentioned earlier, hardanger is embroidery with a counted stitch, which is executed in certain blocks. In appearance, the finished work, executed in this style, resembles a painting from the ancient world.

Hardanger embroidery includes a number of classic elements that are unique to it. However, modern craftswomen diversify this direction with stylized patterns from other types of embroidery.

If you want to master and understand the style discussed in this article, you will need to learn a few basic stitches. This is what we are nowand let's get busy.

Langet suture

This seam has a second name - looped. It most likely got its name from the fact that it looks like there is a loop on the outer edge of the outer stitch.

It is performed as follows:

• Insert the needle from the wrong side in the place where the element you are going to embroider will begin, and pull the thread from the outside, leaving a small tail from the wrong side, which is desirable to fix with a drop of textile glue. This will be the beginning of the column.

• Mentally from the hole into which you stuck the needle, count up 4 holes, at the level of 4 holes step back to the right 1 more hole and stick the needle in there.

• Count from the injection site needle down 4 holes and insert the thread into the third hole, passing it through the resulting loop.• Repeat these stitches as many times as needed.

Place the stitches as close together as possible when sewing this stitch.

Satin stitch blocks

Hardanger - embroidery, which necessarily implies the presence of satin blocks in the pattern.

This is done as follows.

• Make a vertical stitch of 4 squares.

• Sew a total of 5 of these stitches in one block. Each stitch should be 4 squares long.

• After making the last stitch, stick the needle into the adjacent square and make a horizontal stitch 4 squares long.

• Sew a total of 5 of these stitches. • Continue to satinblocks on the same principle.

Remember that the threads that connect the parts of the embroidery must be strictly under the blocks, otherwise you will spoil the whole work by making openwork cuts.

Eye Pattern

This element is so named due to its resemblance to the human eye with long fluffy eyelashes. By pulling the threads, you "open" the eye.

• Mentally designate for yourself a square of 5 by 5 cells.

• Threading the threads into the 3rd cell of each side of the square and bringing it to 3 in the middle, embroider a plus (+).

• Then, stitching diagonal corners and returning from each corner to the 3rd cell in the middle, embroider x (x) over the plus. • Embroider a stitch from each free cell located on the sides of the square, returning each time to the 3rd cell of the center.

Eyes should be embroidered with thin threads. This element can have from 6 to 16 rays.

How to cut the threads correctly so as not to spoil the work?

To make your product more unusual and reward it with a charm peculiar only to the style described in this article, after embroidering all the elements, you will need to make openwork cuts on the fabric. The hardanger embroidery tutorials in this article include a detailed description of the technique for cutting openwork holes.

• It is necessary to make cuts in places free from embroidery, close to the satin blocks, leaving whole threads in the gaps between the blocks. Use thin scissors for this. You can see an example of successfully cut holes inphoto below.

• Lubricate the ends of the cut threads with a small amount of textile glue.

• You can leave the whole threads between the cut out windows in this form or, for greater expressiveness, braid them with a thin thread.• The cut threads should pull out with tweezers.

If you do everything right, you will get a product of simply unreal beauty, which, without any doubt, will become the highlight of your interior or a great gift for your loved ones.

Hardanger embroidery. Year-round idea book

Until you have ideally mastered the hardanger technique, it will be difficult for you to come up with patterns for your work on your own. Fortunately, in our time there are a huge number of books with embroidery patterns in this style. Therefore, we advise you to purchase several of these prints in order to stock up on ideas for inspiration for a long time.

While you haven't, here are a couple of photos showing products that are easy to use even for beginners.

As you can see, this product includes elements such as satin blocks and eyes, the execution of these details we have discussed with you earlier.

The work below is more complicated, because in addition to the “eyes” and “smooth blocks” we studied earlier, it includes an element typical of the hardanger style, stylized as a flower, called the “eight-pointed star”. If you look closely, you will understand that such a star is justa set of satin horizontal stitches of different sizes.

In this article, you learned about the hardanger technique, followed its history, understood what tools you need to get to work with it, studied the basic elements and figured out how to make fishnet cuts correctly.

We hope this article will be the first step in your endeavors regarding such a craft as hardanger embroidery.