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September 30, 2011

Old is New again: Swedish Weaving


I do not pretend to know everything about embroidery or stitches. Actually I still have a lot to learn. The good thing about that is that I regularly stumble upon exciting things that have been around for ages but are new to me. Last week I found some great tutorials on Swedish Weaving on Collette's blog Serendipity Handmade (find the posts about it in the side bar of her blog). Swedish weaving is also know as Huck Stitching (and a bunch of other names) and was especially popular during the 1930's and 40's to embellish tea towels and aprons. Huck refers to one of the fabrics used for this technique and the 'weaving' bit becomes clear when you study how it's done.


The thread stays on top of the fabric so there is no thread visible on the back of your piece.


This sampler by Lynn (aka the Little Red Hen) shows a lovely colourful variety of patterns in Swedish Weaving. Of course you are not limited to tea towels and aprons. Personally I quite fancy the idea of an Ipod case embellished with Swedish Weaving! More info about the history of Swedish Weaving, what fabrics to use and techniques etc. can be found here.

I'm sure you are aware we have a fun embroidery contest going on at the moment called Covered in Stitches. There are quite a few fabulous entries in the Covered in Stitches Flickr group already but it's certainly not too late to join in at this point! Submissions are accepted until November 7th.

12 comments:

  1. AriadaSeptember 30, 2011 at 3:37 AM

    When I saw the pictures I said an audible wow in the office :) I really like this kind of embroidery.

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  2. FarahSeptember 30, 2011 at 4:06 AM

    great great great work.really I am impressed with the beauty of your work... I never do this but now I am thinking to try some... but yours is beautiful.... I am going to pin it Nicole...
    Visit me if you can and if you want to see some embroideries...
    http://craftaworld.blogspot.com/
    Love
    Farah

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  3. vijayalakshmiSeptember 30, 2011 at 10:10 AM

    happy to see the swedish stitch.
    My creations are at my blog.
    http://viji-crafts.blogspot.com/2011/05/huck-embroidarysimple-border.html

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  4. BonnieSeptember 30, 2011 at 10:40 AM

    Oh. my. goodness.!! I have to do to this! I have never seen this and I just love how it looks! Definitely going to try this! Thank you so much for posting about it!

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  5. KatieSeptember 30, 2011 at 12:18 PM

    I was recently introduced to Swedish weaving and immediately went to my local needle shop to buy a kit. In fact, the page you linked to with the history was put up by this shop. :)

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  6. Gumbo LilySeptember 30, 2011 at 10:53 PM

    Really wonderful. I'd like to try.

    Jody

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  7. wendaOctober 1, 2011 at 7:22 AM

    This bought back memories! I remember doing this at school back in the sixties!

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  8. SuzeOctober 1, 2011 at 8:34 AM

    This brought back memories. My great aunt was a teacher at a one teacher school for many many years. When the girls learned to sew the boys did too. The boys were generally taught "huck-a-back".

    I must try this technique.

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  9. oklyousOctober 2, 2011 at 10:05 AM

    Hm.. Never heard of Swedish weaving/Huck before - how disappointed I am! It sure looks pretty cool, and I am so looking it up to get wiser;)

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  10. Serendipity Handmade + VintageOctober 8, 2011 at 1:52 PM

    Thanks Nicole for featuring my work! I totally appreciate it and I hope that you all will stop by to learn more about this fun technique. Feel free to ask questions!

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  11. Bella CarraraOctober 22, 2011 at 11:20 AM

    Wow, this is amazing!! I've been having fun learning and practicing a small number of stitches...this might be next year's Xmas gift to the families. I have a feeling I'll need lots of lead time, but looks like a lot of fun!!

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  12. Darlene YoungAugust 23, 2012 at 11:04 PM

    I learned this in high school home economics class...and it's a fun, easy rewarding craft. Getting inspired to do this again

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