On My Work Table: What I Learned About Trapunto

I create one heart a week for my prayer ministry. For this week's heart, I worked with shades of coral. Most of the fabrics came from wardrobe cast offs or second-hand store finds. I also incorporated some avocado-dyed fabrics. 

For the first time, I tried trapunto. I had to work through many mistakes. I'm going to share my mistakes to help someone else learning this method.

Mistake One. Stuff it evenly moving the insides to the outer edges first.

I stuffed my first piece with cotton, which clumped up and prevented me from evenly distributing it. I saved it by making the high end of the heart work with the design. A long hat pin saved the day in breaking up the cotton and moving it around. 

Mistake Two. Don't overstuff!

With my next adventure with trapunto, I learned from my first mistake. I changed over to wool batting and  hit all the corners first. This resulted in even stuffing. However, I felt like I overstuffed it. I compensated by embellishing the leaf with pseudo veins to push down the stuffing. The results pleased me.

Mistake Three. Plan out where you're going to stuff. 

Encouraged by my heart and tag trapunto, I tried it on the neck of a goose story cloth. Since I worked with tulle, it did not allow much give. So, the stuffing kept popping out as I embroidered it to the base fabric. However, the trapunto seamlessly connected with the rest of the piece. 

I encourage you to give it a try! I am especially pleased with the results on the goose. The trapunto provided that extra dimension and texture that the piece needed.

Blessings,

Jan Paron, PhD

3/8/22

"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Ps 139:23-24 KJV).