Embroidering on Cork – Auriful Artisan Challenge

I never shared on the blog, but I’m so excited to be an Aurifil Artisan for 2019-2020! I’ve been using Aurifil Thread for several years and have been very happy with how my machine handles it, the variety of colors, and the quality. So, when I saw the Aurifil Artisan applications, I was eager to apply and thrilled to be chosen. I love that I can chat here about thread and people will understand my enthusiasm!

Each month Aurifil has a challenge and Artisans choose which ones they’d like to participate in. Because of our move, September is my first challenge and embroidery is the theme. I love embroidery, but I wanted to share something a little different than many of the embroideries I’ve done before. Instead of a colorful hoop as I was originally planning, I monogrammed a Clara cork tote bag and I’m so happy with how it turned out!

I had a spool of Aurifil Blush (number 2415 – my favorite light pink!) in 12wt (you probably already know thread comes in a variety of weights, but just in case you don’t, 50 or 40 wt are common for most sewing, I generally use 50wt for all my piecing, and 40wt for machine quilting and bags. 12wt is thicker, and is recommended for hand quilting, embroidery, etc).

I found 12wt similar weight to 2-3 strands of embroidery floss. It seemed like a bit more than 2 strands to me, but for this larger embroidery, where I would have used the whole floss, I chose to use three strands. You can see in my photo about how the three strands looks next to a strand of Aurifloss (in Olive Green number 5016). The three strands looks considerably thicker in this photo though, because the strands are not twisted together. But, when you look at the closeup of the finished piece, they look very similar in weight.

Now, for a bit about embroidering on cork…it was so easy! The cork fabric is a medium weight fabric and didn’t need any interfacing. I did not put it in a hoop because I didn’t want to crease it. Instead, I just held it gently in my hand and tried not to distort it while I stitched. I used a medium sized sharp needle out of my random needle box (I cannot find my “good” embroidery needles from the move yet), one that the thread fit through the eye easily. You can see the thick woven fabric that is on the back side of the cork.

To transfer the design onto the cork I printed out a large letter that was styled the way I wanted (finding a good “C” was tough! This is a font called Mirabella) and then I printed it at the size I wanted. I used a PenBlade (like an xacto knife but better!) to cut a stencil and then a disappearing ink marker to trace the design onto the cork. The disappearing ink actually disappeared pretty fast because the cork isn’t porous, but the drawing lines remained. Possibly a different kind of pen would work better, but this is what I had and it worked fine.

The one caution I have is that cork doesn’t heal, so you are punching a hole in it, you can’t mis-stitch and take it out! Also, because of the texture of the fabric, I chose to use a herringbone stitch for the leaves, otherwise I was afraid of creating a crack or continuous break in the cork with a lot of stitches in a small area, essential punching out the leaf.

In addition to herringbone stitch on the leaves, I used a chain stitch for the letter, wagon wheel roses for the flowers, and then two rounds of back stitch for the circles. I’ve linked to my very old (2011!) embroidery stitch tutorials. I am sure there are plenty of videos online too these days.

I hope that maybe you’ll try some embroidery on cork with either Aurifil 12wt or Aurifloss. I have to say that it was my first time stitching with either of these threads and I loved them! I wanted to try the 12wt just to see how it would work since I already had my favorite color, but I was thoroughly impressed with it! I can’t wait to monogram my next cork project!