Nabor Embroidery practice

 Some pattern darning practice. Nabor (Набор) embroidery to be specific. It mimics pick up weaving designs, so it is a thread counted running stitch  that goes the length of the design. 

You have to make sure the tension is even, usually a tug on the fabric at the end of the line evens things up nicely.

The embroidery thread should be 2x to 3x the thickness of the fabric threads. That way the fabric is not seen through gaps between the threads and the design looks full and even. 

Front side

                                                        Reverse side

 

 

The border of "braid stitch" or a "long arm cross stitch" is done traditionally to make the edges neat.

 

One big benefit of doing this type of embroidery as it is done in-hand. No hoop or frame needed. All you need is a needle, thread, fabric and your design. 

As for the design, there are traditional designs, like I used, taken from 19th and 20th century clothing and towels. You can also create your own on grid rule paper. 

This embroidery needs to be done on evenweave or close to it fabric, otherwise the design will distort in width or length. That might be a wanted design feature.

Choose how many threads is each square of design. In the one above, it's two threads, so each line is repeated twice. 

Don't make any part of the design more than 5 squares in length. Threads will be too loose and will catch if you do that. 

Traditional colors in Slavic embroidery tend to be red and black. Pattern darning in the more Scandinavian regions tend to be more blue and green traditionally in Smoyg (pattern darning) embroidery. If you're not trying to replicated a traditional design, have fun with colors!