Learn Boutis: Step by Step
Happy New Year and welcome to a year of celebrating stitching traditions, with the focus on boutis.
Over the next few months, I will be posting a series of step by step tutorials that will describe the various stages of boutis, from materials and preliminary prep, through to the finishing stage.
We will be working on a suncatcher similar to this one.
Aside from the preliminary background and prep, there are five basic stages to boutis. They are:
Tracing and Hooping
Each stage of the project will describe the basic technique and the particular way in which it is applied to boutis. These basic techniques can then be applied to other boutis patterns and designs.
Both beginners as well as more experienced stitchers will feel comfortable the process. The project is small and the technique is straightforward and simple, but requires patience and focus. If you can stitch a running stitch (or are willing to learn), you can learn to make boutis.
2. Stitching
3. Cording
4. Washing and Squaring
5. Finishing
To accompany the tutorial, there will be a printable design available for free download on this website.
The first article will post next week and will list the materials required and describe how they are used for boutis. For those who don’t have access to the boutis specific materials, they will be available on my *Etsy page. Most other suppies will already be in your sewing kit.
The tutorials will be posted here on my website, seamsfrench.org, at regular intervals to allow time to work on each stage. To be notified of the latest post, you might wish to sign up for my *newsletter, (see the bottom of this page), which will then direct the latest tutorial to your email.
I look forward to the journey and hope to meet some of you along the way.