Sew Love Into Your Coverlet (Painfully)

weaving 3 comments

As a follow-up to my previous post about sewing a textile to a sheepskin

Jan Mostrom and the beautiful skinnfell she made in Norway

I asked Jan Mostrom, who attended Britt Solheim’s class on skinnfell-making in Norway, about the thread she used.  She wrote, “I checked my spool and it is Campbell’s Line thread #832  I bought another spool at the Husflid which I think is the very same. That is Barbour  #25 cord 3 from Lisburn, N. Ireland.  They appear to be identical, both 100% linen, and both came on 50 gram spools that are identical except for the labels.  Anyway,  I think any strong smooth linen will work fine.”

Jan also checked Britt Solheim’s book, and it says to use double linen thread in size 35/3 to 40/2.

When I took the class from Britt, we all peered at the tips of the leather-making needles we would use, noting how dangerous the sharp triangular knife-edges appeared.  Britt said, “You know what they say if you cut yourself and blood gets on your piece?   That you “syr kjaerlighet inne i teppet.”  You sew love into your coverlet.  As much as I tried to avoid that, love definitely sneaked into my sewing a couple of times.

3 comments

  1. Hi, can you explain to us what the “frame” you mention is all about? Is this what you are referring to in the picture of the skin with long lines of stitching? Do you anchor the woven piece onto those stitching lines?

    Thank you,
    Bettes

  2. Can you explain what the “frame” that you discussed is all about? Is it the sheepskin with the stitching down it, and is it to this that you sew the woven material?
    thanks,
    Bettes

    1. Hi! The frame to which I refer is made of strips of fleece sewn around the perimeter of a sheepskin coverlet. So one side of the coverlet is all fleece, and on the other side is the smooth side of the skin, which is plain, printed, or covered with a textile. Around of the perimeter of the smooth side you can sew strips of fleece, which make a sort of border or frame. Does that make sense? This photo might help explain it more. It shows the part of the process when I am just starting to sew the fleece border, or brudekant, in place. Photo showing the process of adding a fleece edge to the skinnfell I’m going to write more about this type of edging, with photos of other pieces, within a few days.