Just in time for the weekend, The Moon punchneedle pattern is now available from the PlanetJune shop.

The finished moon is 5″ in diameter, and the pattern includes 4 colourways for the Moon: Purple Moon, Sepia Moon, Blue Moon, and Harvest Moon (thanks Alice for suggesting that last one!).

There are three ways to buy The Moon pattern:

• Purchase it individually for $4.50
• Create a custom set of any three punchneedle patterns for $11.25
• Choose it as your free pattern when you purchase The Punchneedle Handbook for $8.50

I can’t describe how happy I am with all the interest I’m been getting since I released my eBook – this week has been an absolute whirlwind, and it’s wonderful to see that people are finally starting to pay attention to punchneedle! Thank you so much for all the positive comments and encouragement you’ve sent me!

And thanks to Craft for their lovely write-up, and Sister Diane at CraftyPod for her wonderful review of my book!

Please let me know if you have any punchneedle pattern requests or any questions I can help you with 🙂

I don’t sell punchneedle equipment in my store because I wouldn’t be able to offer competitive pricing. Instead, I’ll give you some information about where you can buy punchneedles and some of the commonly-available options.

As far as I know, all the big craft stores sell at least one type of punchneedle – I have verified that Michaels, JoAnn & AC Moore all sell punchneedles. I suggest you look for punchneedles in craft or embroidery supply shops (either locally to you, or online).

To give you an idea of what’s available, here are some of the types of punchneedle you may see, with my comments about them:

L-R: Dimensions, Clover, Ultra Punch

Punchneedles come in several styles and sizes. The basic needle (size medium) accommodates 3 strands of embroidery floss, but fine 1-strand needles and coarse 6-strand needles are also available. (UPDATE: See the bottom of this post for more size information.) Some punchneedles have adjustable depth (which determines the length of the loops you punch); the most basic needles have a fixed loop length. The more expensive punchneedles may have a more comfortable grip for long periods of use, but they all work in exactly the same manner, so a basic punchneedle is all you need.

The Dimensions punchneedle is inexpensive and not adjustable, but you don’t need an adjustable needle for miniature punchneedle, so this needle is really all you need to get started. You should find it near the cross stitch section in almost any craft stores.

The Clover Embroidery Stitching Tool is more expensive and you can buy various-sized needle tips (you will need a MEDIUM needle for it), but it is quite short and some people may prefer a longer pen-shaped barrel (I know I do!)

The Ultra-Punch Needle (previously sold as Cameo Ultra Punch) is the most expensive and has an adjustable loop length. I own this needle – it is very comfortable to use, but I always leave it on the shortest loop length. You can buy it in three needle tip sizes or in a set of all 3 needle tip sizes. You only need the MEDIUM sized needle. (I’m not sure if you can buy this needle in stores; you can buy it from amazon, or it’s available online from JoAnn.com and probably elsewhere too.)

There are other brands of punchneedle too – basically, any punchneedle with a medium-sized tip is suitable for the Miniature Punchneedle Embroidery taught in The Punchneedle Handbook.

I hope you find this information useful!

UPDATE: Punchneedle Tool Sizes

Punchneedle sizing information is very unclear, and the packaging rarely tells you exactly which sizes you’re buying! I’ve researched it and here’s what I found. The punchneedle sizes are as follows:

EXTRA SMALL (1 strand of floss)
SMALL (2 strands of floss) = 1.2mm
MEDIUM (3 strands of floss) = 1.6mm
LARGE (6 strands of floss) = 2.2mm
EXTRA LARGE (used with rug yarn or ribbon)

In general:

• If a punchneedle comes with only one needle tip, it will be MEDIUM unless otherwise marked.
• Three needle tips will be SMALL, MEDIUM and LARGE.
• Four needle tips will also include the EXTRA SMALL (the rug punch is a separate tool and will never be included in a set with the other sizes)

Mystery solved!

With an astronomer for a husband, it seemed doubly appropriate that I make something to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing (July 20, 1969). And with my new punchneedle fixation, it seemed obvious what I should make:

I looked at source photos from NASA to make my moon design, and then embroidered it with punchneedle. I decided to use a soft purple colour scheme instead of harsh greys – four shades of purple plus white. I even got some professional advice from my resident astronomer to make sure my design was accurate before I started!

The finished embroidery is 5 inches across. I made it into an applique and attached it to a black paisley fabric (doesn’t really show in these pics, but it’s black on black and has a soft velvety texture) mounted on a padded stretcher bar frame. I love the texture of the punchneedle and how it almost looks 3D. And the purples happen to match my new shelves perfectly. I’m very happy with it – now I just have to hang it!

When I write up the moon pattern I’m going to give a choice of colour schemes (sepia tones, soft blues, etc), in case purple isn’t your thing. Any requests?

I hope you like my moon! Are you starting to see how cool punchneedle can be?! I really do love it!

Edited to add: I’ve set up a new mailing list for my Punchneedle designs – sign up if you’d like to be notified when the moon pattern is finished!

Edited to add: The Moon Punchneedle pattern is now available for purchase 🙂

I’m so happy to finally be able to reveal the secret project I’ve been working on for the past couple of months. You may remember that I discovered a little-known traditional technique called Punchneedle Embroidery a couple of months back, and posted about my first experiments with it.

Since then, I have been busy researching, learning, experimenting, designing, and testing, and I’m so excited by my results!

Why isn’t Punchneedle more popular? I think the reason is that all the available patterns seem very focused in one genre (country/primitive style) that doesn’t appeal to a lot of today’s crafters, so Punchneedle hasn’t seen the surge in popularity that many other traditional crafts are experiencing.

Well, I’m here to change all that – this technique is too good to be overlooked any longer! Here are just a few of the reasons I find it so appealing:

• Easy: Only one simple stitch to learn; you don’t have to be super-neat to get a beautiful result
• Fast: No need to knot the ends of the thread, and, other than the outline, it doesn’t matter exactly where you place your stitches, as long as you punch enough stitches to fill each area
• Stunning results: Easy to create bold, bright, appealing embroideries
• Relaxing: Unlike cross stitch, there’s no counting involved – just fill in each area with colour like a paint-by-number painting!
• Inexpensive: After you’ve bought a punchneedle and hoop, the only supplies you need are fabric and embroidery floss
• Easy to fix mistakes: Any stitch can be easily pulled out without affecting neighbouring stitches; with a few simple techniques you can fix any unsightly mistakes
• Portable: Carry all your project supplies in a small bag for those crafting on-the-go moments
• Versatile: Make finished embroideries into framed artwork, decorative patches or appliqués, or add fabric borders to make quilts, cushions, etc – there’s limitless potential here

Intrigued yet?

I’ve written an eBook called The Punchneedle Handbook: Miniature Punchneedle Embroidery Basics & Beyond. This eBook includes everything about punchneedle from the absolute basics for those who have never heard of this craft, to my techniques that will allow absolutely anyone to create beautiful punchneedle embroideries. I designed the eBook to be a go-to reference book for all your punch needle questions. See more details and the table of contents.

I’ve made an excerpt from the eBook into a free tutorial so you can get a taste for what punchneedle is about.

Of course, a techniques book would be useless without some patterns, and this is the part I’m really excited about – time to show you my initial designs! I hope you like them…

I’ve found that designing in 2D is very different to designing in 3D – I think that the shaping is the most important feature of my crochet patterns, whereas with these punchneedle designs it’s really the colour that gives them such impact.

(I’m also working on another piece – something very different to the above designs, which will show a different side of punchneedle – more on that later today.)

Square designs are so useful because they can easily be sewn directly together to make a larger piece, or fabric borders added to make quilt squares etc. Here’s what I’ve made with my three jungle designs:

… a cute little green linen tote bag. The techniques I used to join the finished embroideries together and to attach the fabric ‘frame’ to make the front of the bag are covered in detail in The Punchneedle Handbook.

My punchneedle patterns are available individually or in a set of any three patterns of your choice. As an introductory offer, I’m also giving away one pattern (of your choice) FREE with every purchase of The Punchneedle Handbook eBook!

I know this has been a long post, but I had a lot to cover! If you’re interested in learning more about punchneedle, here’s a summary of your options, with links:

• Check out my free Punchneedle Tutorial to see what punchneedle is all about
• Find out more about The Punchneedle Handbook eBook and also receive a free pattern if you choose to buy it
• Buy my punchneedle patterns individually, or save money buy choosing the custom set of three patterns

Please let me know what you think of my new venture! I anxiously await your comments…

Okay, so I did a little test this weekend to establish what punchneedle is all about and whether it would be something I could design patterns for. This is my test piece – you may recognise the subjects as my Fuzzy Penguin and Fuzzy Seal 🙂 It’s approx 3.5″x 2.25″ and worked with 3 strands of DMC embroidery floss.

For this sample, I wanted to figure out what kind of designs would look best, so I designed the penguin to be not outlined, and the seal with an outline. I’ve learned a few things about designing for punchneedle:

• Not outlining looks best – the outline looks a bit uneven in places because it’s only 1 loop thick
• Tiny detail is difficult to replicate (e.g. the seal’s nose)
• Bold colours and patterns will look really good

But I can see a lot of potential here. I learnt that punchneedle is really easy to do, and it’s so fast compared with cross stitch! I punched the penguin and seal in under an hour and a half – and it was my first attempt, so that includes my slow start as I tried to learn how to punch correctly. The background took a bit longer, but it’s so relaxing and you don’t have to concentrate much, so it’s perfect to punch away while you watch TV.

UPDATE: By request, adding a close-up pic so you can see what the stitches look like:

L: Back of piece: looks like regular backstitched embroidery
R: Front of piece (edge on): lots of loops. Mine are 3mm tall but the tool lets you adjust the loop length to much longer

Now I’ve finished the experiment, I can visualize a whole series of designs… I think a range of dog breeds would be so cute, and also a wild animal range (giraffe, panda, etc). You could use them to make quilt squares (just add a fabric border), embellishments for bags etc, or just to frame.

Now my questions to you…

1. Are you intrigued by punchneedle? Would you like me to put up a basic tutorial so you can see how it works?
2. Might you be interested in PlanetJune punchneedle designs? (They would, of course, be better than my test piece above – I’m thinking more realistic and colourful)

I’m obviously still in the planning stages here, but I’d love some early feedback before I embark on a design range. I’m not asking for any kind of commitment; just your opinion. It’s a cheap craft to get into; once you’ve bought the actual needle, an embroidery hoop, and some woven fabric, then all you need to pick up for each project is the floss colours.

If there’s no interest, I’ll still make some for myself, just for fun, but I really think this is another craft that just needs a little updating with some fresh, cute patterns to be relevant to us. All the patterns I’ve seen are a bit too, um, country (is that the right word?) for my taste.

Please let me know what you think! Any comments welcome.