How To do Couching

      To do the type of couching I have done, you will need gold embroidery thread, red embroidery thread, two needles, some embroiderer's chalk/chalk paper, an embroidery hoop and whatever fabric you are going to use.
 
 

1. Prepare your fabric:

      Transfer your design onto the fabric.  I did this using embroidery chalk paper, but you can use whatever you're comfortable with.

      Put the fabric into the embroidery hoop making sure that it is tight across the top.

 
2. Start the embroidery:

      Start by threading each needle, one with the gold thread, and one with two strands of the red thread, and knot the ends.

      Push both needles through the fabric from the underside to the top at the beginning of the pattern.

 
 
3. Begin the couching:

     Lay the gold thread down along the line of the pattern, take the red thread over it and push the needle back down to the underside of the fabric.  This effectively 'traps' the gold thread underneath the red.

      Push the red thread up through the fabric again about 5 mm away from the last stitch, then take it over the gold as before. 

      The gold thread only goes through the fabric at the very beginning of the design and at the the very end.

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