Cornelli Embroidery

The name ‘Cornelli’ describes a pattern, rather than a particular stitch and this very ancient form of embroidery is a personal favourite. Instead of stitching these ‘snail trails’ of pattern, I suggest you use the Creswick Craft Needle Felting Tool to felt textured Cornelli Yarn into place over a plain wool surface – cushion fronts, blankets, any accessible part of an existing wool jacket, fringed scarves or throws can all be embellished with Cornelli work. Be aware that the needle felting process can only happen securely when wool fibre is felted to wool fibre.

You will need:

Creswick Crafts pure wool Cornelli Yarn

Creswick Crafts Needle Felting Tool and Brush

Your wool fabric to be embellished

• Practice your Cornelli technique first on a wool fabric scrap. You will soon see that it is all just a series
of curves trailing around each other – and that the overall effect does not demand perfection. Your first efforts may be slow and painstaking, but soon you will be creating large areas of Cornelli almost automatically. The following ideas will help your progress.

• Work ahead with your yarn – lay it out in the pattern first, then use the tool to felt it into place.

• Cornelli looks better if no conspicuous spaces are created – so be sure of the layout before felting.

• Use two strands of Cornelli Yarn together for a thicker, more textured effect, or you could combine two different colours.

• Leave edges blank to the depth of seam allowances, if required. This way no embroidery is lost when, for example, cushions are made up.

• If embroidering an existing jacket, you will find it easier to remove some parts of the lining so the felting brush can sit immediately under the wool surface fabric. Simply hand-stitch the lining back in place when the Cornelli work is completed.

• The more you felt the yarn into the place, the more secure it will become. Flip over the felting and felt again from the wrong side, then flip it back to the right side and felt again. This way the fibres are well and truly embedded. We suggest you only gently hand wash as recommended, or dry clean.

• Cushions featuring Cornelli work can have thick pom-poms made from Cornelli Yarn hand-stitched around the edges of the finished cushion.
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