This video is supported in part by Skillshare.

[Intro music]

Hello and welcome back to my channel!

My name’s Annika, and today I’m going
to be reviewing something that a lot of you

have asked me to review… this so called
magic embroidery pen.

Now it has been touted as a way to make embroidery
easier, more accessible, faster, more exciting…

But I’m a little bit skeptical of whether
it actually works, because I’ve been burned

before…

ARGGHH ALL OF THIS JUST CAME OUT EUGH!

So before you go out and buy one for yourself,
let’s see if it… can do the thing.

So I ordered one, from the internet – this
seems to be the same one that is being sold

everywhere, under sometimes different brand
names, sometimes it’s called ‘WarmCrochet’

but there’s a lot of like, generic versions
around.

Ok, so, this is the package that I received.

I’m gonna open it up here…

Ok good!

That’s a good start, we have instructions….

Oh, instructions that fall apart, but instructions
none the less!

Don’t worry guys, it says that it IS a ‘quality
product’!

Needle punching is.. easy to start and impossible
to stop!

Am I going to be stuck doing this forever?

First we have to thread the main needle.

Ok so this one is the main needle…

I don’t wanna waste really nice embroidery
thread on my first attempt, so..

I’m going to find a not so nice colour.

Ok so to thread this we will need the needle
threader, and the punch needle.

So first we put the threader in through the
punch needle itself…

Oh!

Pops out the top there..

Then we insert the thread slash yarn..

I’m going to use 6 strands here but I don’t
know what weight of thread I’m supposed

to be using.. ok, then pull the threader back
through…

Oh!

And there it goes… and then we use this
again to pull it through the little eye of

the embroidery needle.

So that goes through the little hole in the
needle, and then we pull it back through…and

is that it?

THAT’S IT!

That wasn’t too hard!

I’m surprised!

Now the real test… will it work?

So I’ve got some cotton fabric here, to
try it out on – I’m just going to pop

that onto an embroidery hoop so that the fabric
is nice and… tense?

Is that the right word?

Taut?

Ok, so my fabric is just a standard, cotton
fabric, and it’s in the embroidery hoop,

nice and taut…

So now, apparently, we just punch this through…
what happens to this little… this long bit

of thread?

Doesn’t say what we do with this little
stringy bit but we will figure that out later,

lets see if it even does anything first.

I’m really excited!

Huh.

Nope.

Nope.

Nope… still.. nope..

aww!

Well THAT didn’t work!

C’mon…
[laughs]

Eugh, not again!

This is the handheld sewing machine all over
again.

Why won’t you go in?

Go INTO the fabric!

IN!

Ok so I think the problem here is the needle
is way too big for this fabric, and I’m

literally…

It’s just poking gigantic holes thought
the fabric.. which, I mean, IS THERAPUTIC…

But it’s not what its supposed to be doing…

But for now I’m going to try this on a different
fabric, I’m going to try this on denim.

Maybe it will work with that.

Alright leeets try this again…oh hang on!

It almost stayed in...
[laughs]

C’monnnn C’MONNNNNN
[weeps in frustration]

Ok this might help, there’s a little dial
on the side, not sure what it does because

it’s literally just called, screw, in the
instructions….

Let’s turn it up all the way to 11… ah
it makes the needle longer, ok that might

help, let’s just make it as long as possible…
then it might actually stay in the fabric?

I dunno, I’m totally guessing here…

OKAY!

[gasps]

OHHHH!

It’s staying the fabric!!!

YUSS
I guess I’ll just do a straight line here…boop

de doop ba boop…

I guess I’m doing a little S?

Ok, we’ve made an S.
Oh no!

Oh NO!

What?

So… ok…

yeah this is my concern with this…

The thread came out WAY too easily, there’s
nothing to anchor it to the back, of the piece

of fabric so...

I’m not entirely sure how that’s supposed
to work.

And it says you can apply it to pretty much
anything, any kind of cloth… look at the

examples they’ve given, I mean, there’s
a warning sign right there…like if THAT

is the best examples they can give?

Ok so this kit came with three different size
needles, this is the one that was originally

in it, which is GIGANTIC compared to this
smaller one.

So if I put the little small one…

hopefully, it might work better?

I’ve been filming for… 42 minutes.

Ok, lets see if this works.

[mumbles of frustration]
Oh man, now it’s just not holding… why

aren’t you holding in?

Now it just doesn’t want to stay in the
fabric!

What happened?

What happened to make you not want to stay
in the fabric, thread?

It’s like, chasing me around…

WHAT’S YA DEAL?!

WHY?

I don’t understand!

… I’m done.

[Door slams]

Ok instructions, I’ve lost all faith in

you, I am turning to YouTube, to see if anyone
else has figured these things out…

[typing noise]

How. To.

Use.

An.

Embroidery.

pen.

[YouTube clip music starts]

Well, well, well, well.

Hello.

I am back.

And boy, have I learned a LOT.

First, let’s talk about what this thing
is NOT.

It’s not a revolutionary new tool.

It’s not a magic embroidery pen.

It’s not even supposed to be used for the
type of embroidery that it’s largely been

marketed for.

Nope, this tool is more accurately called
a Punch Needle, and it is used for a very

specific craft called Punch Needle Embroidery.

Yet, it has been completely mis-marketed as
something else.

So – firstly, what is Punch Needle Embroidery?

Well, it is a different thing to standard
hand embroidery, the type that’s just done

with needle and thread, the type that you
would have seen me do on my channel many times

before.

And Punch Needle Embroidery is a legit craft.

In fact, it is a very old-school craft, like
its been around for hundreds, if not thousands

of years.

What is does is it creates these three-dimensional,
rug-like textures, made up of lots of tiny

little loops, either using yarn or thick embroidery
floss.

And the fabric used for it needs to be a very
specific type of fabric, called “Weaver’s

Cloth”, which is very closely woven, and
is pulled very TAUT over something like a

frame or hoop, and when the fabric is taken
off the thing that’s stretching it out,

the weave of the fabric kinda springs back
and holds all of the threads tightly in place.

So that’s why there’s no need to tie any
knots or loops to fix the threads in place,

because they do if you use the right fabric,
stay in there.

So the instructions that came with this pen,
saying that it can be used on “any kind

of cloth” – well, it actually says ‘can
be applied to almost of clothing’ … I

assume that means they’re saying apply it
to any kind of fabric… well, that’s just

plain wrong.

So this type of embroidery can’t really
be used on things like clothes, or bags…

anything that’s really going to have a lot
of wear and tear or need washing.

It’s mainly used for decorative wall hangings,
or pretty display pillows, or it’s used

in larger sizes with bigger, but similar tools
to make things like rugs.

So, after I’d done a BUNCH of research and
learned what this pen is ACTUALLY for – I

gave Punch Needle Embroidery a go, which requires
a whole new set of skills!

So I thought that I would punch needle a little
house.

Simple shapes, a couple of different colours
– let’s see how it turns out!

So I tried to use a fabric that is closer
to weaver’s cloth – I didn’t have any

of the specific fabric but I used a non-stretchy
denim this time, with quite a close weave,

and I also used the thinnest needle and it
seemed to hold the stitches in ooookay.

And to do actual Punch Needle embroidery,
I threaded the pen like I did before, but

the side that we’re going to be punching
into here, is actually going to be the BACK

side of the project.

The other side is going to be the nice side,
the side that goes on display, and that’s

the side where the thread becomes all LOOPY.

Those loops are something we actually want,
and we can, apparently, adjust the length

of the loops by moving this dial on the side
of the pen up and down.

And to create those loops, you punch through
the back-side like this, making each new “punch”

just next to the last one, and what I saw
on other tutorials was that people generally

would outline their shape first, and then
fill it in by working their way inwards either

in spirals or in rows, until they’d filled
up the whole shape.

And a good thing that I have to say about
punch-needles – well, they are faster than

standard hand embroidery, even if the results
are nowhere close to being the same thing.

So, I wanted to try a couple of different
colours of thread on this house… doop de

doop do doo, just giving it a front path as
well… for some reason I decided to make

the loops super long on the path and it made
the path really look like… spaghetti.

Yeah.

So, the general idea is that you leave all
the threads loose at the back – you don’t

need to knot or tie them at all because the
fabric weave should hold it all in place.

And then, the front side should look something
like this.

But like… better than this because this…
doesn’t look so great.

But hey – it was my first attempt, alright?!

And I mean, you can at least tell it’s a
house – right?

Luci: It’s…ah… clearly a… is it a
person with a hat?

Luci: Give me some clue?

Annika: [laughs]
Luci: Is this a person’s face and just some

kind of little… hat?

And that’s their eye and their ear?

Annika: Don’t you like it?

It’s an artwork I made for the house!

Luci: Its… really… great!

Annika: Ok don’t look at that side…

Luci: Yup, it’s a good… ahh… it’s
a house.

IT’S A HOUSE!

Luci: It’s a window and a door and a roof
and a chimney and a path?

It’s a house.

Luci: It’s…

damn good.

Annika: Let’s hang it up on the wall!

Luci: Ahhh… [laughs] let’s put it… let’s
put it somewhere where people will see it,

you know, on a more circumstantial basis.

Annika: Aww!

Luci: Like we could put it in… this cupboard!

Luci: And it could be like when people open
the cupboard…

Annika: [laughs]
Luci: Oh, the artwork on the wall, everyone

sees that!

But then they open the cupboard and WOW!

So yeah.

Punch needles are a thing.

Punch Needle embroidery, is a thing.

This punch needle isn’t a very good one
though, because… well, the plastic bit that

holds the needle in place broke after one
use, and then I had to use duct tape to hold

the needle in place… and, they also really
slice through the fabric.

I was trying to make a steven universe punch
needle thing… yeah.

The fabric just got totally sliced up.

It could have been the fact that I wasn’t
using proper weaver’s cloth Buuuuutt I also

saw on other websites that cheap punch needles
will do this to fabric.

Okay, so, while I might not be very good at
it, yet, and while this one may be a very

cheap version of it – Punch Needles ARE
a legit thing… but the biggest problem that

I have with this thing – is that this is
NOT how it’s been marketed.

Instead of being marketed as a… not very
good Punch Needle, it’s being marketed as

“a magic embroidery pen”; which as I said
in the beginning is being sold as an easy

way to do standard embroidery stitches, but
with like, way less effort when that isn’t

the case… at ALL.

So, there is some very shady, dishonest marketing
going on here.

Why?

…How did this happen?!

So I kinda imagined that it happened something
like this.

So there is this guy, let’s call him Dennis.

So Dennis works at this craft warehouse and
he’s… not so good at his job.

And one day, instead of placing an order for
100 punch needles, he accidentally places

an order for 10,000.

So after a while, he realised he made a mistake
but instead of owning up he pretends that

he didn’t make a mistake at all!

So then, like 3 months later, 10,000 punch
needles show up and he FREAKS OUT and he’s

like,
Dennis: OMG the boss is going to KILL me!

So Dennis’ much more competent co-worker,
Penelope, comes in to save the day and she’s

like,
Penelope: omg Dennis, I can’t leave you

alone for 10 minutes, the company is ruined.

But then she’s like…

Penelope: Luckily you have me, I am going
to save the company and I’m going to pull

the greatest marketing scam ever.

So you know what’s been really trendy lately?

Embroidery!

So let’s say that these punch needles, which
are for punch needling, are actually for regular

embroidery, and that it makes it easier and
faster!

Because you know, millennials, they love their
crafts, they love their DIY, but they ALSO

love getting things done quickly so let’s
tell them this is a way to do embroidery faster.

And so then Penelope and Dennis hatch this
scheme to rebrand the punch needles as “MAGIC

EMBROIDERY PENS”, throw up some real dodgy
YouTube tutorials and videos of how it works

and show a piece at the end that’s most
definitely been stolen from an artist who

has hand-stitched the piece – and BOOM,
thousands of people put down money for these…

and thousands of people are left very disappointed
and confused when this god damn pen doesn’t

do the thing they thought it was supposed
to do.

Dennis.

This is all your fault.

So during my research I did find a kind of
tool that might work slightly like how this

was supposed to work – you might want to
look into getting a high quality Kantan needle?

(not sure how to pronounce that!)

This is how it’s spelt – or a Tambour
hook – you can use these tools to do like,

just basic stitches or the Tambour hook I
think does chain stitches and you can do the

stitches pretty quickly.

But, keep in mind that you still can’t achieve
as many hand stitches as you can with just

standard hand embroidery.

But this piece of plastic junk?

I don’t think I will even attempt to try
and use this again, because it’s been SO

poorly made.

But if you do like the look of punch needle
embroidery, in my research I also found some

good ones of those.

This blog here, Theoldtatteredflag, had some
recommendations with the ‘ultra’ or ‘cameo’

needle, CTR punch needles or the Iglochy Russian
punch needle.

And it also took me a long time to find proper
instructions on how to use them because the

internet has been flooded by people being
confused with how these things work.

But I did find a website that I think does
show you how to use it properly, which you

can find the instructions for here; which
I will also link and all this stuff in the

description box below.

But, a magic, super quick embroidery pen?

Sadly, that is not really a thing.

If you do want to learn how to do things properly,
first time around – then a resource that’s

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Thanks to Skillshare for sponsoring this video
and thank you to all of you for supporting

the companies that support this channel.

So just as a very last thing, you might be
like…

Annika – you hate waste, you talk about
it all the time, what’s going to become

of this punch needle?

Well, unfortunately this punch needle is going
to go the same way as the hand held sewing

machine.

In that it’s going to sit forever on this
shelf here, making me feel guilty, and no

I’m not going to take either of these to
a thrift shop, because I don’t want to burden

someone else with this USELESS PIECE OF PLASTIC.

It doesn’t work.

At the very least, I hope that putting this
video out to, you know, hundreds of thousands

of people, it’ll stop more people from buying
them.

Anyway, that’s it from me; turned into a
pretty ranty video there, but, sometimes you

just gotta have a good old rant!

So I hope you call enjoyed…

listening to it?
– and I’ll see you all in my next video.

Bye!

Thank you to all of my supporters on Patreon
and Ko-fi for making this video possible.

To support these videos so I can keep making
them, go to ko-fi.com/annikavictoria to make

a one off donation, or to support me on an
conntinual basis, go to patreon.com/annikavictoria