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This video is supported in part by Skillshare.
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[Intro music]
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Hello and welcome back to my channel!
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My name’s Annika, and today I’m going
to be reviewing something that a lot of you
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have asked me to review… this so called
magic embroidery pen.
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Now it has been touted as a way to make embroidery
easier, more accessible, faster, more exciting…
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But I’m a little bit skeptical of whether
it actually works, because I’ve been burned
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before…
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ARGGHH ALL OF THIS JUST CAME OUT EUGH!
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So before you go out and buy one for yourself,
let’s see if it… can do the thing.
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So I ordered one, from the internet – this
seems to be the same one that is being sold
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everywhere, under sometimes different brand
names, sometimes it’s called ‘WarmCrochet’
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but there’s a lot of like, generic versions
around.
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Ok, so, this is the package that I received.
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I’m gonna open it up here…
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Ok good!
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That’s a good start, we have instructions….
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Oh, instructions that fall apart, but instructions
none the less!
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Don’t worry guys, it says that it IS a ‘quality
product’!
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Needle punching is.. easy to start and impossible
to stop!
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Am I going to be stuck doing this forever?
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First we have to thread the main needle.
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Ok so this one is the main needle…
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I don’t wanna waste really nice embroidery
thread on my first attempt, so..
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I’m going to find a not so nice colour.
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Ok so to thread this we will need the needle
threader, and the punch needle.
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So first we put the threader in through the
punch needle itself…
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Oh!
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Pops out the top there..
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Then we insert the thread slash yarn..
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I’m going to use 6 strands here but I don’t
know what weight of thread I’m supposed
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to be using.. ok, then pull the threader back
through…
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Oh!
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And there it goes… and then we use this
again to pull it through the little eye of
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the embroidery needle.
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So that goes through the little hole in the
needle, and then we pull it back through…and
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is that it?
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THAT’S IT!
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That wasn’t too hard!
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I’m surprised!
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Now the real test… will it work?
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So I’ve got some cotton fabric here, to
try it out on – I’m just going to pop
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that onto an embroidery hoop so that the fabric
is nice and… tense?
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Is that the right word?
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Taut?
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Ok, so my fabric is just a standard, cotton
fabric, and it’s in the embroidery hoop,
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nice and taut…
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So now, apparently, we just punch this through…
what happens to this little… this long bit
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of thread?
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Doesn’t say what we do with this little
stringy bit but we will figure that out later,
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lets see if it even does anything first.
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I’m really excited!
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Huh.
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Nope.
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Nope.
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Nope… still.. nope..
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aww!
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Well THAT didn’t work!
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C’mon…
[laughs]
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Eugh, not again!
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This is the handheld sewing machine all over
again.
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Why won’t you go in?
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Go INTO the fabric!
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IN!
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Ok so I think the problem here is the needle
is way too big for this fabric, and I’m
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literally…
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It’s just poking gigantic holes thought
the fabric.. which, I mean, IS THERAPUTIC…
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But it’s not what its supposed to be doing…
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But for now I’m going to try this on a different
fabric, I’m going to try this on denim.
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Maybe it will work with that.
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Alright leeets try this again…oh hang on!
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It almost stayed in...
[laughs]
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C’monnnn C’MONNNNNN
[weeps in frustration]
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Ok this might help, there’s a little dial
on the side, not sure what it does because
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it’s literally just called, screw, in the
instructions….
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Let’s turn it up all the way to 11… ah
it makes the needle longer, ok that might
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help, let’s just make it as long as possible…
then it might actually stay in the fabric?
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I dunno, I’m totally guessing here…
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OKAY!
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[gasps]
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OHHHH!
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It’s staying the fabric!!!
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YUSS
I guess I’ll just do a straight line here…boop
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de doop ba boop…
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I guess I’m doing a little S?
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Ok, we’ve made an S.
Oh no!
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Oh NO!
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What?
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So… ok…
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yeah this is my concern with this…
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The thread came out WAY too easily, there’s
nothing to anchor it to the back, of the piece
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of fabric so...
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I’m not entirely sure how that’s supposed
to work.
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And it says you can apply it to pretty much
anything, any kind of cloth… look at the
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examples they’ve given, I mean, there’s
a warning sign right there…like if THAT
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is the best examples they can give?
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Ok so this kit came with three different size
needles, this is the one that was originally
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in it, which is GIGANTIC compared to this
smaller one.
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So if I put the little small one…
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hopefully, it might work better?
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I’ve been filming for… 42 minutes.
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Ok, lets see if this works.
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[mumbles of frustration]
Oh man, now it’s just not holding… why
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aren’t you holding in?
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Now it just doesn’t want to stay in the
fabric!
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What happened?
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What happened to make you not want to stay
in the fabric, thread?
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It’s like, chasing me around…
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WHAT’S YA DEAL?!
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WHY?
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I don’t understand!
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… I’m done.
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[Door slams]
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Ok instructions, I’ve lost all faith in
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you, I am turning to YouTube, to see if anyone
else has figured these things out…
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[typing noise]
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How. To.
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Use.
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An.
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Embroidery.
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pen.
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[YouTube clip music starts]
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Well, well, well, well.
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Hello.
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I am back.
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And boy, have I learned a LOT.
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First, let’s talk about what this thing
is NOT.
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It’s not a revolutionary new tool.
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It’s not a magic embroidery pen.
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It’s not even supposed to be used for the
type of embroidery that it’s largely been
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marketed for.
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Nope, this tool is more accurately called
a Punch Needle, and it is used for a very
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specific craft called Punch Needle Embroidery.
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Yet, it has been completely mis-marketed as
something else.
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So – firstly, what is Punch Needle Embroidery?
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Well, it is a different thing to standard
hand embroidery, the type that’s just done
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with needle and thread, the type that you
would have seen me do on my channel many times
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before.
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And Punch Needle Embroidery is a legit craft.
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In fact, it is a very old-school craft, like
its been around for hundreds, if not thousands
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of years.
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What is does is it creates these three-dimensional,
rug-like textures, made up of lots of tiny
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little loops, either using yarn or thick embroidery
floss.
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And the fabric used for it needs to be a very
specific type of fabric, called “Weaver’s
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Cloth”, which is very closely woven, and
is pulled very TAUT over something like a
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frame or hoop, and when the fabric is taken
off the thing that’s stretching it out,
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the weave of the fabric kinda springs back
and holds all of the threads tightly in place.
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So that’s why there’s no need to tie any
knots or loops to fix the threads in place,
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because they do if you use the right fabric,
stay in there.
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So the instructions that came with this pen,
saying that it can be used on “any kind
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of cloth” – well, it actually says ‘can
be applied to almost of clothing’ … I
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assume that means they’re saying apply it
to any kind of fabric… well, that’s just
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plain wrong.
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So this type of embroidery can’t really
be used on things like clothes, or bags…
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anything that’s really going to have a lot
of wear and tear or need washing.
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It’s mainly used for decorative wall hangings,
or pretty display pillows, or it’s used
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in larger sizes with bigger, but similar tools
to make things like rugs.
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So, after I’d done a BUNCH of research and
learned what this pen is ACTUALLY for – I
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gave Punch Needle Embroidery a go, which requires
a whole new set of skills!
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So I thought that I would punch needle a little
house.
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Simple shapes, a couple of different colours
– let’s see how it turns out!
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So I tried to use a fabric that is closer
to weaver’s cloth – I didn’t have any
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of the specific fabric but I used a non-stretchy
denim this time, with quite a close weave,
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and I also used the thinnest needle and it
seemed to hold the stitches in ooookay.
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And to do actual Punch Needle embroidery,
I threaded the pen like I did before, but
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the side that we’re going to be punching
into here, is actually going to be the BACK
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side of the project.
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The other side is going to be the nice side,
the side that goes on display, and that’s
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the side where the thread becomes all LOOPY.
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Those loops are something we actually want,
and we can, apparently, adjust the length
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of the loops by moving this dial on the side
of the pen up and down.
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And to create those loops, you punch through
the back-side like this, making each new “punch”
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just next to the last one, and what I saw
on other tutorials was that people generally
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would outline their shape first, and then
fill it in by working their way inwards either
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in spirals or in rows, until they’d filled
up the whole shape.
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And a good thing that I have to say about
punch-needles – well, they are faster than
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standard hand embroidery, even if the results
are nowhere close to being the same thing.
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So, I wanted to try a couple of different
colours of thread on this house… doop de
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doop do doo, just giving it a front path as
well… for some reason I decided to make
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the loops super long on the path and it made
the path really look like… spaghetti.
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Yeah.
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So, the general idea is that you leave all
the threads loose at the back – you don’t
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need to knot or tie them at all because the
fabric weave should hold it all in place.
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And then, the front side should look something
like this.
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But like… better than this because this…
doesn’t look so great.
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But hey – it was my first attempt, alright?!
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And I mean, you can at least tell it’s a
house – right?
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Luci: It’s…ah… clearly a… is it a
person with a hat?
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Luci: Give me some clue?
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Annika: [laughs]
Luci: Is this a person’s face and just some
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kind of little… hat?
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And that’s their eye and their ear?
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Annika: Don’t you like it?
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It’s an artwork I made for the house!
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Luci: Its… really… great!
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Annika: Ok don’t look at that side…
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Luci: Yup, it’s a good… ahh… it’s
a house.
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IT’S A HOUSE!
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Luci: It’s a window and a door and a roof
and a chimney and a path?
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It’s a house.
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Luci: It’s…
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damn good.
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Annika: Let’s hang it up on the wall!
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Luci: Ahhh… [laughs] let’s put it… let’s
put it somewhere where people will see it,
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you know, on a more circumstantial basis.
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Annika: Aww!
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Luci: Like we could put it in… this cupboard!
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Luci: And it could be like when people open
the cupboard…
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Annika: [laughs]
Luci: Oh, the artwork on the wall, everyone
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sees that!
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But then they open the cupboard and WOW!
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So yeah.
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Punch needles are a thing.
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Punch Needle embroidery, is a thing.
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This punch needle isn’t a very good one
though, because… well, the plastic bit that
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holds the needle in place broke after one
use, and then I had to use duct tape to hold
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the needle in place… and, they also really
slice through the fabric.
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I was trying to make a steven universe punch
needle thing… yeah.
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The fabric just got totally sliced up.
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It could have been the fact that I wasn’t
using proper weaver’s cloth Buuuuutt I also
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saw on other websites that cheap punch needles
will do this to fabric.
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Okay, so, while I might not be very good at
it, yet, and while this one may be a very
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cheap version of it – Punch Needles ARE
a legit thing… but the biggest problem that
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I have with this thing – is that this is
NOT how it’s been marketed.
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Instead of being marketed as a… not very
good Punch Needle, it’s being marketed as
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“a magic embroidery pen”; which as I said
in the beginning is being sold as an easy
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way to do standard embroidery stitches, but
with like, way less effort when that isn’t
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the case… at ALL.
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So, there is some very shady, dishonest marketing
going on here.
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Why?
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…How did this happen?!
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So I kinda imagined that it happened something
like this.
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So there is this guy, let’s call him Dennis.
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So Dennis works at this craft warehouse and
he’s… not so good at his job.
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And one day, instead of placing an order for
100 punch needles, he accidentally places
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an order for 10,000.
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So after a while, he realised he made a mistake
but instead of owning up he pretends that
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he didn’t make a mistake at all!
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So then, like 3 months later, 10,000 punch
needles show up and he FREAKS OUT and he’s
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like,
Dennis: OMG the boss is going to KILL me!
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So Dennis’ much more competent co-worker,
Penelope, comes in to save the day and she’s
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like,
Penelope: omg Dennis, I can’t leave you
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alone for 10 minutes, the company is ruined.
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But then she’s like…
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Penelope: Luckily you have me, I am going
to save the company and I’m going to pull
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the greatest marketing scam ever.
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So you know what’s been really trendy lately?
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Embroidery!
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So let’s say that these punch needles, which
are for punch needling, are actually for regular
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embroidery, and that it makes it easier and
faster!
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Because you know, millennials, they love their
crafts, they love their DIY, but they ALSO
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love getting things done quickly so let’s
tell them this is a way to do embroidery faster.
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And so then Penelope and Dennis hatch this
scheme to rebrand the punch needles as “MAGIC
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EMBROIDERY PENS”, throw up some real dodgy
YouTube tutorials and videos of how it works
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and show a piece at the end that’s most
definitely been stolen from an artist who
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has hand-stitched the piece – and BOOM,
thousands of people put down money for these…
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and thousands of people are left very disappointed
and confused when this god damn pen doesn’t
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do the thing they thought it was supposed
to do.
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Dennis.
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This is all your fault.
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So during my research I did find a kind of
tool that might work slightly like how this
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was supposed to work – you might want to
look into getting a high quality Kantan needle?
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(not sure how to pronounce that!)
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This is how it’s spelt – or a Tambour
hook – you can use these tools to do like,
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just basic stitches or the Tambour hook I
think does chain stitches and you can do the
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stitches pretty quickly.
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But, keep in mind that you still can’t achieve
as many hand stitches as you can with just
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standard hand embroidery.
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But this piece of plastic junk?
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I don’t think I will even attempt to try
and use this again, because it’s been SO
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poorly made.
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But if you do like the look of punch needle
embroidery, in my research I also found some
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good ones of those.
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This blog here, Theoldtatteredflag, had some
recommendations with the ‘ultra’ or ‘cameo’
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needle, CTR punch needles or the Iglochy Russian
punch needle.
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And it also took me a long time to find proper
instructions on how to use them because the
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internet has been flooded by people being
confused with how these things work.
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But I did find a website that I think does
show you how to use it properly, which you
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can find the instructions for here; which
I will also link and all this stuff in the
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description box below.
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But, a magic, super quick embroidery pen?
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Sadly, that is not really a thing.
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If you do want to learn how to do things properly,
first time around – then a resource that’s
-
worth checking out is the sponsor of today’s
video, which is Skillshare.
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that has thousands of classes in things like
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A site like Skillshare is SUPER useful for
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And I didn’t just wake up one day KNOWING
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all of this over years.
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And how do I do that?
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Well, largely by finding quality resources
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For example, Skillshare has a bunch of graphic
design videos; that’s something I’ve had
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So, I’m super excited about is, because
Skillshare is sponsoring today’s video,
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they have given me a code, so that the first
500 people who use the code (it’s the top
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line of the description box down below), the
first 500 people who use this will get TWO
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So you should go check it out!
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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
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of this punch needle?
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Well, unfortunately this punch needle is going
to go the same way as the hand held sewing
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machine.
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In that it’s going to sit forever on this
shelf here, making me feel guilty, and no
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I’m not going to take either of these to
a thrift shop, because I don’t want to burden
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someone else with this USELESS PIECE OF PLASTIC.
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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.
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Anyway, that’s it from me; turned into a
pretty ranty video there, but, sometimes you
-
just gotta have a good old rant!
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So I hope you call enjoyed…
-
listening to it?
– and I’ll see you all in my next video.
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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