Techniques include:

• Instructions for hemstitching, fagoting, pintucking, and appliqueing and for making perfect scalloped hems and decorative edges
• Specific machine settings for decorative techniques
• A new chapter on replicating vintage lace and entredeux techniques
• Tips for sewing on lightweight fabrics
• Troubleshooting advice for common problems
• Beautiful photos of finished garments and closeup views of techniques in progress

This book is too cool!. Filled with page after page of creative ideas, the hardest time you will have is deciding which technique to do first. Raising the Surface is a book for everyone who is interested in texture in embroidery. Beautifully illustrated with clear instructions and color photographs, it covers:

• Backgrounds, often using experimental or unusual materials
• Raising the surface a little to produce highly textured, low-relief embroideries
• The next step - raising the surface even more
• Using applied motifs for high-relief textiles
• Frames, masks and high-relief panels
• Three-dimensional constructions, bowls, vessels & towers

Featuring new and exciting techniques on how to dissolve, melt, and distort fabric both before and after stitching, this guide explores the evolving and innovative materials that are introduced into the textile market and instructs fiber artists how to use them creatively and effectively. Whether dissolving, melting, punching, slashing, or distorting textiles, crafters can achieve fascinating effects using the handbook's easy-to-follow steps, design tips, and diagrams. The book's organization around three themes -- stitch, dissolve, and distort -- allows experienced embroiderers to easily incorporate fresh ideas into their favorite stitching styles.