How to make a tapestry with a tufting gun and yarn: Free Tutorial

Learn to create a stunning tapestry using the tufting gun technique

05/01/2023

 

tufting-tapestry-FEAT

To those who are new to tufting, it’s a textile technique where you use a tufting gun to ‘punch’ or ‘shoot’ yarn into a fabric canvas to create striking tapestries full of dimension. In this tutorial Galician artistic duo Twee Muizen teaches you how to make your own work of art, with only a few materials, a simple technique, and easy-to-follow videos.

Twee Muizen have had their work displayed in numerous exhibitions, in publications, and at festivals. This particular piece that you’ll learn to make is titled Ondiñas (‘little wave’ in Galician) and inspired their work Máscara palmera. In the design they use blue for the eyes to appear like the piece is gazing out, and they give colour a special role with gradients in some areas and contrasting colours in others. 

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The materials you will need to complete this project are:

  • Katia's Yarn
  • Tufting gun
  • Wooden frame
  • Fabric canvas for tufting (like monks cloth)
  • Fabric marker or pencil
  • Textile glue
  • Scissors
  • Shearing machine
  • Linen fabric or a strong fabric to cover the back of the weaving

Useful information for your tufting project

To create this piece Chris and Denís experimented with different Katia yarns in earth, white, and blue tones such as Big Merino, Tout de Suite, Mindwoolness, Alaska and WOW! Chunky.

tufting-tapestry-materials

 

Make your tufted tapestry:

  • Tighten the fabric canvas
  • Draw the design: start with the smaller sections and move on to the larger areas.
  • Work the outlines with the scissors and the shearing machine, to separate the colours better
  • Finish the entire piece and go back over the edges with the scissors.

  • Apply the textile glue to the back to fasten all the fibres.
  • Sew a strong fabric to the back as a lining, in this case we use pink linen.
  • Now the piece is ready to hang.

 

 

Want to know more about the technique of tufting? Check out this guide for beginners and see how to make more colourful and eye-catching pieces.

Now the only question is, where will you take your design inspiration from?