Foundation Fabrics
The best quality foundation fabrics for punch needle.
Dorr Mill Monks Cloth is designed and made for Punch Needle Rug Hooking. It is beige with white strips every 2 inches. The ideal monks cloth to use has 12-14 holes per inch, so beware when buying monks cloth online as not all monks cloth is the same. Monks cloth is a very forgiving cloth, you can rip out your work again and again and again until you are happy with it, and the monks cloths thread can simply be put back into place with the tip of your Punch Needle.
Now stocking Wild Wool Studio Monks Cloth milled in the UK.
Linen is a beautiful fabric to punch into. It really works a treat on those projects where you would like to punch a design but leave the background fabric exposed. Linen works really well as it has a lovely natural colour. Creating a connection with the fabric, a salute to the tradition of rug hooking and the modern application of punched piece.
Linen is not as uniform as monks cloth as the weave is not always in straight lines, I think this adds to the flow and ebb of the fabric and movement of the wool being punched.
Did you know that you can punch directly into wool fabric with an Oxford Punch Needle? Well you can!! A lot of my cushions are made by punching directly into Irish wool fabric, the beauty of this is you don’t have to punch a background. However, be warned, wool fabric is not as forgiving as monks cloth, so you really only get about 2 chances before you create a hole! I source my wool fabric from Woolen mills in Ireland, one local mill supplies me with off cuts & random sizes, so I will post these as they come up. It feeds into my ethos of reuse, giving something new life again.
