26 Count Traditional Ground Cloth - White - Avlea Folk Embroidery

This 100% cotton fabric is a modern reproduction of one of a traditional handwoven evenweave fabric that is often used for Greek folk embroidery. It has a soft hand, which is very satisfying to work with and a lovely texture which lends itself very well to folk designs. 

It is excellent for beginners to counted thread work as well as experienced stitchers looking for a fabric with a handmade finish and natural colors. Additionally, if you are an older stitcher who has trouble with finer fabrics--either due to aging eyesight or arthritis in your hands--this fabric can let you still stitch, but is much easier on your hands and eyes. This fabric has a slight felting action and the threads will "take up" a little, making your design look even more intricate. 

A note about stitch count: this fabric is a modern reproduction of the traditional hand-woven fabrics women in Greece created for counted thread embroidery. The original fabrics used hand-spun threads, which had varying tension and resulted in a "rustic" effect in the fabric. To mimic this effect, the mill intentionally uses over-spun threads, especially in the weft, which means that this fabric will be 26ct in the lengthwise/warp direction (the threads parallel to the selvedge) and 25ct in the widthwise/weft direction (the threads perpendicular to the selvedge). After hand washing, the fabric will even out to approx 26ct but when you are buying fabric, please allow a little extra because of this thread variance to achieve the rustic effect of this fabric. It is suggested to not pre-wash this fabric so the threads are easy to see, but do allow a bit of extra hem allowance to account for this thread variance.