A few days ago, my mum wanted to buy Christmas groceries, but as always, I got distracted by Kmart. Once we reached the arts and crafts section, she offered to buy me whatever I wanted. Forever tempted by Anko’s arts and crafts kits, I settled on a three-pack of paint-by-number canvases and a punch needle tufted hoop kit. Since I’d recently finished a floral paint-by-numbers project, I started with the punch needle kit for something different.

The project was fun and surprisingly quick to complete—much faster than my last latch hook project, but the final result didn’t match the picture on the packaging. The deep, desaturated tones I expected were lighter and more disappointing in colour.

Aside from scissors, the kit had everything I needed to complete the project: an embroidery hoop, printed fabric, a punch needle and threader, and instructions. The instructions on how to thread the needle were challenging for me to grasp, but YouTube came to the rescue, and after reading the rest of the instructions, I couldn’t stop working on it. Turns out, punch-needling is really fun.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing, though. When I had to flip the hoop backwards to do loop stitches, I realised the design wasn’t printed on the back, making it difficult to know where to stitch. To make things easier, I held the embroidery hoop up to the light and traced the design with a fabric marker—problem solved! (At least this one.)

Flat stitches (mainly the blue and mustard stripes) were the most troublesome—they either detached from the fabric or sat on it too loosely. After some trial and error, I realised positioning the needle’s front hole behind the stitching direction helped the thread feed through more smoothly and securely. Similarly, unrolling lots of yarn at a time while tufting helped minimise tension.

Once finished, I realised that long, flat stitches were the most delicate and should be done last. This would prevent the stitches from coming loose while working on other sections and allow the stitches to sit more flush with neighbouring areas. Unfortunately, it was too late to apply this rationale to my handiwork—maybe next time.

Overall, I’m slightly disappointed with how this project turned out. The weird colours and overall scrappiness made it far from wall-worthy. That said, since I found the process really enjoyable and have more experience under my belt, I’m eager to try another punch needle project in the future 😊