Biscornu, Oh My!

Okay. We all know the drill around here, right? When someone mentions some sewing thing I have never heard of, there is a better than average chance that I will drop everything and explore it. Biscornu, my friends. If you know what these are, drop me a line, and explain why you haven’t told me about them yet.

Ivete, my pal from Gotham Quilts, has been learning all about cross stitch. I’m a recovering cross stitch addict, so avoid the stuff like poison. I spent many years, from age 15 – 25 obsessively completing cross stitch kits. (Jeremy used to call me “grandma” while I stitched away on the sofa next to him. He would also exclaim unhappily when I spent $200 having my stitching project framed. Haha, on so many levels.) Anyway, Ivete feels that cross stitch is becoming more popular, and she has fallen in love with the process. In her interwebs travels, she stumbled upon biscornu, and mentioned them to me.

What is a biscornu? According to Mary Corbet, of Needle and Thread, a biscornu is a sewing oddity! Tell me more, right? Two squares of fabric are stitch together, with the corners lining up at their edges, to make this weird octagonal shape. It reminds me of a Moravian Star – you can’t really tell what is happening until it is finished. I was intrigued, and shocked that there was something I had never heard of. Much like Kawandi, I stopped doing my assigned work and spent a few hours making a biscornu.

I started with two squares of felted wool, rather than the aida cloth that cross stitchers use. I wasn’t up for any cross stitching, but I was up for some wool appliqué. I used my Bird and Birdhouse die from AccuQuilt to cut out four little birds and four little wings. Then I was off to the races.

I took zero photos as I worked, because I was so excited. I stitched around the outer edge of the square using my sewing machine, 1/4″ from the edge of the felt. This gave me a line much like the one I saw on the cross stitched versions, and because I used my machine, the stitches were all the same size.

I then appliquéd a little bird onto each corner of the top square. I could have put something on the corner of the bottom piece, too, but I was too excited to do that. I did a fancy beaded french knot for the bird eyes, because I just learned them. Other than that, there is no fancy stitching. Just a small whip stitch to secure the birds to the background.

Then, it was time to secure the two squares together. I turned the edge under along my stitching line, pinching the felt to encourage it to fold under. I folded the bottom square in half on one edge, pinching again to mark the mid-point. After that, I followed the steps demonstrated in this video by Tiny Modernist.

The finishing touch was this vintage button from my grandma’s button box. I am enchanted with my first biscornu. I’ve got some more ideas for them percolating, but they are pretty low priority right now. They do feel amazing, though, and it is a satisfying quick project.

Have you discovered anything exciting lately?

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