Do you have a beautiful image you wish to immortalise in art to give your bedroom that Pinterest-esque feel? Do you have a vision for your room that would be complete if you just had that perfect rug to give your room that oomph it’s missing? Problem, meet solution: tufting. To tuft is to use a unique form of needlework that brings together a symphony of colours and patterns to craft a rug that holds memories and tells a story. That’s the experience you get at WeTuft.
Located within Cineleisure, WeTuft has the biggest tufting studio in Singapore, enabling a tufting experience where your imagination can run wild to create the rug of your dreams through 2-hour or 4-hour workshops. Whether it’s a fun activity you want to try with your family, a new date idea, or just a little me-time activity for yourself, tufting is an experience that redefines quality time.
Today, we bestow upon you a survival guide to tufting. This guide will arm you with all the knowledge you need stepping into WeTuft’s tufting studio, with all the know-how to take on this epic battle with your (tufting) gun in hand – how it works, what to expect, our experience, complete with tips and tricks that will strengthen your armour.
The Preparation
Before you’re armed with your weaponry (tufting gun, yarn and apron), you have some prep to do. You first need to decide on your design. And it’s not as easy as it seems. Choosing the right design is vital to your experience.
If you want a painless tufting experience for your first time, pick something simple without any intricate lines or excessive curves. The larger your surface area, the less control you need to exert; therefore, the easier the process will be.
Two members of our team chose two different designs – one was an illustrated butterfly, and one was the back view of her dog. Which do you think was more challenging? Ding ding ding! The butterfly. It was a little too intricate and needed much more control to stay within the outlines, making it a more time-consuming and mentally-exhausting design to tuft.
But don’t let this limit you if you don’t mind a challenge! Pick any design you’d like to tuft. If you’d like to customise a rug using a 3D photograph, use an online converter to turn it into a 2D cartoon, as one of our teammates did with her doggo.
Once you have a design, you will need to trace it onto the canvas. Using screen mirroring to cast your design to your canvas from WeTuft’s projectors, you will use a marker to trace your image and draw out its outline. Imagine this to be like a colouring book. Your job will be to fill in the colours within the outline.
After this, pick the colours of your rug. Channel your inner Picasso and imagine all the colours you’ll need to bring your vision to life – all the shadows, the most visually-pleasing colour combinations, the most beautiful look for your room, everything. Go nuts! Grab your colours from their ‘Great Wall of Yarn’, where you can choose from 62 coloured cotton blended yarns!
Picked your ammunition? You’re now ready to tuft.
Tufting
One thing we wish we knew before starting was that this was going to be a full-body workout. Do your stretches, drink water, and be ready for what awaits you.
Before getting down and dirty, the in-house tufters at WeTuft will do some basic demonstrations to show you how to handle the gun and hook the yarn onto the machine and the motion of tufting. We got a simple demonstration, one without much explanation. So considering we were first-timers, we needed guidance at times. But we gotchu! We’re telling you everything.
The gun is a little heavy, so hold it carefully but firmly. The yarn needs to be looped through the machine and then in the gun for use, but it drops out an annoying number of times. To prevent it from dropping, make sure you tug on the yarn looped in the machine to ensure you have enough of it unravelled to be used.
When the yarn drops, you need to know how to put it back, so pay extra attention to the demonstration from the tufters. Once you’re locked and loaded, push the gun firmly into the canvas; if not, your stitch will look loose and messy.
Tuft in an upward motion – so you go from down to up. You can start with any part of the canvas, but the background is always the last. Your tufting columns must be close together, so pay extra attention to detail. Just remember that the actual rug is the underside of your working side. So if it looks obnoxiously messy, don’t worry! Literally, no one will see that side. As long as it looks neat on the other side, you’re Gucci!
And the best part? If you’re unsatisfied with your gun work, you can use your fingers and undo the stitch easily! Ah, life is always better when there’s an ‘undo’ option.
You’re also welcome to buy drinks for a more relaxing tufting experience. In fact, you might actually need it. If you aren’t doing this alone, remember to take turns. It can be quite a workout, so don’t take on the battle completely on your own, or it might make your experience more exhausting than enjoyable. Remember, it’s a battle that requires camaraderie and the cooperation of your entire troop.
The End
Once you think you’re done, don’t drop your weapon just yet. There’s a little enemy known as the small gaps between the threads, and you will need some touching up to seal the gaps fully. Do it well, as the trusty staff (sergeants) will be coming by to inspect! Don’t fret; it’s nothing serious! The friendly staff will then lend you a helping hand and advise you on what you might need to improve on accordingly.
After you’ve made the necessary adjustments, you’re ready for the final inspection. And so once you’re given the green light, you can drop your weapons and then… celebrate! You’ve survived the not-so-tuft battle and will be able to receive your handmade reward — the rug.
Don’t worry about thinking of how you’re going to lug the rug back home. Your rug will be delivered right to your doorstep! In all honesty, even when you’ve cleared the final inspection, your rug is still not 100% completed. Thankfully, the experts over at WeTuft will handle the aftercare, which of course, needs time to ensure that your rug is of quality before shipping it over to you.
WeTuft
Location: Cineleisure, 8 Grange Road, #02-06, Singapore 239695
Operating Hours: 10 am to 10 pm
Sessions:
- 2.5-Hour Tufting Workshop (50cmx50cm Frame)
- 4-hour Tufting Workshop (70cmx70cm Frame)
- 5.5-Hour Tufting Workshop (90cmx90cm Frame)
- 8-Hour Tufting Workshop (1mx1.2m Frame)
So if you’re in dire need of an outlet to release all your pent-up creativity, or run out of activity ideas, simply book your session via WeTuft’s website now and unleash your creativity.
Stand a chance to win a free tufting workshop!
But that’s not all; in commemorating WeTuft’s first anniversary on 21 July, stand a chance to win a 2.5 hrs tufting workshop for a 50cm x 50cm rug (Good for 1-2 pax) worth $128! To have the chance to win, be sure to:
1. Follow DANAMIC’s Instagram or Facebook AND WeTuft’s Instagram or Facebook pages
2. Like the DANAMIC x WeTuft giveaway post
3. Answer the giveaway question: “How many different coloured yarns can you find on WeTuft’s Great Wall of Yarn?” and leave your answer in the comments section.
So, complete all 3 Steps in order to qualify for the exclusive giveaway to stand a chance to be the chosen one. Quickly get tapping, as the contest ends on 31 July!
Photos by Brendan Tan of the DANAMIC Team.
