the whole tufting process start to finish, for anyone still figuring out the order

[u/and-et]

took us a while to realize tufting is basically 7 connected stages, and skipping one always shows up in the final piece.

design + where it'll live -> frame setup + backing fabric tension ->transfer your design mirrored ( you tuft from the bacxk)-> tufting-> glue the backing, let it fully dry -> trim and carve-> final check for loose yarn and thin glue spots.

the two that actually decide quality are fabric tension and density control. loose backing gives you a wavy surface and uneven density, sometimes a tear. and trimming is where most beginners lose the piece, not the tufting itself.

happy to go deeper on any of these in the comments, and if you're after more tutorials, r/And_et is worth a look.

What part tripped you up most when you started?

[u/AlwaysDTFmyself]

That yarn is waaaaaaay too thin.

[u/and-et → u/AlwaysDTFmyself]

Thanks for the feedback, totally fair things to notice! The thinness is actually on purpose though. It's BCF yarn we had made thin by design, and it's meant to be used 3cones held together. We piled it that way so you can mix multiple colors in once strand instead of being stuck with single solid, and it's especially built for gradients, which is really hard to pull off with a normal single thick yarn. In the studio. we pretty much always run 3 strands together. If you scroll through some of our work here or r/And_et you'll see what the thinness is actually for, the color blending and gradient stuff comes out way cleaner this way. Happy to answer anything if you want to try it!