I did Russian punch embroidery back in the 70s when it first became popular here. Back then we used small brass handled needles not the plastic handled needles you see today. Anyway, I still have some of the designs I put on a few pairs of my pants. The pants themselves are long gone but before they went to the trash I cut out the embroidered parts. If you do the embroidery on a tightly woven fabric and then iron a piece of light weight stabilizer over the back of it the stitches will be secure.
Cari