Sunset :)

Once upon a time 4 years ago I decided to challenge my creative side and set upon embroidering my own clothes. The first task at hand was to choose the fabric I will use. The 16 year old me chose a loud and bold, shocking pink coloured cotton.  As this was my first challenge, I chose a not so complicated design. I contemplated over the colour scheme for a while and decided upon more of a sunset colour scheme. So this was pinks, yellow and oranges, for a more bold and daring colour I chose some sequins which had a dark background and were irradiated by light. I found a nice sunset coloured skein, which fitted in perfectly with my colour theme! I had a quite simple design printed on to the fabric I intended to use as a guideline (and if you look carefully the stains of the ink can still be seen on the fabric in some places). As my embroidery skills were limited at that time, I chose to use the skein for some chain stitching and also to add colour to the circle of the flowers and found some gold coloured petal cut-out shapes which I would use to make a flower around the embroidered circle of the flowers. The sequins were used to add more emphasis on the stems and leaves. I started off with this...

As the photo shows the sequins are illuminated by light, the little gold petals you can see are not only pretty but also pretty easy to sew on. I chose for a more simple design and again more simple haberdashery as this was my first attempt at embroidering. Although I had chain stitched before this, I had little experience of other stitching I could do. Therefore, I opted to use prettier haberdashery and put the haberdashery in the limelight! This was the result...

As the years have passed so has the colour of the haberdashery I used. But I suppose I could still keep the clothes as an achievement if nothing else :-] below are some more photos of the embroidery, including some up close shots which show the little details. Let me know what you think of it, any comments for improvements are also welcomed!

Chain stitching is a stitch which I was taught at school, in Textiles. However, the stitching we were taught in Textiles was limited; this was because we were taught other techniques such as quilting and stencil printing alongside stitching. For my Textile GCSE I made a wall hanging, for which I used a variety of techniques as well as a variety of haberdashery. I have set myself other little challenges, such as making patches for a patchwork cushion. You’ll be pleased to know I have since brushed up on my skills ;-p

*All the above images are owned by Tutu's and Glitter, unless otherwise stated*