White and red chanderi tunic-3

After the yoke pattern was worked with threads, small antique golden beads and red zardosi tubes were stitched on to the yoke. A part of the yoke-

w.r.chanderi-5a

The other part of the yoke after working the zardosi embroidery.

w.r.chanderi-5b

The pictures are not very clear.
The completed yoke, placed on the tunic fabric looks like this-

w.r.chanderi-6

The sewn tunic with zardosi yoke.

w.r.chanderi-tunic1

Close up of the tunic.

w.r.chanderi-tunic2

I have worn this tunic with red salwar[Indian pants]. The block print pattern on this tunic is very rare. It impressed me a lot. it can worn be as saree, shirt, short top and other western dresses also. The fabric was transparent and required lining, for that matter. I find any white based fabric requires lining.
I looked for inspiration from traditional Indian patterns and drew this yoke pattern.

 

White and red chanderi tunic-2

The embroidery details of the yellow yoke on white chanderi tunic. After working with green colour threads, I started with red colour thread. This being the colour of the zardosi beads, the outlines were worked stem stitch and chain stitch in this colour. The central part of the design was worked in satin stitch and straight stitch. The picture is not very clear though,

w.r.chanderi-3

With the tunic fabric in white, the rest of the design was worked in white thread. The stems were done in white along with other small details.

w.r.chanderi-4

The zardosi details on my next post.

 

White and red chanderi tunic-1

While shopping for tunic fabrics, I found this white block printed chanderi fabric.

w.r.chanderi-fabric

It had small zari border.which is not seen here.. I had some zardosi tubes in red, which I wanted to use on this tunic. With white background, I cannot use white fabric for yoke, light green colour was very minimal on the tunic to be used for yoke, so the decision was to use golden yellow fabric for yoke.
This was a traditional Indian pattern, it is easier to incorporate zardosi on these type of patterns.
I started the work with gold colour silk thread. Satin stitches, straight stitches and chain stitch were done with this thread.

w.r.chanderi-1

The next colour silk thread was olive green, and the light green was done in cotton skein. Leaf stitch, stem stitch and buttonhole stitch were done with these threads.

w.r.chanderi-2

 

Green zardosi tunic

After finishing the fly stitch sampler, I found these pictures of this green tunic, in which the whole embroidery was worked in fly stitches with zardosi beads.
Two panels and sleeves were worked in this tunic.
The panels with fly stitches-

green zardosi- fly stitches - panels

The completed panels with zardosi beads-

green zardosi- completed panels

The detail of the panels_

green zardosi- details panels

The sleeves had a border pattern  made of these leaves.
The sleeves with fly stitches-

green zardosi-sleeves- fly stitches

The working of zardosi beads on sleeves-

green zardosi- beads working

The Completed sleeves-

green zardosi- sleeves

These embroidered pieces are sewn on a green tunic.

 

Black and pink yoke-1

I had worked on a black yoke , for a pink tussar tunic, which is posted here.
When my new niece saw this , she wanted one like that. So did the same combination for her.
So , Iam just posting the yoke here. I did not take pictures during the WIP stage , though.
She wanted a small yoke, the pattern and the progress of the embroidery-

black & pink yoke-WIP

I started with light gold colour thread and green thread. The stitches used were back stitch, buttonhole stitch, stem stitch and chain stitch.

black&pink yoke WIP detail

Zardosi beads and oval pink beads were added in the next stage. Those will on my next post.

 

Green tunic in zardosi embroidery

This is the first time I tried working zardosi embroidery.
This embroidery is quite prevalent in north India and Pakistan. The embroidery is very old. I do not know whether it came during mughal period or before that. In this embroidery , metallic tubes[ I think, Lupions] are used to fill various shapes- flowers, leaves, paisleys etc,.
Sometimes these shapes are outlined with threads , other times they are left as it is. This embroidery is worked on wedding and other festive clothing.Men’s wear also are embellished with zardosi.
The embroidery patterns are generally, florals, geometric shapes.
The embroidery is done in aari work, the metallic tubes are stitched by hand. the work is quite time consuming. So they are costly also.
These days , there are lots of commercially done pieces , which are easily available. The embroidery done on them are not of good quality, especially the work done on sarees and lehengas.the fabric used is also very cheap.
When I wanted to do this embroidery, the lupions were not easy to buy, I got these from Hyderabad, near Charminar.
With the materials in hand I started with a medium sized paisley motif with neck design.
The tunic fabric was mercerized cotton in green colour.
The embroidery was done in light green for leaves and very light green for stem. The flowers I worked in zardosi embroidery. I did not outline the flowers[ at that time I did not know that could be done].
The tunic-

green zardosi

In the close up it is clearly seen that Iam yet to acquire the technique if this art-

green zardosi-closeup

After looking at lots of zardosi embroidery pieces , now I have understood other aspects of this embroidery. Still, Iam in the learning process. And this tunic is also one of my favourites.

 

Muscat festival-9 Embroidery

My favourite part of the festival-embroidery .

The embroidery displayed was from Pakisthan. For the first time I saw zardosi motifs –which can be attached to anything. Only a few pieces were there,but all were exquisite .

zardosi motifs

Some embroidered unstitched tunics were also on display.And a workcot for making zardosi motifs is also seen here.

embroidery

Women from the Middle east have been commisioning their grand wedding dresses from Pakisthan. The Pakisthani embroidery is very famous.
With this my posts on Muscat festival is over.
Iam happy to share the information about handicraft items from all over the world, which were part of the festival. By writing about them, I was able to go through the experience all over again.