Embroidery on shirt

Sometimes my husband allows me to try embroidery on his shirts. This is one such occasion.This is a store bought shirt in blue.
I chose a simple border repeat pattern for this.
The whole stitching is done in mono colour in back stitch.And further to personalize this shirt,I embroidered a”G”[rather lopsided] over the pocket.

Embroidered blue shirt

Maybe I am a little fond of Roman[ or is it greek?] patterns.

This is closeup of the embroidery.

Embroidered blue shirt- closeup

 

Pink & beige tunic

This handloom cotton fabric is in light pink mixed with beige.
I wanted to do a medium sized motif repeat pattern for a yoke,for quite sometime.
For this set, the salwar[Indian pants] is block printed cotton in dark pink.
The basic pattern is in oval shape, which is repeated all over the yoke.
The colours used were pink& green, apt for creepers,flowers& leaves.
This picture was taken,while I was still working the embroidery-

Pink&green yoke-working

After finishing the embroidery, I added a few zardosi beads at the tips,

Pink & green yoke

Now, the finished yoke with the salwar.

Pink &beige tunic

Though the basic pattern is not very big, by repeating it,we can have a big embroidered yoke.A few years back, I had a store bought tunic, embroidered[machine] with this type of yoke, This tunic is inspired by that.

 

Short kurthi in Violet

This is a  kurthi[short top,blouse] ,which I had bought for a specific purpose.

After that, this was sitting plainly staring at me wanting to be embellished.

 I wanted something simple and elegant ,and chose a small motif.This picture is the work in progress-

Violet blouse-wip

The colour looks different from violet, because of the dark pink streaks.This is handloom cotton.

I  added some stick on stones around the embroidery-

violet blouse

 This motif comes just below the neckline.

To help the people who are part of the  post a day [week]challenge,  wordpress is suggesting topics to write about-

 today’s topic- why did I write a blog?

While browsing the net ,I was inspired by the blogs.[didn't know I can also do one]

Then,Sharon was already  in the third year of her needlework challenges, I wanted to join stitch explorer challenge, realised I ‘ll require a blog to write about my work.

I went on from there.

Still I am using this  blog to write about my journey in embroidery. Iam still unfamiliar with photo editing, so keep putting off my tutorial ventures,Once Iam comfortable with the basics[photo editing] I can write tutorials and post few of my own patterns in  that  particular form of embroidery, to make it more interesting.

 

Towel edging-4

This is last one in this series.The pattern is as usual from Antique pattern library.

I fell in love with this pattern.If done in primary or bright colours, it’ll look awesome. mexican , kilim patterns look this way too.I wish someone will get inspired and do a cushion or bookmark or needlebook cover with this pattern. the towel-

kilim towel edging

I outlined this pattern with black thread.

kilim towel edging-closeup

 

Pattern sure looks like some green and pink people showing of their muscles!.My nephew became quite fond of this towel,by the way.thus,  I have completed this whole set.Next I’ll look for some cream or off white[or half white] to do this . And definitely a smaller lace border. This is bigger than the towel itself. So  what? I learnt  the same lesson four times!

 

Towel edging -3

This the third towel edging in this set. The pattern source is the same.I satisfied with using  2 colours[as if I had many choices with this PINK background]. I used one of the borders in cross stitch.The patterns are in black and white, which is easier to work with.the third towel-

Floral towel edging-3

I just used the border pattern and its inverse. the closeup-

Floral towel edging-3 closeup

Just one more to go.

 

Towel edging -2

The begining  for this cross stitch on the towel is the same one. the patterns were also from the same source.Now for the second towel-

Floral towel edging-2

The closeup of this pattern-

flral towel edging-2 closeup

I liked this pattern, will work good for bookmarks also.

Still staying motivated by the postaweek challenge.

 

Towel edgings-1

In 2009, I worked four towel edgings in cross stitch.

 Isaw a towel,edged with evenweave cloth, this  idea inspired me to buy a towel cloth and  an evenweave[rectangular or matti] cloth from Bombay deing store in  Chennai.

 Then I asked the tailor to attach  these two fabrics and edge it with lace. He was able to make four towels.

The patterns for these towels I took from Antique pattern library.

the first one-

towel edge-1 WIP

 

Yes, They are all pink towels, I was trying to hide the fact  till now!

The finished towel-

towel edge-1

I’ll continue with my towel edging story.

After joining the post a week challenge, Iam motivated to write more posts.

 

Marroon tunic

I was in India till last week.went there for a wedding.So I didn’t have time to work on my needlework challenge, now that this feeble excuse is out of my chest, I’ll start with the details of this tunic-

This is a  rebirth for this tunic, In its previous life[ if  I can call it that!], it was a dupatta[swawl, stole].It lost its purpose, so now it is reborn as a tunic.

The fabric is mangalagiri cotton in marroon[ deep red].For sleeves and yoke, two different printed  cottons are used.The yoke and the salwar is the same , the sleeves are different[my tailor was hesitant to attach this fabric for sleeves, but I insisted] and Iam happy with it.The usual mangalagiri zari border is sewn on the sides. now for the tunic-

Marron mangalagiri tunic-1

I used antique sequins  and Anchor cotton skein # 386  for kutch work.The pattern was drawn  in freehand, keeping in line with the neck seam[?] this took awhile,since symmetry was important. after finishing the kutchwork, the sequins were attached. later I added a running stitch outline over the paisleys on the yoke, with randomly placed sequins.

The yoke fabric is ‘kadi’ print- the gold effect keeps vanishing with each wash, so the running stitch outline seems like a good idea now!

 

Blue tunic

This piece  was done over a year ago.The fabric is printed voile.Though it clings ,it is very comfortable  to wear during the summers in India& Oman.I was partial towards the sleeves this time ,while designing.The Tunic-

blue on blue tunic

This is a geometrical  pattern with mirrors. the sleeve closeup-

Blue on blue sleeves

Now the square motif in the centre-

blue on blue motif

 I was on a vacation to India[Chennai] in october.So my tast 2010 posts are still pending. Before getting into  that , thought  I’ll post some tunic projects. still to come— A foolish thing–

 

Blackwork borders

I wanted to try some blackwork border for tunic.This tunic is handwoven  ikat  fabric in white colour.I did the blackwork pattern on black fabric.

First , the whole pattern was drawn on a graph paper- A central panel, 2 side panels and 2 borders for sleeves.

 The tunic looks like this-

blackwork border tunic

Then I attached some antique beadhangings to the central panel.the closeup-

blackwork boder -central panel.

And for the side panels and sleeves, small silver colour beads were added. the closeup-

blackwork border-small border

 I could have used brighter pink thread,

while I was doing the embroidery,the pink looked ok. After attaching it to the tunic, it looks a bit dull.I  am quite fond of this fabric.