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.

 

White tunic with yoke

After posting the recent tutorial, I am still in the kutchwork embroidery mood.
This white tunic is store bought. I had a striped medium violet salwar[Indian pants] for which I bought this tunic.
The tunic also has woven stripes[ which I didn’t take into account, initially!]
The tunic had white sequins around the neckline and sleeve lines.
The yoke pattern was a simple floral, which had mostly herringbone stitches to be filled.
Instead of using only the violet colour, medium pink and green colours were also added for the embroidery.
I placed the tunic over the drawn pattern, and traced it with a pencil directly on the tunic. The pattern could be seen through the tunic fabric.

white tunic woth yoke-1

Only while working the stitches I noticed that the stripes on the tunic had a different weave pattern[ with holes too], with these holes the filling stitches had a mind of their own! Slowly I worked the whole pattern very carefully, still the herringbone stitches did not come out well at all.  the central cretan stitches suffered the worst! I did not want to take  a closeup picture for this reason,
Another picture-

white tunic with yoke-2

Lesson learnt-It is best to check the fabric before thinking about the design pattern.
After the first wash , the back of the tunic attracted a yellow stain. I tried removing it. It is a lost cause. Surprisingly, I am still wearing the tunic, Hubby loves it.

 

Blue tunic with pink yoke-11

The completed blue tunic with the pink yoke, with the inspiration of the tailor ofcourse.
I did not give this design . I wanted him to sew a1 inch piece on the sleeves, and an 1 inch piece around the yoke. The neck was never mentioned at all. He followed his idea of design and did this –

bluepink tunic-1

He also said that the embroidery was’ really good’. LOL!

bluepinktunic-2bluepinktunic-3

Blue tunic with pink yoke-10

Posting the progress on my embroidery on this pink tunic has made this tunic story very long.
The completed yoke when placed on the tunic along with the brocade material –

bluepinkyoke-on tunic

What I hadn’t anticipated was for the tailor to be so inspired by the brocade material, that he played with the design of the tunic .wait for my next post.

 

Blue tunic with pink yoke-9

After completing the embroidery on this pink yoke, I started with the beads and stones in blue.
The light blue colour stones a stitched to the interior petals of the big florals.
The seed beads are used both for the small flrals and the outer petals of the big florals.
The fully completed yoke-‘

bluep[inkyoke-8

The tunic on next post.

 

Blue tunic with pink yoke-8

The pink yoke so far-
The outer petals of the flowers are done in same shade of blue as the inner petals.
Then the same are outlined in blue silk thread . Chain stitches are used throughout these lines.

bluepinkyoke-7

The yoke is ready for beads now

 

Blue tunic with pink yoke-7

The pink yoke progress-
I wanted to use seed beads for this pattern, with this idea in mind, the flowers are ready for placement of the beads. The fly stitches and straight stitches on the florals can be used later for stitching the beads. They are done in light blue colour.

bluepinkyoke-6

 

Blue tunic with pink yoke-6

Progress on the pink yoke-
At last the I have started embroidering with the blue colour of the tunic.
The inner petals are done in chain stitches.

bluepinkyoke-5

 

Blue tunic with pink yoke-5

The embroidery on this pink yoke for the blue tunic is progressed this far-
The inside of the calyx are done in darker shade of green.
The central part of the flowers are done in dark blue. The stitches used is chain stitch.
The stems are also worked in the same dark green in stem stitches.

bluepinkyoke-4

 

Blue tunic with pink yoke-4

In this stage of the embroidery on pink yoke with a floral pattern, the calyx are completed.
The thread is another shade of green, the stitches are chain. the leaves are also lined in stem stitches in this picture.

bluepinkyoke-3