June 24, 2011
The yoke and sleeves of this tunic are completed. Small sequins and beads are stitched to the centre of the yoke to give the effect of buttons.
The completed yoke and sleeves-
beige and green tunic-yoke 4
The embroidered pieces are sewn to the tunic. It now looks like this-
beige and green tunicthe closeup- beige&green tunic closeup
Choosing a green colour for the yoke and sleeves would have a been a better choice.But I wanted to try this in brown colour to learn the effect. This yoke pattern leaves some empty space , a crowded pattern could have enhanced the look of the tunic. These are just other options to work with.
June 22, 2011
The beige thread was first worked for the central pattern on the yoke. Then the same was used for the zigzag pattern on the outline and sleeves.
The details of the embroidery on borders -
The outlines were done in back stitch in green and yellow. The round patterns were done in satin stitch[ fearing the surface satin might alter the small rounds into ablong shapes] in majenta thread. small fly stitches were done in the valley in light green thread.
Now the zigzag pattern was worked in phulkari- surface satin stitch.
beige &green tunic -3 yoke
The next post on the completed yoke and tunic.
June 20, 2011
This beige fabric is printed with traditional Indian pattern.I loved the colour , print and the combination.
beige&green tunic fabric
Generally I would have chosen a green fabric for yoke , but this time it was brown [with maroon mixed up some where]
Pattern- This was a simple phulkari border used for yoke and sleeves.
Colours- Though beige and green with traces of golden yellow would have been perfect, I found the green did not show well in the brown fabric, I kept the beige, yellow and added majenta to enhance the effect.
I started with some green outlines, worked the circles in majenta, then the some triangles in yellow[ the yellow from the tunic fabric did not go well on this brown too].
the yoke-
B>unic- yoke 1
The progress on the next post.
June 8, 2011
This tunic I started a few months ago. The tunic fabric was in cream printed with green, yellow , orange and red colours. I chose a light green fabric for the yoke, sleeves and salwar[Indian pants].
I wanted to do a continous kutch embroidery pattern, and some fillers with other stitches.
The continous patterns in kutch embroidery, is done in one thread. A variegated thread can be used, which will have slightly different effect . When one colour is used , it is sure that, only that colour will dominate the whole pattern. I wanted to study and work this aspect in this tunic piece.
With the green base for yoke, I chose yellow for the kutch work[because that colour will accommodate red and orange for filling patterns]. The other colours were- red,orange, copper orange, medium green, and cream.
The embroidery done on sleeves-
green& yellow kutch- sleeves
I’ll continue with the yoke on my next post.
May 15, 2011
Actually,This tunic is the last of the series, these pictures were hidden some other place!
I had two dupattas-1. red , block printed in black.2. An ikat weave-in black,red and white combination.
They were bought on two different occasions, couldn’t resist both.
I wore a plain black salwar set, and another red salwar set –to go with the duppatas.
An idea came- to have a white salwar, embellished with embroidery in red on black cloth[ this cloth to be attached to the salwar as yoke and sleeves]
I wanted full sleeves for the tunic[salwar] with 8 inch embroidery, and a small yoke.
One inch border patterns were chosen. Later another idea came, to attach a red fabric in between with black embroidery on it.
Embroidery-kutchwork, herringbone filling , variations of a few line stitches-chain, fly, chained feather, stem.
The pattern for the sleeves was drawn on graph and the pattern for yoke was drawn on blank paper.
The top half of the sleeves-
red kutch on black detail-1
The bottom half-
red kutch on black
The yoke-
redkutch on black-yoke
Wearing full sleeves with embroidery is not ideal for hot cities like Muscat or Chennai, still I try to wear this set as often as possible. Ironically, I don’t wear those duppattas for this set, it is too heavy!. I wear it with black, red or white plain chiffon duppatta!
April 30, 2011
I had a half-white synthetic saree, with geometrical prints in black& red.
A red fabric was chosen as blouse to match the saree.
The whole embroidery was done only on the sleeves of the blouse.
For the first time I tried creating a different border pattern for kutchwork,
earlier, I just modified and customized the usual kutchwork patterns to my requirements.
I used black, grayish green, and white colour threads to embroider the pattern.
The mirrors were done in red .
Other than kutchwork and mirrors, chain stitch,
two variations of feather stitch, and some straight stitches around the mirror were used.
kutchwork on red blouse
The mirrors-
kutchwork on red blouse- mirrors
The border closeup-
kutchwork on redblouse- border
The saree is not with me anymore, but the blouse is still worn along with some other sarees. Because of the three colour combination- red , black& white.
April 28, 2011
I drew kutchwork patterns on graph and tried working the journey for these new patterns.
Instead of doing them a sampler, I embroidered on tunics.
In this tunic, I chose one motif and repeated to form a border.
This border was worked in the middle and sides on the front side of the tunic.
I knew , kutchwork in black thread is done on black fabric, making it look as a part of the fabric, like lace.
Here, I wanted to try using medium red on maroon striped tunic.
The tunic
red kutchwork tunicred kutchwork tunic-frontred kutchwork tunic-side closeupred kutchwork tunic-sleeves
I did the small square motif in the middle, in dark brown-
Front-
red kutchwork tunic-front
I turned the border pattern at right angle and used it for the sides.-
red kutchwork tunic- side closeup
For the sleeves alone, I used a different motif border, and every alternate motif is done two colours-
red kutchwork-sleeves
After completing the embroidery, I gave the fabric for sewing.
April 18, 2011
I have always had a fascination of Indian embroideries. This led me to buy a book-Ethnic embroidery of India by Usha Shrikant. Expensive and also very informative.
There was this kashmiri couching stitch.I had seen tunics with this embroidery,it is done in monocolour with thick thread.
Following the instructions from the book, I made some trials on a sampler.Itching to do it on a project[ what else but, a tunic?],I worked this stitch on neck and sleeves of this tunic-
Kashmiri couching on tunic-1kashmiri couching on tunic-2
First row is version of chain stitch variation[ I don’t remember which one] in dark blue
After that a row of simple couching in light blue.
The third row is one of the kashmiri couching stitches-
kashmiri couching on tunic-neck&sleeves
The embroidery was done after the tunic was sewn, the beige piece looked neglected, and invited me to try some thing there.I was cautious , just drew three lines and worked these three stitches. Actually the tunic [blue ikat weave , mercerized cotton] looked fabulous even without this embroidery.This was an opportunity to try something new.
April 12, 2011
The embroidery for these sleeves were done some 12 years ago.
I bought a hand woven ikat material in coffee brown and cream for a tunic.
At that time, I was not even aware of decorative stitches or crazy quilting stitches.
The idea was-
To use the round sequins , which resembled mirrors.
Draw some lines and fill it up with line stitches,
Chosen stitches were- fly stitch variations, and detached chain flowers. A simple mirror stitch to fix the sequins.
The sleeves-
decorative stitches &sequins on sleeves
This idea came because of my laziness to draw a design. Later, I took away the embroidered part of the sleeves from the tunic[,which is not with me anymore].it was a well liked outfit.
April 5, 2011
I am fond of of kashmiri embroidery done in single strand.
Inthis type of embroidery,After working on the traced pattern,the empty spaces in between are also covered with straight , fly stitches .
The finished embroidery looks as if it is done on appliquéd cloth.But also looks like it is part of the base fabric[like jamevar shawls etc]
Coming back to my inspiration, I tried doing this on blouse[saree] sleeves.
I did the whole thing in single strand, used the same stitches, but failed to fill the empty spaces[I understood that later, after seeing many samples. HEE!HEE!]
Now I have with me a blouse which is embroidered with some motifs!
I call it Kashmiri embroidery for a simple reason-it inspired me!
This blouse was for a cream printed silk saree.
The coffee brown blouse material is silk cotton.
motifs on brown blouse
it sure took a long time to complete this , I aged doing this.
