June 18, 2013
Satin stitches were worked on the patterns over the paisley on both sides in green metallic thread.
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After outlining these shapes, light copper colour silk thread was used to fill the flowers [petals?]
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Since, I couldn’t get away from geometric kutch motif, it was worked with red thread with a space for working a big mirror!
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June 17, 2013
I was in India for my nephew’s wedding. After enjoying thoroughly, we returned to Muscat last week. But the routine is starting slowly. I‘ll post the details of the embroidery on bridal gifts after organizing the pictures.
Now for the details of this tunic, I had bought this salwar from FabIndia.
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A brown handloom cotton fabric with green streaks was chosen for the tunic. Generally I chose kutchwork motifs, borders drawn on graph paper, but for this tunic a freeform of kutchwork was worked with other stitches, beads and mirrors.
The kutchwork pattern on the yoke-
The neckline with paisley and central motif.
May 1, 2013
Chain stitches were worked with bluish green thread.
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The curves connecting the border and the small squares were worked in chain stitches with light green thread
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The closer look of the embroidery.
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I gave this embroidered yoke to my friend.it was hard choosing colours without seeing the background fabric, because I sometimes get inspired by seeing the fabric to be embroidered. I generally use colours similar to vegetable dye ,which is important aspect of kalamkari fabrics, to work , but this time it was different
April 29, 2013
An acquaintance of mine wanted an embroidered yoke in cream. She said that her cream based kalamkari fabric needed a multi coloured embroidered yoke. Since I had not seen the fabric, the colours were chosen on the basis of matching it with cream/gray/black.
The embroidery was done with, chain, herringbone filling, back stitch and double cross stitches. Starting with dark blue thread-
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Then moved on to dark pink, majenta, medium blue
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April 22, 2013
The yoke and the neckline worked with mirror outlines-
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Another outline for mirrors were worked with pink and gold zari thread.
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Yoke with large mirrors worked in four strands of blue cotton skein.
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The small mirrors on the neckline were worked in two strands. Light blue cone thread was couched down around the neckline and yoke.
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The yoke placed on the fabric
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The completed tunic.
Indigo print on yellow tunic
The fabric looks different, because I wanted avoid my reflection, flash and light source from the window on the mirrors. This tunic is ideal to be worn with blue jeans or leggings or salwars.
April 21, 2013
This tunic fabric is soft handloom cotton in mustard yellow colour and on it are large block printed floral prints in Indigo blue.
Ipyellow-tunic fabric
The idea was, to embroider neckline and yoke with large and medium round mirrors.This yoke fabric was indigo blue with small stripes in black, which was perfect.
Embroidery details-
The spaces in between the mirror placements were embroidered in Cretan stitch filling in yellow colour of the tunic fabric.
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The yoke part- the Cretan fillings were outlined with zari[metallic] thread. The mirror circles were also outlined in chain stitch with majenta cone thread.
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January 14, 2013
The tailor had given me the centre piece of the tunic fabric to work the yoke. I was eager to start the embroidery, but forgot to take picture after each thread. The threads used were cotton skeins and metallic threads in green and copper and gold. The yoke-
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The yoke after completion with beads and sequins.
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The pattern for the yoke-
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The tunic-
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Sleeves-
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Yoke-
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I wear this tunic with same yellow fabric of the borders. This kind of colour combination is typical of south Indian silk sarees. I love this tunic and enjoyed working on this.
January 9, 2013
The kasuti yoke was completed after working with light green thread.
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It took six hours to work this yoke. it was completed in three days. The tailor had given me the centre piece to work this embroidery. He also attached a green lace to the sleeves. The tunic-
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The yoke-
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The pattern -
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This tunic was inspired by chikan work tunics which are widely available in India. They come in pastel colours with chikan work done in the same colour of the fabric or more commonly in white. I wanted explore the effect of kasuti embroidery on a tunic. I am happy to see people interested in this work.
I wear this tunic with a printed[in green, white and brown] readymade Patiala salwar.
January 8, 2013
This yoke is embroidered with double running stitch . this pattern is made of three broders. The outer border is also worked with medium green, leaving space for light green.
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Now working with light pink and golden yellow, the progress on the yoke-
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January 7, 2013
This plain dark brown tunic was a soft cotton fabric. idael for hot climates. I wanted to do some embroidery on the tunic fabric itself. For this a pattern was drawn for yoke. this was based on kasauti embroidery from Karnataka, a state in India.
In Kasauti or kassoti embroidery,The geometrical patterns are worked with double running stitch. This way, the right and the wrong side look the same, ideal for sarees, dupattas, scarfs, stoles. Where the wrong side of the fabric is also visible while draping. They are also worked on even weave fabric s which are used as furnishings. To make this method possible, care is taken at the level of drawing the patterns .
This yoke pattern is one such kasauti pattern. Golden yellow,,two shades of pink and green were the colours used for this embroidery. I started with medium pink thread and moved on to medium green thread.
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