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!
How lazy am I? the tast2010 is on its 37th week , and Iam posting the stitch from 21st week.
the stitch is quite simple,done properly looks like a tulip.Mine was everything else but Tulip.let’s see the stitch samples-

slip.de chain-1
first I tried the stitch, used different colours and angles to form a line,with cretan stitch, and inside 2 lines of arrowhead stitch.

slip de chain-2
I tried to do geometrical [triangle?square?diamond?] shaped motifs with this stitch. One important thing is that- our focus should be on the idea behind this sampler rather than the sampler itself!

slip de chain-3
Now the stitch is in a line,then they are facing away from each other,arranging themselves inside feather stitch,falling in a line of laced buttonhole.later 2 times falling in line[ this could be used as filling stitch also].

slip de chain-4
The stitch and its inverse in a row with a straight stitch thrown in between.the stitch on top of fan shaped buttonhole stitch, in between buttonhole wheel stitch,Thought this stitch looked like a fish, made them swim on 6 rows of running stitch[ this can also be filling stitch]

slip de chain-5
The stitch done inbetween cross stitches,then some individual variations of the stitch, used twisted chain stitch and arranged some beads.

slip de chain-6
These two motifs I can wholly agreed to have copied the ideas of fellow members of the TAST 2010 challenge from flickr.
the samplers now-

slip de chain st sampler -1

slip de chain st sampler-2

slip de chain st sampler
I enjoyed doing this stitch, though I couldn’t stick to my 4 inch sampler, trying more variations kept me on the track.
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–
