I was going to use this post to just tell you about my two black rayon Onyx tops, but realistically they’re only slightly altered from the pattern and boring on their own… What’s more cool is all the embroidery I did on them, a skill that I’ve been working on for the past few years.
Maybe we should start waaaaaay back, with this shot of embroidery from my Merida inspired skirt. This was a linen skirt that I embroidered a motif from Brave’s concept art on. Each motif took between 4 to 6 hours, depending on my mood, brainpower, and willingness to have rather big stitches.
Then we get to the first of my Onyx tees, the one with stems, leaves, and flowers. I embroidered this while on a road trip between Asheville NC, Nashville TN, and New Orleans LA.
Next after that came some new to the blog embroidery: my Ariel blouse! I embroidered small waves around the neckline and did some chain stitch around the sleeve hem. I was really trying to drive home the Little Mermaid vibe.
A couple months later (for instance, after I finished my defense and my paper for my Master’s thesis) I found myself embroidering another Onyx tee, with coppers and aqua. Don’t tell the other ones but this one is my favorite! I affectionately call it the Orange Peel. I guess because it looks like an orange with seeds in it if you squint and then close your eyes and imagine.
Then around last Christmas I made my first Ogden cami, and after I made the small adjustments I needed to make it wearable, I embroidered the armscye to keep the facing down. Not a lot of embroidery, but it make it special.
In July I made an Ogden dress (that was featured in my upcoming post about my Ogdens) and embroidered an abstract selection of french knots on the front, and a large running stitch V on the back.
My favorite pair of jeans had an unfortunate turn of events… The left pocket bag started rotting out (and the other one has started too…), so I did a subtle little bit of visible mending to put in new pocket bag fabric, instead of taking the entire pair of jeans apart to do the same thing.
As for making these pieces of embroidery, I have been mostly just using the fabric plus interfacing required by the patterns to keep it steady. No extra interfacing, at least. I do use a hoop when I can though.
Laundering it is not much extra. When I used household machines I barely even worried, but now that I have to use industrial laundry room machines, I make sure that all of the hooks and closures on my clothing are closed before I put them into the wash, so there’s less chance of catching.
And that winds down my embroidery post!
I do have some embroidery I’d like to do before the month is out (sew frosting anyone?) so I’m hoping to get some shots explaining how I go about it… So look out for that in the next couple weeks.
I know that I’ll continue to embroider on the things I make, because it makes me happy, but it’s been trickling in a bit slower this year. As with my sewing, my embroidering has slowed down now that I kind of make for a living, but I am trying to make it more intentional. So we’ll see what’s next, right?
Cool.
Also, I might be making embroidery patterns for sale soon… Any requests?
