I’ve completed the first of the spirals on the Spirograph III hanging, and am about half way through the second. Here’s the first one, all done: The first of the spirals was more of a challenge than I’d been anticipating, I must admit. I mentioned last time that I went wrong somewhere and needed to…
After a break and a couple of cushions, I’ve now started the second in the series of three Spirograph wallhangings. To confuse things slightly, I’m doing number three next, instead of number two; the largest spiral in the design for the second one is actually too wide to get it all visible on my embroidery…
Firstly, an apology in advance: I’m in the middle of a major project at work, so I don’t think I’m going to have much time for either sewing or blogging. I’ll do what I can with both, but you may not hear much from me for a week or two. Sorry about that. I haven’t…
I thought I’d have a break from goldwork, and for no particular reason am going to make a couple of cushions. Firstly, the materials for them: Some of these should look pretty familiar! I’ve got quite a bit of the silk matka left from the Spirograph I hanging, but not enough to make another one,…
As I mentioned last time, the largest, final spiral is a little more of a problem than the others have been. As you may remember, the design is on the back, so turning the frame over, this is how it looked: There a few things wrong with this, but the most obvious one is that…
With the design transferred to the lining fabric and everything set up on my big frame, I’m all ready to go! Starting with the smallest, and fiddliest, of the spirals first, I went over the first part of the design in small running stitches in a terracotta sewing thread. Spirograph patterns look as though they’re…
With the design and tracing paper taped as best I could to the table, I traced the design with a transfer pencil, including marking the edge of the design with a dotted line. This will help me when I come to make up the hanging. I cut a piece of linen a bit larger than…
I got the Spirograph wall hanging designs printed out full size at a copy shop round the corner from work. I dropped the disc off, and came back to collect them just in time to see the chap in the shop trimming them to size. I’d much have preferred them left with some paper round…
Following the linen test, I also needed to try the same design on my other proposed fabric, so I could compare the two. The second test is on a raw silk fabric called matka; this is what I used recently for Kate’s Crow, though in this case I’m back to the parchment/sandy colour I used…
So, I have the designs for the hangings, but I need to decide which fabric to use. The look I’m after is for a sandy/neutral background, with the designs couched in gold. The gold is straightforward enough – I’ll use the same gold passing thread I always do – but what about the background? I’ve…