I’ve finished the first cross! More detailing still had to be added after the appliqué was finished; on Fiona’s design, there are some small red discs. These were coloured the same as the detail I’ve done as appliqué, which would imply working them in the same way, but I felt that I’d already reached the…
The appliqué detail on the first cross is now all done – and here it is: So that’s all the satin pieces attached, and edged with Jap gold thread. Some of them more than once – it’s taken longer than I’d expected to get this far, as I wasn’t happy with what I’d done on…
The cross is coming along – I’ve got the appliqué done on two of the legs now. As I’m concentrating a lot on the appliqué at the moment, I thought you might be interested to see some other pieces I’ve made using the same technique. These cushions show the Chinese characters for ‘Friendship’, ‘Eternity’, and…
I’m now working on appliqué detail down the legs of the cross. This is in exactly the same fabric and technique as described previously, so I won’t go over it all again. Here’s how the completed first leg looks, anyway: Mary Corbet suggested a different technique for the appliqué shapes, and I’d been considering having…
Much of the detail on the red velvet cross is going to be in appliqué. I’m using red silk satin, in as close a match to the red of the velvet as possible. The idea is to have the same colour but a contrast in textures, though as the apparent colour of the velvet can…
Continuing with the goldwork, I’ve now added a ring in gold thread to the centre of the velvet cross. I first stitched over the relevant part of the transfer design on the back in small running stiches, to get the location for it onto the front of the fabric. I then cut out the ring…
I’ve outlined the appliqué cross with couched Japanese passing thread no. 8 in gold, or Jap gold for short. I used two threads at a time; I don’t cut the threads, but leave them on the reel, or reels, as I use two at once. This both cuts down on wastage (this stuff costs money!)…
With the background fabric ready, I can start on the appliqué cross. This is in red velvet, but to start with, I traced the outline of the cross, and stuck the tracing paper to some felt using 505 fabric spray glue. I don’t like doing this, but it does lead to a more accurate shape…
The linen’s arrived! I can finally make a proper start. With the (pre-shrunk) fabric ready, I tacked the cross transfer to the linen, and with a hot dry iron, ironed it on. The same transfer worked fine for both the front and back crosses – I didn’t need to make two. I left a gap…
Even though the banner is not meant to be washable, you can’t be too careful – it’s always possible that an accident might happen one day and it could get damp. So, it’s best that all the fabric is pre-shrunk. If it hadn’t been, and if did get damp, then the different fabrics could shrink…