Samines

I help your hands create something beautiful

Category: Embroidery

  • Preloved Jubilee Needlecase

    Why I created Preloved Jubliee Needlecase.

    As we know it’s the Queens Platinum Jubliee this year 2022 and aren’t we happy that she has been on the throne for the past 70 years, I wonder what it’s like for her to have seen so much change in the span of a lifetime.

    I knew a few months ago that I wanted to make a handmade embroidery needlecase, but I had been waiting for my wrist to improve so I could do a major piece of stitching without it hurting, I have been doing physio each day, thankfully I have improved enough in my range of movement to drop down to 5 a day, when I first started physio exercises from the consultant I was doing them 8 per day and then I carried them on when I started having hand therapy.

    I looked on Instagram and Pinterest for many posts to see the sweet pieces being made with flowers and blanket stitches around the circles and the use of blanket stitch for the edges and I was conscious that if I followed suit the piece could look similar and I like to be different in my creations, this gives me the push to create new pieces. This got me thinking and I thought what could I design that was for the current day, the Queen, she’s current and it’s her platinum Jubliee this year and she came to the throne in 1952 which was around the time of The Festival of Britain and I knew that was it! I had my inspiration. Phew….

    I then remembered my sketchbook from my BTEC Fashion that I worked on using Lucian and Robin Day’s designs to create my own which was part of a 50s project to develop design work in one of my classes. So I looked on the above social media accounts, well actually Pinterest and looked up their designs and I came across one with a lop sided circle with straight lines coming out, then their were circles on the end of the straight lines, but when I came to start the design, (I didn’t translate to paper, just straight onto the fabric). I realised after cutting out a circle in jeans material and placing it onto the cut pieces of the jeans legs, along with the stitches, that I had used the middle of the circle as the centre of the design and not towards the outer circle, it’s still a good design and I believe it works well for the front of the needle case. I used split stitch for the straight lines and seeding stitch to create the circles at the end of the outer lines, my colour-ways are red, white and blue as these are the colours that were given at the Blackheath embroidery group for our stitched postcard, (which I haven’t started stitching, but I have the design work done, so at least I do not need to stress about that) and these colours are the colours for the Union Jack, so instantly the project would be recognisable. On the inside if the needle case I have created an extra design feature, so when you come to stitch the piece you know that it is for the Queens Jubilee, I am so satisfied that I sewed this piece and I was able to create it.

  • Cable Stitch

    I have been given cable stitch as a fun activity to learn and sample for Blackheath Embroiderer’s group. 

    The strange thing is that cable stitch in Mary Thomas book of embroidery stitches is also known as cable chain stitch, other publications show cable stitch as cable chain stitch and cable stitch in other publications show it as a side to side stitch. Looking through crochet and knitting images of cable stitch,(yes they are different) show a similar stitch to embroidery, (they all have curves within the cable stitches), so I did find it a little odd when coming across this discrepancy and why I think it is odd.  Mary Thomas book was published in 1934 and has listed cable stitch as a heading over the stitch and then in the paragraph has said it is also known as cable chain stitch, other publications have changed things around and named the stitch accordingly. I suppose as I have had Mary Thomas book on my shelves for a long time as I purposefully bought her book when I started on my city & guilds embroidery a few decades ago, that I would naturally be loyal to her.

  • Tinting on Fabric

    My study partner Lynn and I have been working on Module 8 of the embroidery diploma course learning about Tinting on fabric. It’s easy once you know how, after a few Google searches I was able to find a few videos on how to use the different art media on fabric.

    The pieces I am sharing are the same design with dissimilar colour-ways and different tinting techniques, and two seperate hands. In July I had an accident which saw me sprain my left ankle and broken right wrist, and so I have been doing physio to get my right hand moving again. 

    On the left side of the photo I have used watercolour tinting with multiple weeks of stitching and stages to give my hand a rest and the right side of the photo shows pencil tinting and stitching completed in my left hand, it does feel quite unusual to stitch this way and I am intrigued with the results.

  • Happy Place

    On Thursday 29th July I was chatting with Lynn, it was so good catching up, we are study partners for our embroidery diploma.

    A box of fabrics had just been delivered and she showed me each piece and I was in a happy place with her, I felt encouraged with my creativity while looking through the fabrics with her and knowing that when I am more healed I can start sewing again. Lynn shared the time when her right thumb was fractured and the knuckles were strapped up, she was able to hold the needle between her thumb and first finger and she was able to thread the eye of the needle, I realised while showing her that I cannot pinch my thumb and first finger together and so I may need to wait a little longer, unless I had someone to thread the needle for me. 

  • “Upcycle your denim jeans into a Boro sewing roll”

    Power Point

    Yesterday I taught how to take a pair of your jeans, cut one side of the leg and transform into a Boro (Japanese inspired mending) sewing roll. I took mutiple photos of each stage of the creation and created a PowerPoint, in total I had 40 slides. I needed all those slides so the participants could understand what they were doing. As I am teaching a craft base subject, the more slides to show the greater the comprehension and confidence of the participants to complete the project.

  • Woven wheels, ribbed spider webs and sheaf stitches.

    I love this piece of embroidery I am working on, it’s not named as it is a sample, I was feeling to work with purples and so glad I worked with the navy blue for the ribbed spiders web in the middle of the piece. I quite like the purple, blue and pink as a colour combination, I have more stitches to work into this sample as this piece is for module 5 for my embroidery diploma course with Centre of Excellence.