Thursday 31 May 2007

Ribbon Embroidery!

I haven't done any more on the stumpwork as yet as DH is often around when I want to work on it. However, he'll be out tonight and so I can get it completed. Don't know when I can post the photo as he'll also be around most of the time tomorrow and it may be hard to get a chance without him seeing it. Will think of a sneaky something though.

I finished the ribbon piece last night and here it is full frontal and also from the side so you can see the elevation of some of the parts of it. It's far from perfect. A close-up examination shows scrappy ends of ribbon that ought to be have been well hidden, but that this beginner struggled to manage with this gathering technique.

I enjoyed doing this, but am not sure I'll get very much into ribbon work. It's mostly that there are just so many different guages of ribbon used and I'd need quite a large amount of both cash and storage space in order to get a workable basic stash. Might do a few kits here and there and some other little bits with theplentiful leftover ribbon you get with VS accessory packs.

Margaret, you asked about fabric, esp on the Stumpwork Strawberry posting. Well, I almost always use plain old polycotton. If it's good enough for Helen M Stevens, then it's good enough for the likes of me!!! If I'm going to be doing heavy embroidery, (say raised work or a lot of silk shading), then I apply a piece of iron-on interfacing (Vilene) to the back to give it more strength. I also put this on silk when I stitch on that. Does that help??

4 comments:

Margaret said...

Yes, that does help! Thank you. For so many things, not just stumpwork, I read about people using specific materials that just aren't available in the chain fabric store I have easy access to. Knowing that I should just trust my own judgement about background fabrics makes things easier.
I love your ribbon embroidery by the way. Looks perfect to me. I do understand about the stash problem. I purchases some lovely hand dyed silk ribbons at EGA National back in October and while they didn't cost a fortune, you do go through them fairly quickly. I am contemplating getting more into beading work on my embroidery, but Mill Hill beads are readily available at the local craft chains and not expensive like silk ribbon so I don't feel it is too much of a stretch.
Thanks again, Margaret

Kate said...

Beautiful ribbon work! I know when you examine you're own work you see all the little faults, but for everyone else it's beautiful. :)

I understand what you mean about stash. Getting into cardmaking hit my wallet so much harder than I planned... but there's just so much stuff to accumulate.

Jeanne said...

It's gorgeous! Thanks so much for sharing.

Anonymous said...

A good read.

 
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