Stumpwork Embroidery - Wired flowers - part two

As I found the wire I used before was a bit too thick, I decided to try the 28 gauge wire in my room.

This one was easier to manipulate around the flower outline which is great and I found it was easier to sew around it.

Of course I have already had a little practice to it looks a bit better.

and a little quicker as I got the other one outlined in now time.  However time to fill them in.

One down.....

Now lets finished this one.

Stumpwork Embroidery - Wired flowers - part one.

I have been meaning to try this type of embroidery out for ages but never got round to it.

However I finally found some time in my schedule and I'm going to give it a try.

I already had all the materials in my sewing room so starting it was not a problem.

I also brought a couple of books on it to give me an idea of how to start.  So I decided to start with a sakura or cherry blossom because I had all the floss colours.

So first thing first I need to couch some wire around the edge of the flower.

As I was sewing it down it became obvious that I should have used thinner wire.  However now it is done we will continue.

Now to actually start the embroidery.

And after a couple more days I have finished one outline.

Koi Embroidered Obi - Part one!

I have always admired the embroidery on obi because they are always very vibrant and interesting.

BUT they are very expensive and I can't bear the idea of buying something that I am too scared to wear so for the past few months I had the idea of embroidering my own one.

Nothing too complicated or I will never wear it outside the house but something that is striking enough for me to showoff.  However what sort of embroidery should I do?

I wanted to try something like sashiko but creating regular running stitches isn't easy as I realised when I made my first kimono and I didn't want to spend the time drafting a pattern.  So I made a sort of a compromise,  last month I rediscovered tambour beading and I saw an example of the stitching used in this technique could be used to embroider pattern!

Perfect I thought, something that will create an easy running stitch which doesn't require me to plan where I have to stitch.  Of course, the tambour hook which is used need a little bit of practice but once I could do the basic stitch, off I went to find my black fabric.

I decided to embroider a koi because I don't have a koi pattern in my wardrobe.  I cheated here and searched the internet for a picture that I liked and then copied the style.

I drew it on using ordinary tailors chalk and once I was happy with the outline, I began to sew!

As you can see the progress I made wasn't bad and by day one I had the fish outline done!

The following day I filled in the scales which gave the koi a little bit more texture.

And of course we must not forget the water waves.

I am actually quite pleased with the result.  If I was to do it again, will need to add some colour but at the moment I am in a black and white mood.  Now I just need to make it into an obi.