sew something.: Hand Embroidery

today i went to a Craft Victoria workshop in the fed square atrium.

this is the little explanation from the craft vic page:

The Social Studio: Hand Embroidery

As part of the Craft Cubed festival, The Social Studio will transform Federation Square's Atrium into a magical community space for craft-making. In the hand-dyed silk tent, The Social Studio will run a series of workshops hosted by Super Makers from Sudan, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Samoa and Sri Lanka.

Workshop: Develop hand embroidery skills with Abuk Bol, who learnt this craft in her home country of Sudan from her eldest sister creating decorative pieces to adorn the home.

so! it was run by The Social Studio. and Abuk conducted/instructed the session,

providing demonstrations and assistance and goodness.
we were offered sample flower decorations, or we could draw our own design

onto the fabric to then embroider with coloured threads.

step 1:

fabric, embroidery needle, embroidery threads, hoop.

step 2:

stretch fabric in hoop,

mark a drawing/pattern/other onto the fabric in pen/whateveryoulike.

step 3:

nifty little trick/technique to avoid knotting the thread to start the embroidery:

starting on the top-side of the fabric, thread the needle through the fabric somewhere where you are about to embroider. the needle should thread through four times so as to return to the top side of the fabric. pull the thread through so that about 1mm of it still pokes through the first piercing of the four. then begin a 'satin stitch' which will eventually cover over this threaded string, holding it surprisingly tights.

step 4:

keep stitchin'.
if you use an overly-long thread it will want to tangle. so best not to. tangle insanity is pretty bad.

when running out of thread and wanting to 'finish' an area/start using another colour, the end of the thread(n.) can be threaded(v.) back through and under the satin stitching that you just did. basically, the end of the thread is hidden within the stitching instead of being obviously tied at the back.

step 5:
you're probably tired.
tea.

some visual process stages:

1. picture from dr sketchy's life drawing session.