Working out a new technique

Recently my friend, local artist Audrey Riach, had a brilliant idea. She suggested that for next year’s NEOS (North East Open Studios) we should put together a tree, consisting of a large bare branch covered by all sorts of different leaves, all made by our community of artists. I thought this was a great idea and have been working on some ways of producing bright embroidered leaves

As they need to be seen from both sides, I wanted to make the leaves as free-standing applique objects, stitched on water-soluble stabiliser which would then be washed off. However there were a couple of technical problems. For one thing, I wanted the embroidered pattern on the top of the leaf to be very complicated, and the pattern on the bottom to be very simple. This meant that I couldn’t just sandwich the fabric for the top and bottom layers together for stitching, because then they’d both have the same pattern on both of them

So after some thought, I thought I’d try stitching the leaf upside down, so that the top would stitch first and the bottom last. The sequence was this: first, I hooped some water-soluble stabiliser. Then, I stitched the outline of the leaf. Then, I added Mylar for some shine, the top layer of fabric, and a layer of stabiliser. Then I stitched the complicated pattern I wanted on the top of the leaf. THEN I added a layer of the fabric I wanted to use for the bottom of the leaf, and stitched the pattern for the bottom. Of course this would come out on the top layer too, but I didn’t mind that as these were only small details of the leaf structure (the veins etc.) Then I trimmed off all the fabric I had added – all four layers of them! Then I just needed to stitch the final outline of the sandwich, wash off the stabiliser, and it was finished

                                                                                                                 
The top (left) and bottom (right) of the completed leaf

The technique worked pretty well. I’m afraid you can’t see the detailed stitching on the top of the leaf clearly, because I used a thread that was a bit too pale, but it’s there all the same, and it’s not on the bottom – which was the point of the exercise!

Of course for this to work you have to use coloured thread in the bobbin, but this is no big problem. There are still a few technical problems to be worked out, but I think the general idea will be fine. This is just a trial run – it’s not a particularly spectacular leaf in itself, but with some bright fabric, lots of sparkly Mylar and some metallic threads (and a more interesting design!) the idea should work well, so I’d better get digitising and finish some more leaves