Day 2: Bulk processing

I'm happy to report that day 2's effort is far superior to day 1's, as you can see from the pic (left). I dropped the thread tension a shade from yesterday and that seems to have worked. 

The photo shows the completed flower but it's still in the embroidery hoop. The reason for this is that the fabric and solvy (the water-soluble plasticky sheet you can see) required to make one flower is far more than required for the flower alone. This is because it requires the fabric in the hoop as well as some overhang so the hoop has something to grip on to. So saving resources is important because waste is naff, and more importantly, I'm using two layers of solvy for each flower, and it's expensive. The solvy stabilises the fine organza while it's being embroidered.

So rather than use a while lot of material and solvy, I'll cut strips wide enough for the hoop and then just move the hoop up the strip. This means the flowers won't be able to be cut until they pop out the other side.

Today's disgression is some truly stunning embroidery from Yves St Laurent and Oscar de la Renta. This famous jacket is an embroidered tribute to van Gogh and is from the Spring-Summer 1988 haute couture collection. Also shown is a close-up. The picture below is an Oscar de la Renta jacket (I can only date it to the 1980s) showing some spectacular Lesage embroidery. Enjoy this feast for the eyes!