Work In Progress On Wednesday - Kutchwork on a Kurta

My work in progress series is stepping to third week. I started this with the post of Dress design .
This week sharing about the Kutchwork on a Kurta. I have shared How to trace design on stitched Kurta in my previous post. On the same Kurta I am starting to embroider Kutch work design.
Here is the Kurta with design traced on it:

The design traced

There are some mistakes, I can correct those as it is a geometrical design. The Kurta is in wine color, choosing between pink and light purple for the embroidery. Normally Kutch work looks good with bright color, hope this color look good because of the combination.

The threads selected- Which is better?

The last week's Work in Progress- Kerala Mural on Bamboo , is done.
Last week's work:

Kerala Mural on Bamboo

Here is the completed work:

Kerala Mural on Bamboo

A closer view:

Closer view of Kerala Mural on bamboo

I have completed a Kerala Mural on canvas too. Will share in the coming post.

Until then,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

How to transfer design on stitched dress-Tutorial

This is the query I often get from most my readers. For embroidery projects, transferring the design on fabric is the tedious task. One method is to use charcoal powder. Another is using white carbon paper. Though this method is easy, but for large designs,even this is time consuming.

Whatever the technique we use, transferring design on stitched garment is quite difficult , especially around neck area.

How to transfer the design:

My suggestion for embroidery on stitched fabric, avoid large or complex  designs.

This is the stitched salwar top I selected for embroidery:

The stitched dress I chose

I chose , simple Kutchwork design . I have these two designs in Kutchwark. Kutchwork designs are geometrical, something goes wrong with the design, that can be corrected. Both the designs I have are similar , I chose the first one:

Kutch design sheet

Place a book below the fabric where the design to be transferred.

Keep a book for support

 Now , place the carbon and the design , trace with a pencil or pen. Here is the design transferred on the fabric. There are some mistakes, which I can correct.

Kutchwork design transferred

Hope to complete the embroidery on this dress. I was away from hand embroidery for few months. Starting it again with this Kutch embroidery. You can view other Kutch embroidery I had worked earlier , shared in this post: Kutchwork on Salwar Top .

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Chikankari Sarees- from Lucknow

Lucknow - state capital of UttarPradesh,which is famous for its Moghal tradition, known as city of Nawabs, also famous for its chikankari embroidery. There may be very few who don't know about chikankari embroidery.

Origin of Chikankari:

It is a similar to schwalm embroidery (white work). The embroidery is made using white thread on white linen.Nowadays its is done using colored cloths with color threads. Chikan is derived from Persian word Chikin meaning cloths made with needlework. This was originally introduced by Mughal empress Noorjahan.

The motifs in chikankari are majorly flowers, paisley designs , vine designs etc.

Motifs used in chikankari

 Types of stitches:

Chikankari is said to consists of  40 types of different stitches. Among them a very commonly used is tepchi -running stitch. Other few commonly used stitches are Phanda-small circular dot, Jaali - which forms a type of net, murri- knotted stitch,  and bakhia - which is similar to herringbone stitch, used for shadow effect.

Chikankari Sarees: 

Chikankari embroidery has been  influencing fashion industry from ages. Earlier it was a court craft, which were practised in Kolkata, Bangladesh, Delhi, Gaya , Varanasi etc. It is used by most of the designers now, may be it is a kurti, salwar kameez or a saree. 

There are many varieties in Chikankari sarees available. Chikankari sarees are normally in light or pastel shade, and the cloth is fine muslin, cotton, organdy , Georgette etc.

 

 Here is one such saree in light green color and paisley designs

Another is in  lavender color with paisley and florsl design all over:

 Nowadays many  have worked with dark colors like black, blue and red etc. Here is chikankari saree in black and white combination:

In 1980 , the Bhakia stitch which gives shadow effect, dominated and traders flooded the markets with coarsely embroidered chikankari sarees and dresses. Many handicraft organizations worked to bring back the intricate and fine designs involving stitches like murri, phanda, jaali etc. This has improved the quality of the embroidery. This also made chikankari  enter into international fashion market, thereby improving the livelihoods of crafts-persons.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

 .

Saree blouse design- Kamalkari embroidery

For me always saree is the most beautiful outfit. Saree coupled with properly designed blouse will make saree look more attractive. Nowadays there are several saree blouse patterns available. Normally the saree blouse is designed with either with embroidery, painting on back neckline etc.
I designed this blouse for the Dakkai Jamdani saree , I have.
The saree has geometrical and floral design weaving on it, with black background. I thought of embroidering geometrical designs on the back neckline.

Here is the saree:

As it has floral designs also, then changed my decision to combine both geometrical and floral design. The best one is Kamalkari embroidery, which looks like geometrical flowers :)
 Then what else can stop, just traced the design along back neckline and embroidered with Kamalkari. This took very less time, as Kamalkari threads are thick and filling is easier.
Here is the completed design:

Closer view of the embroidery:

Kamalkari embroidery can also be used for dresses and Kurtis.Its very easy to embroider with Kamalkari. Will share tutorial and some more designs in coming posts.

Until then,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Cutwork - An embroidery which needs lots of patience

Its always embroidery that I like the most in all arts and crafts. But it needs lot of patience. Now embroidery machines are used. As I know, with the machine only few kinds of the embroidery stitches can be made. Cutwork is included in the list of embroidery stitches which can be made using machine. Though it can be made using machine, it needs lots o patience and skill.
Cutwork originated from Italy and migrated to other parts of the world. Hand cutowrk is the traditional way of doing cutwork. Here the embroidery is done on the edges of the design and the inside fabric is cut away. Though I had learnt hand cutwork as well as machine cutowrk, I could not make any remarkable work in cutwork.
I could find the hand cutwork piece with Late Smt Manjula, who was an expert in all kinds of hand embroidery and crafts. Here are cutowrk she made:

 This is an elephant design, with cutwork done around the elephant design. Here is the closer view:

 Complete work is hand cutowork, really hats off to her patience.

Modern technique uses laser cutowrk, in which the designs can be made very precisely.
There are many forms in cutwork, about which Im collecting the details. Soon will share about different forms of cutworks.

 

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Banjara Embroidery- unique combination of patchwork, mirror work with embroidery

When it comes to craft, my favorite is always embroidery, hand or machine embroidery. I really love the way the threads fills the cloth with the colors. Nowadays , because of time constraints not able to work on any of my embroidery projects. Especially hand embroidery requires lot of time and patience.Sometimes its very tedious, and if the threads knot with one another,Uff! it really makes one to loose patience . So I wonder when I see the hand embroidery made on the entire  cloth or dress. One such , embroidery is Banjara embroidery. Here is a bag with Banjara Embroidery:

Banjara embroidery is very fine embroidery  combined with patchwork, applique work and mirror work. And also the work is decorated by cowrie shells. Here is the closer look :

This is made by  artist  Late . Smt. Manjula,I have  written about her in   my   posts ,

3rd anniversary of my blog

Cute... cuter....cutest dolls .  

and 

Lets enter the world of craft- Wire handbags made by Smt. Manjula

 Banjara embroidery is traditional embroideries by semi-nomadic community called Banjara or Lambani.  In earlier days women of Banjara community used to wear these kind of heavily embroidered costumes:

The top(Blouse)

 Embroidered Long Skirt:

And the veil :

Late Smt.Manjula with the costume she embroidered.

In Banjara Embroidery , majorly used stitches are Chain stitch, herringbone stitch , cross stitch, chevron stitch and mirror work.  Below image shows the different embroideries: 

 Embellishments made of silver and gold were used in earlier days,now the fancy artificial embellishments are used. Here the embroidery with silver color embellishments:

Embroidered waist belt with mirror work :

 

   One more specialty of Banjara Embroidery is, the cowrie shells are used to decorate the embroidery, like this one:

  

All the above works are made by Late. Smt. Manjula. She was an expert in almost all arts and crafts. Here is a cute doll decorated with Banjara costume, by her:

 Banjara embroidery is very colorful embroidery combined with mirror work, patchwork and embellishments. Now many Banjara women are using this embroidery on different kinds of products for sale. This is also supported by Government organizations too.

Planning to design a dress or saree with Banjara embroidery. Hope I will complete that soon and share with you.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Kutchwork on Salwar Top

I had been to Belgaum(a city in Karnataka), in 2009. This is the place,where I studied, stayed  for four years. This city brings me lots of memories-good, bad and ugly.....Sometimes I feel there shall be some technique to wipe out memories, whichever we don't want.... :-).Not possible:-( Right?  Leave it.....
When I had been to Belgaum , I had bought this salwar suit. (Got it stitched, long back. It was waiting for its turn to get embroidered. At last its turn came :-) )

This is plain salwar , so thought of embroidering. First thought to use combination of tatted motifs and hand embroidery. Somehow didn't like, so dropped the idea. Went ahead with Kutch work embroidery. I love Kutchwork embroidery , as it is colorful.
Kutchwork is form of embroidery, which is practised in Kutch region ( Gujarat,India). Mainly consists of interlacing stitch and mirror work. While collecting information about this embroidery, I found its very similar to Armenian embroidery ( Armenia is a country, near Turkey). Very interesting, isn't it?
I embroidered border and motifs, with Black and White colored threads
Here it is:


Closer view of the border



And the motifs:

 

With the Duppatta and the bottom , the final look of the Salwar:

Hope I have made the right choice by selecting Kutchwork for this Salwar. What do you say?

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

TAST Challenge week 11-Whipped Wheel Stitch

This week's TAST challenge is Whipped Wheel stitch. You can view about TAST challenge here.
I enjoyed working with this stitch. I tried the combination of Shisha(Mirror) work and  running stitch with Whipped wheel stitch on a Salwar neck.
 Here it is:

Closer view:

Shisha(Mirror)work, Whipped wheel and running stitch

Made a big motif with Shisha (Mirror) work and Whipped wheel stitch

Visited other's works also. Really stunning works by all of them.

As I've mentioned in earlier posts also, I'm slowly getting back to hand embroidery. Its making me very busy and of course happy.  So you will see lots of work here.

So keep watching ....

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

TAST Challenge Week 8- one more chain stitch work

This is one more hand embroidery work in chain stitch . Using chain stitch ,
  I embroidered the neck line of a saree blouse and decorated with Zari and Kundan.

A closer view.

 Making a crochet sweater(as a gift ) for a baby girl. So yarn is ready ! 

Hope to complete a sweater and a hat by this weekend.

So wait for that post,

Until then ,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

TAST Challenge 2012- Week 8

When I read about this week's TAST challenge , I was very happy. This week's TAST challenge is "Chain Stitch"! I  thought, if I cannot make any new piece, I can display  my  previous works in chain stitch. Last week was hectic at office, so could not make any new piece. Yesterday I had some time to play with this stitch. So embroidered neckline of a salwar-top with combination of tatting (I will write about my works in tatting in coming posts) and chain stitch.

Brown and beige combination neckline design is here:

The motifs are tatted flower motifs and 

embroidered vine designs with chain stitch, attached kundans and highlighted the kundans with chain stitch. Hand Embroidery has unique elegance!

Here are my previous chain stitch works on sarees. For these I had used Crochet needle.

Hope you liked them.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

TAST Challenge 2012- Week 7

Already 7 weeks of  TAST challenges are completed, you can read about the TAST challenge here. But I could participate in only 2 weeks' challenges. Feeling good, as I'm slowly  getting back to hand embroidery.  Fingers are getting adjusted for hand embroidery. Thanks Sharon.
This week's challenge is "Detached chain stitch". So here is my work:

While learning hand embroidery chain stitch is taught first. I remember I  had worked on some of my dresses with chain stitch, during my college days. But I don't have any of those dresses to display :( . 



Hope you liked it.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana