Chikan Embroidery - Lesson 1 Completed

Finally finished my first Chikan Embroidery lesson. That was a lot of stitching to do and a lot went on hold while I worked on it. I get so focussed on finishing things sometimes and just hate to put them down before hand.


I'm doing this stitch along by Anita over at Artistic Fingers. There is a link on my sidebar if you would like to see how this stitch was done.

The backside is basically a Herringbone pattern. Thinner fabric such as muslin is used for this type of embroidery to allow this patterned shadow to show through. My fabric is a very pale pink and I'm stitching with white embroidery floss. Above is the underside held up to the light. Directly below is a photo of the top or working side of the fabric. I photographed it up to the light so you could get an idea of the pattern it creates.

Without the light shing through the shadow pattern is not as obvious but you can see a difference between it and where there is no shadow.

I started at the bottom and worked my way up ending at the top of the design. After stitching all of these drop shapes I could definitely see my stitches were looking better and were a little more consistent.

I also noticed each one didn't take quite as long. After my first few drop shapes I was beginning to think I would never be able to finish! I can't imagine how much it takes to complete all of the stitching on some of the traditional Indian clothing. It is beautiful though don't you think?

Now back to my crazy quilt blocks until it is time to do another TAST stitched tag. And to think I just got back into stitching about a year ago after being away from it forever. I have a lot of catching up to do!