Materials Required

I am listing the materials needed to start with your lessons. Please note that the terminologies are as in vogue in India as I am based in Chennai.

See the following picture. It shows all necessary materials. I am also giving more details on each material below.

1. Fabric: Buy half a meter of white poplin cloth. You may buy more if you want to do more embroidery after finishing the lessons.
   
   For learning the stitches, cut a piece measuring 15 inches by 12 inches.
   For project work 22 inches by 17 inches.
2. Embroidery Frame: 8 inches or 10 inches frame.
3. Needle: Embroidery needle. Note that there is a difference between ordinary stitching needle and embroidery needle. The eye of an embroidery needle in long/elongated.
4. Anchor Embroidery Stranded Cotton Skeins – 2 or 3 shades: Buy bright shades like parrot green, bright orange, copper sulphate blue. If you use dark colour in the initial stages, each stitch and its neatness may not be very much visible for you to appreciate. If you use very light shades, the embroidery may not look impressive on a white cloth. The Anchor hand embroidery skeins look as in this picture.
   

5. A Pair of Sharp Scissors: Please use good scissors. Also take care that you do not use this scissors for any other purpose like cutting paper/ milk covers etc. :) This would spoil the sharpness of the scissors when you again use it on cloth.
6. Foot Scale, Sharp Pencil: A foot scale and pencil shall be used to draw lines on the cloth.

Organization of the Program

Please see the table below. I give here the list of topics that I am covering in this program, and the description for each.

Topic No.	Topic Title
1.	Introduction to Embroidery
2.	Some Varieties of Indian Embroidery
3.	Organization of the Course
4.	Materials Required
5.	Mounting the Fabric on the Frame
6.	Threading the Needle
7.	Making a Knot at the End of the Thread
8.	Running Stitch
9.	Back Stitch
10.	Stem Stitch
11.	Chain Stitch
12.	Buttonhole Stitch
13.	Fly Stitch
14.	Satin Stitch
15.	Hemming
16.	Learning to Trace
17.	Project Work Description

Some Varieties of Indian Embroidery

I am giving below details on some popular varieties of Indian embroidery. The limit to the variety to the art of embroidery is the limit to the human mind’s creativity. So it is very difficult to categorize exhaustively. Still, depending upon the repeating basic patterns used, embroidery can be classified for our own understanding and identification.

Kasuthi

Kasuti  is a traditional form of embroidery practiced in the state of Karnataka, India. Kasuti work involves embroidering very intricate patterns like gopura, chariot, palanquin, lamps and conch shells. This falls under the category of counted thread embroidery. Fine needles need to be selected as the embroidery will be worked with a single strand of thread. Kasuthi net is available. Embroidery is done using this net; once a motif is done, the strings of the used net are gently taken apart. The work is laborious and involves counting of each stitch on the cloth. The patterns are stitched without using knots to ensure that embroidery on both sides of the cloth look alike. The following pictures show kasuti embroidery I have done on a saree blouse and also other designs.

Chikankari

Chikankari embroidery is centered in Uttar Pradesh, mainly Lucknow. It is worked mostly with double back stitch (which we may call herringbone stitch worked on the wrong side) and with white thread. Other stitches used are stem stitch, eyelet stitch and French knots. When Chikankari is worked in a semi transparent or transparent fabric like the mulmuls or muslin, it gives a shadow effect on the facing side of the fabric and we call it the shadow embroidery. This gives a wonderful effect when worked white thread and also in coloured threads. The following picture shows chikankari work on a kameez.

Kantha

Kantha embroidery is popular in West Bengal and Bangladesh. This exquisite form of embroidery is all made out of the simple running stitch. Other stitches used are darning stitch, satin and loop stitch. Stem stitch, back stitch or running stitch is used to outline motifs. Motifs used in kantha embroidery are human and animal figures and floral symbols. Kantha is an apt form of embroidery to represent Warli drawings too. This picture shows a motif from a kantha embroidered saree.

Kutch Embroidery

Kutch work is a unique form of embroidery done is parts of Gujarat. The stitches used are a unique form of interlacing stitch and herringbone stitch. Other simple stitches like stem stich and laisy daisy are used to give additional effects. Mirror work forms a main part of Kutch embroidery. This picture is the yoke of a kameez embroidered by me.

Phulkari

Phulkari, an embroidery technique from the Punjab in India and Pakistan literally means flower working, which was at one time used as the word for embroidery, but in time the word “Phulkari” became restricted to embroidered shawls and head scarfs. It is mostly done in long and short darn stitch. The following picture shows a phulkari embroidery piece I got from the Net.

Kashmiri

Kashmiri embroidery is also known as Kashida. It is a colorful and beautiful form of embroidery the designs of which mainly draws inspiration from the beautiful nature around. The motifs of flowers, creepers and chinar leaves, mango etc. are the most common ones. The whole pattern is created using one or two embroidery stitch styles. The commonly used stitches are chain stitch, satin stitch, the slanted darn stitch, stem, herringbone and sometimes the doori or knot stitches. But, at at time, only one or two stitches are used. See thsi example from the Net.

Hope you had a good reading; believe that the pictures delighted you.

Introduction to Freehand Embroidery

Friends, welcome to the world of embroidery.

Embroidery is an art of decorating fabrics or other materials with decorative stitches done with needle and thread.

In this program, I am introducing you to freehand embroidery here. Hope the pictures and videos that I put in here are helpful. I know that there are lot of resources on this subject all over the Internet world. I am designing and publishing this blog as part of an assignment towards an e-Learning program that I have taken up. I am planning to publish related posts cogently for some time till the end of this year. May be I will continue this based on reader response. If a new comer follows this blog, I expect her/him to learn the basics of embroidery. I welcome your ideas and feedback.

Free hand embroidery is that form of working an embroidered motif (design) based on free hand drawing. Here is a picture of free hand embroidered piece that I have done.

When we say free hand embroidery, we get a doubt if there is something else too!! Yes. The other type of embroidery is the counted thread embroidery. Cross stitches come under this category. Here, to make a motif, you have to count the number of stitches for each colour or thread and for each row of stitches to get the pattern intact. Such an embroidery is worked on fabrics called matti-cloth or similar ones that have a specific number of holes per inch which makes counting easy. Here is a picture of a counted thread embroidery piece done by my mother. This is a border of a pillow cover.

I will be back in a couple of days and let you know what all is coming up in this blog. The next topic will discuss the contents of this blog.