MyFaireLady

EMBROIDERY: A New Beginning!

01-01-2010:  I am SO excited to share what I’ve been up to because embroidery has always fascinated me, but has likewise also been something that I thought was beyond my reach–in the sense that I have little patience for handwork, and the thought of spending countless hours doing blackwork or any kind of embroidery (no matter how basic the design) on a chemise or gown was just plain daunting.

So, starting about the year 2003, I decided that I was gonna get me one of those fancy-schmancy embroidery machines to do the work for me.  I figured the best way to go about it was to open up a good ole fashioned savings account and by 2006 or so, I had enough saved up to start doing some research.  I decided the machines & design software put out by Husqvarna-Viking were both user-friendly enough and within my budget for both machine & software.  I was able to purchase a nice, previously-loved, “Designer I” and shortly afterwards took advantage of a “Black Friday” sale to purchase the then-current “3-D Professional” embroidery software produced by the same company. I lucked out in that I was able to get the free upgrade to “4-D Professional” when it came out a few months later.

Now, I’m quick learner, but teaching myself this software was another thing entirely.  I started out trying to learn the “3-D” program, but I’m glad that I didn’t get too far on it, because I find the “4-D” software to be muuuuch more user friendly.  Even so, I started & paused a number of times over the last three years or so, letting stuff sink in while working on other projects in between, until a couple of months ago I decided that NOW was the time to really get competent, and I’ve been working steadily at it.

What you see here are the first samples–progression more like–of one of the original blackwork borders I’ve designed.  My goal is to produce a range of historically based patterns that I can use interchangeably as borders or what-not so that I can embellish my chemises, make some nice parlets, etc.

I’m currently working on creating some patterns based on those seen in period portraits, but you’ll have to wait for pictures of those, since I’m still in the design phase–the digitizing is going to be challenging, and time-consuming–but fun…which is weird since it just occurred to me that it probably would have been quicker just to DO the blackwork by hand, because it currently takes me HOURS upon HOURS upon WEEKS to get ONE design to the point where I’m satisfied with it.  That could just be ME, though, because my goal is to produce a machine-made embroidery that is SO like hand-made embroidery that you have to look very closely to see that it’s not.  You’ll have to let me know if you agree once I get those pictures up.

In the meantime, let me know what you think of this border design.  I think it’s looking preeeeety good, but I’m always open to suggestions!