Well here we go ! Every time I start sewing my heart is in my mouth as there is very little room for mistakes once I put needle to silk. Once again my silk was bought from the wonderful Barbara at The Silk Route.
I finally put a face to the name with a trip to Harrogate Knitting & Stitching show, it was so much easier to see the silks & place them next to each other to see which colours ‘worked’.
Once the tracing was tacked to the interfaced white silk it was time to start. I began with the lightest colours, the centre of the star & the pale ivory at the bottom of the design.
Then it was a case of building up the other layers, always keeping in mind which colour needs to be ‘on top’ to create the right effect. So the pale yellow of the stars rays went on before the darker gold colour, but after the pale ivory of the lower design.
After each layer is sown down using small straight stitches, it is carefully trimmed to reveal the shapes. Silk frays incredibly easily so I have to take care not to take too much fabric away.
In this photo you can see all the different layers as they are laid & stitched down. The stole is now ready for the next stage, zig-zagging. I chose a gold lurex thread for this because the client wanted “gold, gold and more gold”