Smooth purl & check purl

A few weeks ago, I’d written a post on smooth purl.Today, I would like to give more details on that.Smooth purl is widely used in goldwork embroidery.In Indian goldwork embroidery, it’s called zardosi thread and can be seen on sarees and dresses.The purl is actually a spring-like metal that needed to be cut into small pieces and then sewn onto fabric.Some even stick it with glue.Great care must be taken when handling this purl because it can become damaged easily.

The smooth purl normally comes in small packets like these.Each packet costs me Rs 2.50 (US 5cents?).

This is the length in each packet.This piece is quite perfect but most of it are damaged.When cutting, you’ll have to discard the damaged parts.

It’s actually like a tube and you can insert a needle and thread into it.

When pulled, the purl will never go back to its original length.

This is another type of purl – the check purl.

Close-up of check purl.

I’d tried a few flower designs out of this purl which I would like to show in my coming posts.

A sneak peek into my latest project which uses purl.It’s still in it’s early stage.Not having any experience with purls before, God knows how it will look like or whether I’ll be able to complete it.Just wait and see.

Barbara's peacock

Shown below is the completed work of my embroidered peacock project.To download this free peacock pattern, please click here.

Here are the steps that I took to embroider this peacock :

Step 1 – Head and body

Step 2 – Wings

Step 3 – Flowers and leaves

Step 4 – Peacock’s tail

Chikan Embroidery - Part 1

I was one of the lucky few who managed to register for Anita’s first Chikan embroidery SAL.I found Anita’s blog when she commented on mine.At that time, she was still new to blogging.I feel that’s the power of commenting – it will bring readers to your blog.I love to have people come and commenting on my blog and you’re mostly welcome to ‘advertise’ your blog while doing so.Your support is one factor that keeps me going and something which I value the most.

I’m quite sure most of you must have completed Anita’s class.As for me, I lag far behind because of lack of time.At the time of writing this post, I’d just finished lesson 5.Today, I would like to show you my work after completing the first lesson, which was double back stitch or even known as shadow stitch.

The biggest problem I faced was to trace the design.I don’t have a printer so I had to place a clear plastic sheet on my PC monitor and trace it.The difference wasn’t so obvious when I traced it but realized something was wrong when started to embroider.Most of the time, I’d to redraw certain patterns before embroidering.

This is one embroidery that I enjoy working.In Chikan embroidery, everything has to be perfect or else it will show on your work.We need to practice, practice and more practice and I sure need more of that.In my opinion, this embroidery makes us more disciplined.No wonder, Anita’s works are so perfect that you could hardly find any flaws.Hats off to you Anita and thanks for this wonderful lesson.