an embroidery school for all abilities and budgets.
Our newest addition to the London Embroidery School specialist equipment- The Wooden Bead Tray.
A great accompaniment for anyone working on a tambour or beading project, the 3 shallow sections keep you beads separate while making it easy to switch between them and pick up small items. The spool is especially useful as it allow you to keep pulling off the reel whilst working (great for tambourers) whilst the tray base is heavy enough to stay in place whilst pulling.
See it in action here.
A new way to make your embroidery pieces useful and take them with you where you go. Transform them into a little clasp topped bag with the use of our new bag clasp product and accompanying bag pattern and instructions as shows in use here.
We have used the Goldwork Online Class Pear Design Piece to show you how it can look but you could use any piece or fabric of your choosing to make your bag from. Follow the instructions to make your own little bag and wait for the compliments on your embroidery to roll in.
Pages is a lesser known couture technique where layers upon layers of fabrics are built up on top of one another and stitched down to fan out and look like the pages of a book. Because this technique is all about the approach, we wanted to find a way to teach pages for a practical outcome. Therefore during the pages mushroom pincushion online class you will learn about how pages technique is usually used when creating for a couture outcome, and then apply our knowledge and practice the pages technique whilst building our own luxurious pin cushion.
With a bright red, velvet top scattered with pearl details, a sturdy weighted woolen stem skirt and one hundred pages technique gills, this class and kit will leave you with an understanding of this high fashion technique and a lovely new sewing project companion to boot. The kit will take approx 2-4 hours to complete and your mushroom will be about 10cm high with 10cm diameter.
Click through the images to get your kit on its way.
We are delighted to announce that we have been developing a great new product and class to add to the London Embroidery School. The Pages Mushroom Online Class and Kit will be coming to the school next Friday and boy do we think that it’s a fun one.
Pages is a couture technique you may not have heard of but will likely have seen. Quite simple in its approach, pages are all about building up layers and layers of fabric to look like the pages of a book- hence the name.
Because of the approach, we wanted to find a way to make the class more exciting and usable than the way it is often taught. So whilst you will learn about how pages technique is usually used for couture garments, we will be applying our knowledge and practising the pages technique on an item you can’t have too many of… a pin cushion. And this isn’t just any pin cushion, velvet topped with a scattering of pearls and a weighted base this pin cushion can stand up to quite the stabbing. Finished off with pages featuring the gills of the mushroom- learning about couture fabric techniques never felt so practical.
But how did this class come to be? Well with a fair amount of development. This design has been through 6 stages as it has grown into the fully formed design it now is, ready for you to make it with us.
Even before that we were playing around with the pages technique and trying to decide on a way to present it to you, that would inform you about the style, but also leave you with something lovely. And in the process of developing some of our more traditional samples, we started to think that this particular arrangement looked like chanterelle mushrooms. This idea took hold and took us down a bit of a research rabbit hole that eventually popped out at creating a mushroom pincushion where the pages were the mushroom’s gills.
Then followed the pattern making and testing, we got pretty close with the pattern on the first sample, just trying it in a cheap calico and using whatever shades of organza we had to hand for the pages. But that frayed too much to look like it was on purpose and we wanted the pin cushion to be more hardwearing than that and we didn’t like the extra seam. So then we tried PVA dipped calico for thin but less fraying pages, but they all flopped to one side or the other but thought the velvet was great for the top. Then we subbed calico backed linen for the gills and tried a different way of applying the top, but that one didn’t even make it to getting a stem. Next up was the melton gills with the velvet top and velvet stem, but you can hardly even tell the stem is velvet and it made it all too wobbly. And for the last one, we played around with the order of construction, trying it out with the wine velvet too. Having tried everything we could think of, we picked out our favourite bits from each one and combined them all together to give you the finalised pattern.
If you would like to learn about pages and make your own pages pin cushion with us, the online class and kits will be out next Friday- sign up to the mailing list at the bottom of our website home page to be the first to be told when they are released.
The beaded coral online class and kits are back in stock so if you have been patiently waiting for them to be available again- thank you, and now is the time to snap one up!
A hugely underrated technique, the newest class to the London Embroidery School is the Shadow Work Online Class. Starring a gorgeous turtle artwork, we will be teaching you the principals to one of the lightest, most delicate embroidery styles.
Shadow work is a style of white work embroidery, but we will be using just a hint of colour to show it off to its best effect. Featuring back stitch, chain stitch, herringbone stitch, pin stitch, feather stitch and applique; we will demonstrate how to work on the sheerist of fabrics where everything is on display. At the end of the class, you will be left with your turtle design which can be admired from both sides and decide which one you love the most.
Available with a mini kit for materials, deluxe kit for equipment too or class only if you want to start straight away.
