• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

London Embroidery School

Central London based Embroidery School

  • About
    • Blog
  • Classes
    • Digital Embroidery
    • Couture Tambour Beading
    • Goldwork
    • Traditional Techniques
    • Introduction to Embroidery
    • Lace Embroidery
    • Flower Making
    • Monogramming
    • Silk Shading
    • Private Tuition
    • Gift Certificate
      • Gift Certificate
  • Online Classes
    • Kits
    • Online Classes
  • Equipment & Materials
    • Kits
    • Specialist Materials
    • Specialist Equipment
    • Beads, Sequins & Others
      • Beads & Sequins
    • Masons Military Badge & Button
      • Blazer Badge
      • Buttons
      • Cap Badge
      • Cufflinks
      • Lapel Pin
      • Pin Badge
      • Tie Bar
  • Contact
    • Custom Embroidery
    • Contact Us
  • FAQ
  • £0.00

Things to do in London

Goldwork Letters 2 Out Now!

Friday 8th January 2021 by Natasha Searls-Punter Leave a Comment

Goldwork Letters Style 2: Couching and Overstretched Pearle Purl has arrived.

Bringing colour and texture to the party, this goldwork class for a lettering outcome is designed for those who have done a little goldwork before and want to step it up a gear. Taught by breaking the letters down into their characteristics, you can apply the approaches to the letter of your choosing, and it will arm you to be able to take on any shapes you might come across.

There are no kits for this class as we encourage you to make your own creative material choices for a truly personalised outcome, however we will guide you through what types you will need to have to hand. This makes it a great class for those who want to get started straight away, and also for using up some left over materials you might have from previous goldwork projects.
Head over to the London Embroidery school website for all the details and to start creating your own sophisticated goldwork letter piece.

 

Materials and equipment

  • Base fabrics (felt, melton is best fabric if you are thinking about make it into a patch) & Calico (medium tight weave – any Goldwork with Plunging technique includes requires a supporting base fabric unless you are working on very heavy non stretch fabric)
  • Pricker
  • Pounce
  • Tracing paper design drawn (printed out or drawn. Blue transferable paper work too so no need to prick & pounce)
  • Gel Pen/ Water soluble Pen (optional, pencil works fine if it’s light fabric)
  • Goldwork Thread: Passing (2g – Yellow Gold Passing used in the video) & Rococco (1m – Very Fine used in the video), Pearle Purl (1g) (Some letters use less or more) Japanese Gold Thread or Twists can be used too.
  • Needles: Embroidery/Chenille Needle (Embroidery No.10 used in the video) Chenille Needle for Plunging (No. 22 used in the video) (optional) & Curved Needle (optional)
  • Thread to match Gold Thread
  • Embroidery Stranded Cotton
  • Sewing thread to match the stranded cotton
  • Heavy/stronger thread (Extra Upholstery Thread used in the video. Top Thread/Buttonhole Thread are good too) (optional)
  • Goldwork Scissors (ideally separate from normal embroidery scissors as Golwork will blunt the scissors)
  • Thread scissors
  • Mellor/Stiletto
  • Wax
  • Pins
  • Embroidery hoop/frame (ideally clamp/seat/slate frame so your both hands are free)
  • Access to a printer or trace off a computer screen at 100%
  • Temporary adhesive spray, wall paper paste, sewing machine (all optional)

Filed Under: Classes, Embroidery, Things to do in London Tagged With: coloured core, counching, embroidery, goldwork, goldwork letters, goldwork techniques, hand embroidery, hand embroidery class, hand sewing, online class, online learning, overstretched pearle purl, virtual class

LES loves Virtual Costume Exhibitions

Tuesday 22nd December 2020 by Natasha Searls-Punter Leave a Comment

(Spoilers Included)

As our name suggests, we are based in the UK in London and for those of you in the Uk, you will know that we have just gone into ‘tier 4’ so movement has been restricted once again just in time for Christmas. For many of you, like us that will mean your plans for the Christmas break will change and might leave you a little… directionless.

Amongst the ever changing news, we will endevour to keep bringing you things to keep you enterained, motivated and inspired. Our online classes are always there if you fancy one, whether it be one of our free classes, kitless classes or something practical. If however today what you need is inspiration then let us show you this engaging virtual exhibition we came across from the Brooklyn Museum.

Those embroiderers of you that also cross over into costume fans cant help but to have noticed the excitement with which the two big costume dramas recently released on Netflix have received. ‘The Crown’, now on season 4 and ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ both take you into a snapshot of vintage fashion from the 20th century. ‘The Crown’ season 4 takes us through the 1980’s and the costume department play a huge role in this, painstakingly recreating legendary looks from events of the British Royal family during this period. Princess Diana’s wedding dress has to be one of the most monumental pieces in the collection- originally design by Elizabeth and David Emanuel, recreated by costume designer Amy Roberts, tailored by Sue Crawshaw.

Detail of ”The Crown’s” Princess Diana Wedding Dress Bodice

”The dress took three people four weeks and 600 hours to create. 95 metres of fabric and 100 metres of lace were used. The train is approx. 30 feet. Tailoring the dress required 5 fittings with actress Emma Corrin.”

With such efforts put into this piece to make it as accurate as possible, we would have liked to have seen more of it in the screen time!

 

The exhibition allows you to turn the ensembles, zoom in on special details, view the clip of the costume in action and read write ups on the pieces and view the working designs and desginers notes.

 

For the embroiderers, the Trooping of the Colour uniform might well be a highlight as you can zoom in on the details of the medals, aiguillettes and eupaulettes. Aside the costumes, the museum has selected pieces from their collections which compliment the exhibits such as the silhouette portrait of Queen Elizabeth called ‘Koh-I-Noor’ by Hew Locke made of hundreds of plastic trinkets.

 

From ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ set in the 1960’s USA designed by Gabiele Binder, we particulally liked the first dress we see the protagonist ‘Beth’ dressed in. The naive embroidery on the chest tugs at ones heartstrings in a way only embroidery can (though we are terribly bias!)

 

This is shown alongside this ‘Gaming Board’ which is an undeniably beuatiful piece in its own right, particulally when it is considered to date circa 1390–1353 B.C.E.

 

We also really liked the ‘I’m Chess’ dress and being able to appreciate the thought and symbolism invested into the creation of these costumes as a vehical of storytelling.

The Brooklyn Museum’s physical exhibition has now ended but the virtual exhibtion is currently still available if you fancy furthering you watching  interest with a deep dive into the costumes.

Check this exhibition out whilst you can!

Images Credits : All images courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum and Netflix (The Queen and The Crown is created by Netflix in collaboration with the Brooklyn Museum, and curated by Matthew Yokobosky, Senior Curator, Fashion and Material Culture, Brooklyn Museum.)

Filed Under: Embroidery, Things to do in London Tagged With: amy roberts, brooklyn museum, costume, embroidery, exhibition, gabriele binder, netflix, the crown, the queen's gambit, virtual exhibition

Goldwork Christmas Star Kits are back!

Friday 13th November 2020 by Natasha Searls-Punter Leave a Comment

With Christmas around the corner and us spending even more time at home we have this set of Christmassy goldwork kits to offer you. The Goldwork star kits are for those who have done some goldwork stitching before and are looking for a new challenge, the results of which can be enjoyed over the festive period. Coming in 5 styles which cover a range of levels these written instruction kits are ideal if you want some time away from screens to focus in on your stitching and make something really beautiful.

Each kit will allow you to make a piece with a pearle purl edge and a combination of two goldwork techniques to fill your star. The kits include all the materials you will need to make your chosen goldwork star design utilising the equipment you will likely already have, or can pick up from the specialist equipment section of our website.

Once completed these stars make a great addition to a classy tree or an eyecatching tree topper if you want to give it pride of place. Head over to the London Embroidery School website to see all the designs in detail.

 

Filed Under: Embroidery, News from London Embroidery School, Stock Updates, Things to do in London Tagged With: advanced, beginners, embroidery, goldwork, goldwork star, hand embroidery, hand stitching, intermediate, kit, London Embroidery School, star, written instruction kits

15k Giveaway Time!

Friday 21st August 2020 by Natasha Searls-Punter Leave a Comment

This week we have reached some new milestones as there are now 15,000 of you following the London Embroidery School on Instagram and 1,000 on our new YouTube channel. To celebrate with you our community we have some embroidery goodies to give away and we’d love to be sending one of these ten parcels to you! 

It will be a lucky dip as to who gets which bundle, but there will be embroidery frames, cotton, cross stitch fabric, tapestry wool and machine threads up for grabs.

To be in the running to win one of these bundles and join in our celebrations, head over to Instagram, like the post, follow the London Embroidery School on Instagram and tag a friend in the comments below the post before 12pm UK time on Friday 28th August. You can tag in as many friends as you like for multiple entries, just one tag per comment though please. Winners will be selected at random and will be contacted by Direct message on Monday 31st Aug.

See the full t’s and c’s below:

This giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed, administered by or associated with Instagram. Entries will only count on the original post on instagram. Over 18’s only, no purchase necessary. Items will be sent out by Post so if you win, your address will be required to receive your prize. Open Internationally where we are able to ship. Void where prohibited. 

Filed Under: Embroidery, Stock Updates, Things to do in London Tagged With: 15k giveaway, bundles, classes, courses, craft, embroidery, giveaway, hand embroidery, learning, london, stitching, textiles

Fancy Trying your Hand at Goldwork?

Friday 10th July 2020 by Natasha Searls-Punter Leave a Comment

We hope you are ready for this, we have been working away in the background to bring a longer class series out for our more established stitchers, so today we have the Goldwork Pear Class Series to bring before you. In this 4 part series we will be teaching you a range of traditional goldwork techniques, focusing on the process and getting into the fruity details of the wide variety of materials goldwork has to offer .

This class is aimed at stitchers with some embroidery experience, but who may or may not have necessarily done goldwork specifically before. If you have already taken our Introduction to Goldwork Cherry design then you are pretty much in a perfect position, as we will be taking a few of those materials and techniques, building on them and pressing forwards with your skills and finesse. We will discuss working on a multifaceted design starting by building good foundations with padding and raisings, adding smooth surfaces with applique, creating texture with chipping, couching and cutwork, before we work on finishings like plunging and pearle purl edging. 

As always we have prepared kits for you so you can jump right into the fun bit and get stitching. There will be Deluxe and Mini level kits depending on the equipment you may already have at home as someone who has already done a bit of embroidery. We will also be offering bundle packages which brings your choice of kit and all the classes into one transaction with a discount. Or you can buy each class as they are released on Fridays over the course of the month of July in their 40- 50 minute video bite size chunks. 

You know what to do, pop over to the London Embroidery School website and head to the online classes section to make your selection.

Filed Under: Classes, Embroidery, News from London Embroidery School, Stock Updates, Things to do in London Tagged With: bright check, bullion, check, classes, courses, embellishment, embroidery, gold, gold thread, goldwork, hand embroidery, japanese thread, learning, london, London Embroidery School, online classes, online learning, passing thread, pear, pearle purl, rococco, rough purl, smooth purl, textiles

(Flashback) Visiting the Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk Exhibition

Wednesday 8th July 2020 by Natasha Searls-Punter Leave a Comment

As a member of the V&A, I try to visit most of the temporary exhibitions they put on in the fine institution that is the Victoria and Albert Museum. At the start of March, they opened their doors on their newest addition ‘Kimono:Kyoto to Catwalk’.

Held in North Court of the building, this exhibition brings a little Asian influence to their corner of the world. The Kimono is a fascinating piece of social history, carrying so much culture and responsibility within its relatively simple folds.

Kosode: From Edo period demonstrating Yuzen dyeing (Cloth tube fitted with a metal tip used to apply a thin ribbon of rice paste, then dyes are brushed within the paste boundaries) 1730-70

I won’t go into all the history as you should be able to make your own discovery of the exhibition and enjoy it fresh yourself, but I will show you a few of my highlights which may stir your interest. For an embroiderer or anyone interested in textiles, the exhibition is full of wonderful examples of hand embroidery and lesser known textile techniques. They draw a lot of attention to them, which was something I had not necessarily expected of the exhibition but was delighted to realise. As the basic form of a kimono is very clean and unfussy, once the structure of the garment has been addressed and the pattern explained there is not very much more to say about the shape. It is the varying and evolving elements of the details displayed on them which holds all the intrigue. Even though this is a fashion exhibition it is the textiles that does the lion’s share of the talking.

Design for a Kimono 1800-50

The historical examples at the start of the exhibition were very strong, the pattern books were a surprise but of course it makes great sense to sell such a garment in this way, with patterns being chosen and customised from a book rather than remade examples. The women of the elite military class could have designs made specifically for them, particularly for special occasions.

Detail from Kimono of a Geisha- a very elaborate example demonstrating the parallels between fashion and the theatre in 18th Century Japan

On the embroidery front, there are many great examples of goldwork and silk floss/ silk shading styles throughout the exhibition. The lion above is quite an extravagant example, taken from the back of the kimono shown in the first image of this blog. Amazingly, the lion is only a very small part of the work on that kimono probably only measuring about 20-25cm high and isn’t even the main centre back motif. However I’m sure you will agree it is an exquisite use of Japanese thread (cotton core wrapped with gold leaf paper).

There are also a few pieces that feature a dying technique called Shibori which you may have heard of. It’s use is using much larger scale and bolder than the examples on the kimonos where it is used to create very small and delicate designs, creating a much more subtle and quietly expensive impression. The technique is quite labour intensive as it require parts of the fabric to be tied off very tightly before dying so they are left in negative as can be seen in the white squares pattern.

Uchikate- Outer Kimono for a young woman featuring Shibori and embroidery 1800-50

When Japan opened up its began trading with western countries such as Holland and Portugal, we can start to see the cultures influences each other, as Japanese kimono makers start to make kimonos from cottons South-east Asia and foreigners eager for everything Japanese started to use Japanese fabrics for their own pieces.

Day Dress: Misses Turner 1876-8

Japanese influenced robe, Victorian Era

Towards the end of the exhibition they turn the attention to more modern applications and influences of the Kimono. This includes pieces from modern fashion houses such as Dior, Commes De Garçons and Alexander Mcqueen. This room brings the exhibition full circle, they also demonstrate the cyclical nature of fashion as you can pick out the elements of kimonos that have influenced that ‘new’ piece.

‘High Voltage Power-Lines’ Yamawaki Toshiko 1956

Evening Dress: also by Yamawaki Toshiko (1956) featuring Obi like bow and scrolling asymmetric designTextile details, couched goldwork and red embroidery imitating kanoko shibori 

While this last room holds many beautiful pieces, the real gems of this exhibition are the historical pieces. Many people will be familiar with what a Kimono is on sight from walking through the Asia exhibits, but this exhibition delves so far into this garment and unpicks the elements of it. The V & A puts on lots of great fashion exhibitions and in London we are spoilt that we have fashion specific exhibitions at all. But as this one puts so much detail into the textiles and processes, it has something special to offer in my opinion.

Filed Under: Embroidery, Things to do in London Tagged With: embellishment, embroidery, exhibition, flashback, japan, japanese thread, kimono, london, print, print making, techniques, textiles, v & a museum, victoria and albert museum, visit

Next Page »

Footer

Contact

+44 (0) 20 7886 8678

classes@embroidery.london

Join our mailing list

Please sign up to our mailing list today.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

© Copyright 2021 London Embroidery School · All Rights Reserved · Site by Peter Mahoney

The shop will remain open but please be patient as we are working fewer staffs. And please beware Royal Mail / some international postal services are running with some small delay. Dismiss