London Embroidery School

Central London based Embroidery School

online class

Goldwork Letter 3 is Out Now!

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Goldwork Letters Style 3: Cutwork with padding and Pearle Purl edging is here. The final step in our goldwork for lettering series aimed at those who have done some goldwork before and are ready to apply those skills more specifically. Taught by breaking the letters down into their characteristics, we discuss the intricacies of the elements you will face and how to deal with each of them as well as showing how to bring all those elements together into one considered, cohesive outcome.

There are no kits for this class as we encourage you to make your own creative material choices for a truly personalised outcome. Do check out the materials listed on the class for our guide to what you’ll need. Head over to the London Embroidery school website for all the details and access to our most technically advanced goldwork class to date.

In need of some Monogramming Inspiration?

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When you have worked hard on building up you stitching skill, having taken all the monogramming online classes and practised your techniques you will want to put them to good use right?


Let us take you through a little inspiration as you soak up some ideas about where you could apply your monogramming skills on items or gifts for your future projects. It is one thing to learn the skills on fabric, and quite another to be able to transfer them onto usable items such as jackets, accessories and keepsakes.

Once you have picked your item, you then need to decide on what will be written, the arrangement, font style and size. Hopefully taking a look at some of the possibilities might help you to start making the decision for your stitching. Follow the link so see the full video and absorb all those ideas!

Goldwork Letters 2 Out Now!

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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)

Shimmery, Shiny, Sparkly things: Tambour 3 Sequins

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Shimmer, shine and sparkle fans, the tambour online class series part 3 is all about sewing sequins. Freshly launched, this third and final part of the tambour online class series sees us shimmying our way into the last stitching style.

 

We will try lines and fills, with flat and cupped sequins to master the different reflective finishes. As always the class will take you through the theory, with your practise pack of materials and then we will show off our newly learnt skills on the gold desert landscape design. This will complete the tambour landscape triptych and our first foray into couture stitching, equipping you with the skills to apply these techniques to your future projects. 

If you bought the whole series as a bundle, the class will be waiting for you in your inbox or can be purchased now as a standalone if you just want to learn about sequins. You know the drill, head to the London Embroidery School website to get all the details on this exclusive couture technique.

Bring on the Beads!

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We’ve built the base, it’s time to bring the beads. Part 2 of the Tambour Online class series is now available. Working with the most popular use of the tambour skills, adding beading into the equation ups the difficulty level as we navigate the additional weight, changeable stitch length, shrinkage and working that underneath hand. Starting off with a pack of practise beads we will work on the techniques before we apply the skills to our landscape design, incorporating round beads, seed beads and bugle beads, straights, corners, curves and fills.

If you haven’t got any idea what those things mean, start off the tambour 1 to fill in the gaps and catch us up. Those who got in fast and purchased the whole series as a bundle will have the class waiting for you in your inbox. Kits are going quickly so if you haven’t managed to bag one or have plenty of beads of your own, you can purchase the online class on its own. This comes with a downloadable version of the design template to use your own materials with and start stitching at home right away. 

Check out all the options so you can just buy what you need. All the variations are explained on our website, follow any of the links for more info. Begin couture beading like a pro with the Tambour Online Class Series from the London Embroidery School.

LES in FT:How To Spend It Magazine

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In such unusual times and amongst all the difficulties so many have been facing in the past few months, it can feel a bit tasteless to be celebrating almost anything. However looking for the bright side in tough situations is a comfort to most and some  might argue, just human nature. During this period you will probably have noticed that we made quite a big change to our teaching approach and introduced Online classes and kits to our website to adapt to how we could still reach our community. And reach back to us, you have in the masses!

Spurred on by your enthusiasm we now have 10 online classes/ class series with more in the pipeline to come. We are delighted at how much you all seem to be enjoying this new way of interacting with us whether it has provided you with a way to learn you find easier, as a comfort distraction or rekindling an old passion. So to anyone who is new to the London Embroidery School, welcome, it’s a pleasure to have you join us.

This change is working on a bigger scale as it has also been picked up by the Financial Times who recently published an article in their ‘How to Spend it’ magazine entitled ‘How Embroidery Became a Political Power Player‘ where writer Marianna Giusti explores this new trend ”Whether stitching slogans or calming anxious hands, needlework is gaining many new fans.”

Embroidery has a long history of being harnessed as a tool for political change, often understated because of it’s view as a ”women’s craft” and therefore nothing for the powers that be to worry about. From being one of the few methods of documentation that survived of people from minorities, to the suffragettes to hash tagged t-shirts; the examples are many but the motivation behind it remains the same. We are very pleased that one of our tutor’s Auburn Lucas was quoted in the article and that embroidery gets the coverage it deserves in journalism.

So amongst the bad, we hope that if you have found joy in embroidery, long may it continue. People tend to care about things they understand so with more people experiencing hand crafts, perhaps we can all be a part of influencing a more patient, considerate culture as we return to the gentler place that handmade arts has to offer.