When I and a bunch of friends were coming back from Goa, we had to make a very tough decision. We had to decide what memento to take from this beautiful place. And then on the street there was a vendor who made us a tee with our pictures embroidered on it. I still have that cute tee with our childhood captured in our smiling faces.
An embroidery design doesn’t have to be a typical floral print on a typical pillow cover. Just like any other tool, it is as diverse and versatile as you want it to be. You could make a fancy napkin with miniature fruits embroidery, or make your shopping bag glamorous by embroidering, say Marilyn Monroe (contrasts always work!). Oh I hope you are using Jute or cloth bags instead of the tacky and environmentally unfriendly plastic bags. You could embellish your cell phone case with atypical floral patterns. So you see the sky is the limit and let the creative juices flow.
In the recent times, embroidery as a field has seen much advance. Apart from mechanization that has rendered the embroidery designs flawless, a few new and advanced techniques have also been developed. One of them is the photo stitch design. I am picking that one out of the rest as we often see certain pictures and want that printed on our garments. But printing usually doesn’t capture elegance the way embroidery does. And thus the Photo Stitch Design was developed. In simple terms, it captures the photograph that you have into an embroidered design. In more advanced terms, the photograph that you want embroidered has to be digitized using software. And then the digital version has to be fed into the embroidery machine in order for printing. And voila! You also have a tee with Elvis embroidered on it. And just like pictures you can have it in black and white or Technicolor.
The deal with embroidery it is best to remember that you mustn’t let boredom or archetypal designs creep in. Be bold and play with patterns, designs and colors and have a field day. We aren’t in school and we don’t need to wear uniforms. Individualize your space and your garments so that they reflect you from a crowd. And free embroidery designs are such that it’s okay if you make a mistake. It might just look interesting. Go. Explore.
