Every now and then, I leaf through my books on Umbrian embroidery, dreaming of having the time to embroider beautiful cushions with buttonhole stitch joints. But I imagine it would be too demanding an occupation at this stage of my life, with children to look after. However, the idea of putting together embroidered and finished pieces, as if composing a patchwork in exquisite embroidery style, has always seemed like a great thing to me, and my daily hour of construction allows me to do some testing, also to check the processing times. The spark was ignited by a reel that I unfortunately cannot find, which showed the assembly of the pieces of a cuff (I think) from a traditional blouse. As sometimes happens magically, a few days later, leafing through my good old embroidery manual, I came across an image that summarised this movement, albeit slightly simplified compared to the reel, which I then decided to try. It is essentially a re-knotted blanket stitch (I would dare to say a “punto in chiaro”) that is worked now on one flap, now on another.
I did and undid to find the right thread and the most pleasing stitch size. In this test, I am working with No. 25 embroidery cotton and embroidering rather small stitches, which span 1 mm of the hem and expand 2 mm sideways.
I am not entirely satisfied, but appetite comes with eating, and I am already craving a second course!