I've been pondering what stitch to use for the upper tunic and the sleeves the Rabbit Geisha wears for several days now. I've tried a variety of stitches, particularly ones that look floral or like leaves as I thought that would be appropriate for a kimono. Many Japanese kimono have flowers or leaves on them and I thought since the Rabbit Geisha doesn't have much pattern on her clothing, I could use a fancy stitch to add interest.
I finally decided to use the stitch you see started above. This is called Brocade Stitch. I found it in Brenda Hart's Favorite Stitches book, page 10. However, I didn't work it exactly as Brenda has it diagrammed. The photo above shows the first step in this stitch. See how floral it looks?
You should also look carefully at the sleeves and at the left side of the kimono top in the close up of the same photo just above. See how everything lines up exactly the same? Now look at the single flower motif I've stitched on the right side of the kimono top just under the collar. I am deliberately not lining up the pattern here. Designs on patterned clothing we wear doesn't line up regularly when we actually are wearing it, so I decided I would make sure at least one section of the tunic isn't even to make this more realistic. I will also move the pattern around a bit for the lower half of the tunic so it is also not lined up exactly when I get to it.
By the way, this first step is stitched with a strand of Rainbow Gallery's silk perle Subtlety, which is the size of a #12 perle. The color is Y900 and is a bit lighter than the golden sand color the tunic is painted.
Once the flowers are stitched, the second step is to double a strand of Accentuate (I used 022) and stitch a cross stitch in the center of each flower.
The third step is where I differ from what Brenda diagrams. I took a strand of the thin metallic Bijoux (no color number but this is a bronze brown) and backstitched the boxes that separate the flower motifs. Light colors are supposed to come forward and dark colors recede but as you can see in the photo of the right sleeve below, the opposite happened. I like the look, although it wasn't what I expected, so I left it.
The final step is to lay a long vertical line of my Bijoux down through the middle of the row of boxes, then couch it down with my doubled Accentuate by coming up in the center stitch of the box, crossing over the Bijoux, and then going right back down in the same hole. Brenda doesn't do the vertical lines and puts a bead or a French knot in the hole I'm using to tie down my couched Bijoux.
In the third photo, the right sleeve is finished and the center cross stitches are inside the flowers on the left sleeve. I still have a lot of the tunic to go, but this stitch works up pretty quickly, even if there are four steps to it.
Since I used three new threads on this piece and also used up a skein of my background DMC cotton floss, I will add 8 points to my stash credits (one point for each new thread used and five points for using up all of one thread). Hurrah!
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
