Embroidering Garments: One Pattern, Two Looks

Garment embellishment was the heart behind my venture into embroidery. Some of you know I’ve been slowly building my wardrobe, and it was the reason I started sewing. I love how both these art forms can weave into everyday life and I have been dreaming of the day I could combine them in garment making. There is something deeply restorative about capturing nature in thread to wear again and again. 

If you've been following the journey of my little pattern business you'll know I have been designing both sewing and embroidery patterns. Sometimes as I draft a sewing pattern I imagine it decorated with embroidery. Other times as I'm working on an embroidery design I can visualise it so clearly on a sewn piece. With these latest wardrobe makes it felt as though both worlds collided serendipitously. I had drafted two blouses of very different shapes that I knew were just meant to hold embroidery. One romantic and flowing. One more structured and graphic. I made toiles of both and left the final makes to complete another day while I continued working on the next chapter of our Wild Irish Flora embroidery collection, Cow's Parsley. As I stitched the hoop version of this delicate flower for the first time, I knew this was the embroidery design destined to embellish my two blouses. The softness of Cow's Parsley would lend itself beautifully to placement on garments. Rather than drawing attention to itself, it seemed to settle gently into cloth, much like it settles into the landscape. And somehow this one pattern was going to compliment two very different garments with just a little variation in placement and composition. 

The first garment was a soft white peasant blouse. With gathered neckline and cuffs and a sweet drawstring tie, it is a dreamy, romantic style that feels so elegant to wear. The embroidery placement needed a delicate touch but also a flow to the design. I envisioned a drift of cow's parsley across the upper half of the front bodice, blooming towards the neckline. Rather than enlarging the motif, I chose to repeat it. I embroidered four of the pattern motifs in total, reversing some horizontally and staggering placement height and angle to give organic variation. I stitched the whole pattern white on white for a gentle effect echoing the softness of the garment's silhouette. 

The second blouse was a sleeveless, button down vest in oatmeal linen. I created a more graphic panel effect by embroidering one pattern motif on each side of the front bodice. I reversed one horizontally again to give a more organic feel and used soft white thread to add a little more emphasis to the embroidery while still giving it a gentle air with white on beige. The result feels beautifully decorative and yet softly understated. The embroidery frames the front bodice panels shaping the button down structure and emphasing the fabric covered buttons as a little feature. 

I loved playing with delicacy in these pieces allowing the embroidery to frame the garment rather than dominate it. It's a style that feels right for me and something that resonated with me when I recently explored Whitework Embroidery. Not everything needs to shout to be beautiful. I've found that these understated pieces we create often leave the deepest impression, because, as both a maker and wearer, they nurture stillness.

In the process of embellishing these pieces there were principles that stuck with me I know I will reuse again and again to make the process smoother. I've listed them below and hope they are helpful to you too. 

I didn't stray from the designed size of my embroidery pattern. Instead I added volume which gave that sense of mass where I needed it. It also meant I could follow the original thread strand decisions without having to rediscover a new balance to the composition. 

Nature is always beautifully irregular. Gardening experts will tell you to plant in odd numbers to echo a flora's organic rhythms. Advice that stands true in embroidering as well as planting them! So allowing repetitions you make to follow an uneven pattern can feel more nature tuned. Simple variations when repeating a pattern also add to a realistic expression. For me that included reversing some motifs, elongating a few stems and varying each pattern repeat placement by staggering height and angle to give organic variation. 

Another lesson I learned in my Irish Whitework exploration was the importance of negative space. Enjoy playing with the balance between fill and untouched space. Negative space deserves as much consideration as the stitches themselves....allow it to become part of your unique design.

With embroidery on garments you can see the silhouette as a restriction or as a guiding canvas. I think the most convincing placements happen when the garment shape is considered and echoed sympathetically. The result is a piece that feels like one, not two disciplines fighting for attention. 

While the garment's silhouette is our canvas border...the options are endless for you as an artist. Movement, direction, flow and orientation all become tools in your hands as the designer. Such different effects can be expressed in these design variations. 

One of the greatest joys of designing embroidery patterns is watching them take on a life beyond the original sketch. The same pattern can become a gentle drift across a blouse, a bold feature on a linen vest or something entirely different in another maker's hands. I continue to be amazed by the beautiful creations that can grow from the same humble supplies, simply with needle, thread and a little imagination.

I hope these garments encourage you to experiment with your own ideas and express the creativity you hold in your heart. If you'd like to stitch your own version, you'll find the Cow's Parsley embroidery pattern here.