3d Machine & hand embroidery course

 I mentioned in my previous post that I had signed up at short notice to a local course teaching 3d free motion embroidery skills on dissolvable film, then creating a felt base & finally embellishing it with hand embroidery. The tutor was the textile artist Jane Fairweather

I sometimes overthink these things - my machine is not the best for free motion embroidery because the feed dogs (the teeth that grip the fabric as you sew) don't drop so a plastic plate has to be inserted to cover them. 

Once the embroidery foot is on the machine, there is not a lot of space & some embroidery hoops do not fit under the foot. I was having difficulty yesterday with the hoops I have & then found two that were ok. The wooden one was a vintage, charity shop find some time ago, but it was 'snug' getting it in & out under the foot. 

So I did what my grandfather (a carpenter) would have done & took off just a little off the wood to make a section slightly lower. I marked this with permanent red pen to know where to rotate it to. 

However, all was well - I was not the only one with such a machine & we were a fabulous group of ladies all doing something new. 

Before long, the two adjoining spaces with humming with the rhythmic sounds of the machines working. My first green thread (1 of 4 green tones used) kept breaking & it was tedious rethreading the machine countless times. As soon as the bobbin finished for that, I gladly changed to another thread & all was much better. It was just the thread. 

The embroidered tree shapes & the brown trunk shape were cut away from the dissolvable backing fabric, dipped in warm water to dissolve the film then pinned to dry as free motion shapes. 

Lots of instruction followed & the time genuinely just flew by. It was all done in small stages which made it so much easier. The brown base shape was wrapped around a hooked metal shape, which was then inserted in to a styrene circle in the cup. 

Did I mention tea & home made apple cake? It was perfect. 

I opted to do more felting on the base & less embroidered flowers. I had a trial idea from the day before that I kept to.  It helped that I took the felting colours I had used the previous day. I added in the little sheep again too ... 

It is amazing how different each one was - we all had the same email of the requirements with our tree & hand embroidery having to  fit in with our cup image / colours. 

The only cup I had that was not in a set was the bold Rosenthal cup & the colours reminded me of the Shropshire hills so I felted in some hill sheep as the colours were just so lovely together. 

Too soon our 6 hours finished & it was show & tell time.  What a lot of creative women, what a lot of gorgeous 3d trees in teacups. 

I love courses & this one has been absolutely fabulous. I will be trying the techniques again as it has given me confidence in them. 

I hope you have enjoyed the update, thank you for stopping by, 

Dee ~💕~