Jacobean Coat – beginning on the felt
I haven’t put all the felt pieces all around the coat, because apart from anything else I have limited tolerance for cutting out bits of felt, but I have a good start made, and I can start playing with stitches, which is much more fun!
This is one of the most complex motifs.
The blue felt is one I made myself, because I didn’t already have a suitable one – which explains the thin patch at the top. Wet felting is not as easy in practise as it seems in theory!
The teal leaves were easy, of course, because I have already decided to use feather stitch. After that, some thought was required..
A teal trellis, couched with pale yellow, provides the “lift” here, and one of my favourite stitches, cable chain, provides the fronds. I’ve reduced the number of fronds – I think there were two between each petal – because I thought it would look fussy otherwise.
The blue stitching on the blue felt is Crested Chain. The colours are close enough to create texture, rather than contrast, rather as the slightly rusty pink square chain modifies the petal colour in a different direction to the dark blue chained blanket stitch of the leaves at the base.
As with all the elements of this design, when I have the whole piece more or less finished, I will expect to add further details and tweaks to balance it all across the piece. We’ll see…
Long live stitching! It is amazing how bare the bare pieces of felt look compared to after you have added the stitches. Stitches do it! I haven’t used the Crested Chain in ages and I guess it is time I did some, maybe on my crazy quilt block. Thank you for the inspiration, Rachel.
Looking good!
This work is really so lovely, what gorgeous colours but what really draws my attention is the blue crested chain stitch on the felt which as you mention adds texture rather than contrast, something we don´t always take into consideration..
Looking good.
It is a fruit :). What a lovely piece Rachel. All the different textures of the stitches; pure genius!
The fronds make this motif dance. It is amazing how the stitching wakes up the felt shapes. Looking forward to the next installment…
I’m always amazed at how stitching can change the look of an ordinary piece of felt! Looking great
This is going to be some coat! Love the felt work.