{"id":16449,"date":"2026-04-28T09:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=16449"},"modified":"2026-04-02T12:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:18:12","slug":"the-half-open-flowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2026\/04\/28\/the-half-open-flowers\/","title":{"rendered":"The half-open flowers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Lilac_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Lilac_Watermarked-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Half-open lotus flower in lilacs and purples\" class=\"wp-image-16440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Lilac_Watermarked-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Lilac_Watermarked-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Lilac_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Having got over that momentary wobble about the half open flowers on the Lotus Flower Coat, it was just a matter of carrying on, rows and rows of stitches in a variety of shades and thicknesses of thread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve kept to the same feather stitch and chain stitch variations for both of them, and I worked small facing sections in lighter shades &#8211; borrowed from the fully open flower &#8211; to suggest the inside of petals on the other side of the centre.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Pink_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Pink_Watermarked-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Half open lotus flower in shades of pink\" class=\"wp-image-16439\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Pink_Watermarked-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Pink_Watermarked-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Pink_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>One of the flowers uses more purple and lilac tones, the other is more pinkish, still trying to create a certain balanced effect without symmetry. I worked a bit on each flower in turn until I was done, making the petals variations on each other, emphases not in quite the same place, patterns rippling slightly as they move across.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m very happy with the little channels of fabric showing around the edges of the petals. It&#8217;s a way of moving the design more towards a graphic and less towards naturalism &#8211; and let&#8217;s face it, there&#8217;s nothing very naturalistic about my stitchery! It also creates a lightness to the design which I think will be very suitable for a light spring and summer jacket.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/FlowersDone_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/FlowersDone_Watermarked-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"The pattern piece of the back of the coat, with the flowers in place\" class=\"wp-image-16441\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/FlowersDone_Watermarked-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/FlowersDone_Watermarked-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/FlowersDone_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m aware that the relatively dense stitching has created ripples in the fabric, but it&#8217;s quite loosely woven wool, and I&#8217;m pretty confident that once I&#8217;ve pressed or steamed it, all will be well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have to do the calyxes and the stems first, though. I have a few thoughts about that, but I&#8217;m not entirely sure it will work as I hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch this space, as they say&#8230;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having got over that momentary wobble about the half open flowers on the Lotus Flower Coat, it was just a matter of carrying on, rows and rows of stitches in a variety of shades and thicknesses of thread. I&#8217;ve kept to the same feather stitch and chain stitch variations for both of them, and I&hellip; <a class=\"continue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2026\/04\/28\/the-half-open-flowers\/\">Continue Reading The half-open flowers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[124,301,22],"class_list":["post-16449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apparel","tag-lotus-flower-jacket","tag-stitches","radius"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16449"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16454,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16449\/revisions\/16454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}