{"id":16522,"date":"2026-06-16T09:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T08:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=16522"},"modified":"2026-05-21T16:54:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T15:54:21","slug":"first-mend-then-start-stitching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2026\/06\/16\/first-mend-then-start-stitching\/","title":{"rendered":"First mend, then start stitching.."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/weavingin_Watermarked.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"262\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/weavingin_Watermarked-262x300.jpg\" alt=\"Darning the holes in the Lotus Flower Coat - lots of ends of thread taken from cut off pieces of the fabric, woven not as neatly as I would have liked into the main piece, and at present not trimmed.\" class=\"wp-image-16506\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/weavingin_Watermarked-262x300.jpg 262w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/weavingin_Watermarked-768x878.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/weavingin_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 262px) 100vw, 262px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first thing to do was to darn the holes. This isn&#8217;t something I&#8217;ve ever done, and it was a bit of a wild adventure. I didn&#8217;t manage to replicate the woven structure, which is I think a 2-over-1 twill. I pulled lengths of the thread out of offcuts of the fabric piece, so at least the darning uses exactly what was used in the fabric. But even with my magnifiers, reproducing the structure was a bridge too far!<\/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\/05\/StartingFront_Watermarked.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/StartingFront_Watermarked-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"One half leaf and the bud stitched, again in rows of chain and feather stitch variations, The bud is very pale greens against the darker leaf behind.\" class=\"wp-image-16517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/StartingFront_Watermarked-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/StartingFront_Watermarked-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/StartingFront_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once that was done, I could get started on the embroidery. We are back to rows upon rows here, to give the front some of the impact of the back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I decided that the bud would be very pale creamy greens, and slightly more silky threads than everywhere else, and I&#8217;ve left the enclosing calyx open. The thread for that actually is silk, one I think I bought for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/tag\/nefertiti-shawl\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"180\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nefertiti Shawl<\/a>, all those years ago.<\/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\/05\/ClostFrontLeaves_Watermarked.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ClostFrontLeaves_Watermarked-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Close up of the first half of the front leaf, showing the lines of stitching more clearly.\" class=\"wp-image-16521\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ClostFrontLeaves_Watermarked-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ClostFrontLeaves_Watermarked-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ClostFrontLeaves_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Everywhere else, as you can see in the close up here, is the same variety of wool threads I&#8217;ve used on the back. A couple are slightly variegated, a couple of them heavy enough that I need to use them with caution. And as I looked them over, I noticed two with a much more blue tinge than the others. I&#8217;m going to introduce them to the front leaf to change the &#8220;ambience&#8221; of its colour, because otherwise I&#8217;m afraid that the edge between the two leaves might not work cleanly. A different colour effect might be just enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first thing to do was to darn the holes. This isn&#8217;t something I&#8217;ve ever done, and it was a bit of a wild adventure. I didn&#8217;t manage to replicate the woven structure, which is I think a 2-over-1 twill. I pulled lengths of the thread out of offcuts of the fabric piece, so at&hellip; <a class=\"continue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2026\/06\/16\/first-mend-then-start-stitching\/\">Continue Reading First mend, then start stitching..<\/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-16522","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\/16522","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=16522"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16529,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16522\/revisions\/16529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}