Saturday 29 January 2011

Super Stitchers

At Young Embroiderers today we gave the girls a chance to play on the sewing machines and try their hand at some free machine embroidery.

There were eight girls (average age 10-11), six machines, plus me and Pam.

They stitched like they'd been doing it for years, despite the fact this was the first time some of them had ever used a sewing machine.

When they felt confident we then progressed to some stitched portraits in the style of Louise Gardiner. They worked in pairs and drew portraits of each other which they then transferred in stitch onto artist's canvas. They added touches of colour with paint to the finished embroideries. I was totally blown away by the quality of both their stitching and their drawing and these are the amazing results:

These are Sophie's and Grace's

I think the one below is Heather's (although it might be Abigail's)

The next one is Jemima's portrait of Pam

and this is Tabby's portrait of Skye...

and Skye's portrait of Tabby.

Nikki decided to invent a mystery man rather than do a portrait... or so she said. I don't think my mustache is quite that thick!

And I think the one below is Abigails... although of course it might be Heather's!

In order to demonstrate the technique I did a portrait of Pam... although she thinks it looks more like Jo Brand with her red lipstick. She decided she would like green hair like Constance Howard.

And to get her own back... Pam did one of me!

I'm seriously considering cosmetic surgery!

It's been a brilliant day girls... well done!

26 comments:

  1. They can really surprise you, I had a Year 7 boy draw an amazing tree.

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  2. Really great work. I bet the girls had a fantastic time. Just lovely.

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  3. Their work is fabulous - it sounds (and looks) as though you all had an amazing time.r

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  4. wonderful. you all look as if you had real fun.

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  5. i so wish there was an interest in this kind of work with kids in the states. i'd be teaching everyday with a big smile on my face!

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  6. They look fantastic, especially as the kids haven't done much sewing! :) x

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  7. Oh wow - how lovely. I know my daughter would love to do something like that. Those girls must have had a great day, and what very cool work they produced! x

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  8. What fun you all had, and the way your young students took to machine embroidery is amazing - stunning results. The future of machine embroidery is in safe hands!

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  9. Clever things, it's not that easy to produce a Louise style image. Especially if you've never used a sewing machine before.

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  10. that kind of sewing scares me to death - i think they have done brilliantly!

    xx

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  11. That looked like a lot of fun!
    Great work from the girls!
    Vivienne x

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  12. Wonderful! Smiling my head off here..............

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  13. Astounding! I love that kids have no fear and assume that they'll be able to do everything.

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  14. Brilliant pictures, I know that all those young embroiderers will want to carry on with all they learned from you today.

    Wish I had a fake i.d. and could have taken a virtual plane across the pond, and been in the class. Free form embroidery is so intriguing! xo

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  15. fantastic gina! i love them all.
    alice and i have a teenager group starting soon and one of the things we are going to introduce them to is the delights of 'drawing' with a sewing machine. it is so immediate and such fun.
    ginny
    p.s. no plastic surgery needed just borrow a little of jo brand's lippy!

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  16. Didn't they do well. That's such a fun technique to do I bet they had a great time and there was a lot of laughter.

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  17. oh they're brilliant, I bet they had so much fun and should be really proud of their efforts!

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  18. They are totally FABULOUS!!! I must try this myself. Do you draw on the fabric directly or how do you transfer the drawing?

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  19. The students have done amazing jobs...Jackie tried to show me but I wasnt very good at it...they are lovely...hope you are well.

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  20. What a great way to get the next generation on the sewing machines. And yes, Jo Brand definitely snuck in there!
    Penny x

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  21. love thisx lynda

    http://chocolatelifeandjazz.blogspot.com
    and
    http://tryingtocreatearteveryday.blogspot.com

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  22. What fabulous portraits of everyone! Didn't you all do well!

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