SILKhee · The Embroidering Room · № 04
Embroidered organza bookmark
techniques, hacks, and color ✳
Enter № 04 →The Embroidering Room · № 04
Can a stained glass window be made out of thread?
six techniques, eight steps ✳
the design comes with the pack, free for commercial use
Six threads, 40wt polyester, 5,000 yards each. The whole bookmark is stitched in these — the olive carries the stems and the lead lines, the violets and pinks carry the glass.
Palette · Orchard
Dark Army · Deep Violet · Violet Tulip · Canyon Rose · Pink Glo · Bright Rose
The bookmark design, includedfree for commercial use
We drew it flat, the way a window is drawn — every pane its own shape.
Our first version had too many outlines and too many small fills for a design this size. So we kept the second one minimal, and let color define the shapes instead of fine lines.
six techniques, start to finish.
Each one does a different job, and each is stitched in a different thread from the pack.
The colorway, in stitch order
Everything we would tell you before you start. It works on any machine.
Draw it flat
Every pane is its own shape. Color defines them, not fine lines — outlines around everything crowd a design this narrow.
Wash-away, in a sandwich
Two layers of wash-away film on the bottom, the organza in the middle, one more layer of wash-away on top. That stack is what keeps the fabric from drawing in while it stitches.
Hoop it in a magnetic frame
It holds hard enough that nothing shifts while the machine runs, and it doesn’t stretch the organza the way screwing a frame down does.
Normal tension, test first
Nothing special for organza. We run a test sew-out on a scrap of the same fabric, with the same stack, before the real one.
Trim the jumps as you go
On sheer fabric every thread carried behind the design shows through from the front.
Iron before you unhoop
A cover cloth over the top, fifteen seconds or more. This is the one that matters with organza.
Wash the film away
Off the frame, rinse out the wash-away, then dry it flat.
Cut to the satin edge
Cut right up to the border. The satin is what holds the whole piece together once the fabric around it is gone.
Glass set in lead. Every shape with an outline around it.
We looked at real windows and at the drawings made before those windows were built — Tiffany, Mehoffer, and a set of 1890s design drawings from the Cooper Hewitt, all in the public domain. Then we made ours the same way, only in thread.
light goes straight through it.
Design file · included with the pack
The Bookmark
- Size
- 37.5 × 120.2 mm / 1.5 × 4.7 in
- Stitches
- 10,339
- Colors
- 6 threads, 8 blocks
- Fabric
- Organza
- Formats
- DST · PES · EXP · VP3
- Licence
- Free for commercial use
Shown in true view, straight from the file
One palette, six techniques, and a stained glass window you can keep in a book.
digitized, ready to stitch, and yours to sell or keep.
