Embellishing a garment adds value. This doesn’t mean it has to cost the earth. Here at Hawthorne & Heaney we often have to work to a strict budget and there is quite a few tips and tricks to getting more bang for your buck !!
SIX STRANDS
This used to be a swear word in our studio. Using the full thickness of a skane of embroidery silks may sound naive but the ground you can cover in a short time is very useful if you are on a budget. Have a look below at some work we completed for a young designer Claire Barrow using the full thickness of anchor stranded, Marlitt silks and thick Appeltons wool to pad.
BIG BEADS
A combination of the above ‘six strands’ technique and some seriously chunky beads went into this project we worked on for SISTER by Sibling. The small flowers (blue on top of the main flower) were used on there own with just one bead on top in some places. This gave us a great filler for the fading out sections and gave us more time for the larger flowers !
STUPIDLY SIZED SEQUINS
That along with huge great sequins with one or two holes each these are a life saver for coverage.
and lastly !
LACE AS A BASE
This technique is an absolute angel and creates pattern underneath the embroidery that your working on, taking the eye away from un embroidered areas. This is an image from an embroidered jacket for Kanye West