Wednesday 14 December 2011

The loss to us of Lesage and Christmas embroidery—monogrammed pillowcases

The great Lesage has passed away. The greatest embroidery master of Paris.

A break from sewing garments, Christmas embroidery or knitting always has more of a holiday spirit to me. Here's one of the two pillowcases going back to London with our freshman biology student. I know she'll like them, since she requested them, right down to the black and silver threads, and font, (Lillith Initials.) A little Twilight-y for my taste, but hey, it's her gift, not mine. The pure cotton pillowcases are generic IKEA's I keep on hand for just such gifties (housegifts, birth gifts) and the variations are endless, thanks to computer free fonts and a sheet of carbon paper. Considering the low, low cost of these pillowcases and the zilch cost of embroidery thread, you get a lot of glow for the time/cost invested. You just fold the case into quarters, mark the center, trace the letters, temporarily rip open half the bottom seam for access, watch a few good TV shows, restitch the case, wash, iron and wrap.

And don't forget to pick up your gift, a free download of a book until Xmas Day as described below, offered via Smashwords.com, using coupon  FA47T. 

3 comments:

  1. Your pillow case is lovely. I never learned to embroider anything but cross stitch. My mom likes to embroider, she is sniffy about cross stitch. Apparently it's not real embroidery as far she is concerned. You make it look so nice and sound so easy that I feel the urge to give it a go.

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  2. They are lovely! Are the gold and silver embroidery done by hand or on the machine? And what machine do you have? My Husqvarna Sapphire can only do simple lettering. Sometimes I regret not getting one that can do embroidery as well.

    Such shame about the passage of Lesage. Who will carry on the torch?

    And thanks for the free download. This will be good entertainment for all the holiday traveling! :-)

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  3. Dear Overflowingstash,
    All my embroidery is done by hand, thanks. I can complete two letters after dinner before bedtime.

    I'm convinced that as long as Karl Lagerfeld is behind Chanel and supporting the braid and embroidery "hands" of fame, we're safe. But once Karl goes, and if Chanel falls into the hands of heartless "suits," we're left with the Indian workshops when it comes to fine handwork.

    Happy reading and safe holiday traveling.

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