Body Padding

Japanese Embroidery has a number of 'rules' developed and refined over more than a thousand years. They are there for good reasons and if you forget or choose to ignore these rules, it usually becomes apparent why the rule was established.

One such rule is to stitch the foreground elements before stitching elements that lie behind them. On this butterfly, the hind wing is in front of the fore wing and should have been stitched first. The body is attached to the wings rather than in front of them, but I think this should have been stitched before any part of the wings. Because the yellow and blue twist was the only element that I had totally committed to, I stitched that first. When I came to stitch the body, it was difficult get the shape right.

I padded the head and body with 4 strands of padding cotton to give a nice plumpness and used the pale blue/silver twist to stitch it.

© Jennifer Ashley Taylor/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching