Hollyhocks
The foliage
This new article is devoted to hollyhock foliage, in particular the branch visible on the right of the drawing.
I wanted to show how possible it is, with a few well-chosen stitches and a subtle play of colors, to bring leaves to life and make them fully exist, beyond their simple role of highlighting flowers.
You’ll find explanations of the stitches used in the “Stitches” menu on the blog.
For this work, I used just four colors, one of which was variegated, and had fun combining them imaginatively to make the foliage an integral part of the embroidery.
House of Embroidery stranded cotton 67C Apple
DMC stranded cotton 3346
DMC stranded cotton 907
DMC stranded cotton 746
Here are the photos and explanations of how to make these leaves.
All stems are embroidered in stem stitch with 2 threads. I varied the number of rows according to the desired thickness of each stem, and always used 2 colors to make them.
The leaves at the top of the pattern are made using 1-thread fishbone stitch, 2-thread close fly stitch and 2-thread Cretan stitch for the smaller ones. The two largest are embroidered in 1-thread blanket stitch on their outer edges, then filled in with 2-thread fly stitch, and the spaces between the branches are filled in with 2-thread straight stitch in the same color as the edges.
The small leaves are embroidered in the same way as the previous ones. After outlining the edges of the large leaf in split backstitch, begin by embroidering a 1-thread satin stitch border around the design.
Now fill the surface of the leaf with a wheatear stitch and 2 threads.
Embroider straight stitches with 2 threads between the branches of the wheatear stitch.
Here’s a photo of the split backstitch as it should be before you start embroidering each design in satin or long and short stitch.
To embroider the 2 leaves at the bottom of the stem with long and short stitch, start by embroidering the edge.
Then place the second color on the inside of the leaf, respecting the direction of the stitches.
Finish filling the leaf by adding the third color.
Now embroider the central vein.
Absolument superbe !