Free Online Kasuti Embroidery Tutorial - Assignment 2

Here's assignment 2.  If you are comfortable with session 2.2, you should be able to do this.

Hints:
1.The first design is very simple.  Treat the straight line as the main journey and the design extensions as side trips and side trips within side trips.

2. Tiger's Claw Motif - start at the center and treat each arm as a side trip and get back to the center to start on the next one. If you plan to use the motif as a running design, then you'll have to start at the end of one of the arms.
3. Betelnut Flower- Start at the center.  Each colour represents a side trip that will bring you back to the center. Using this motif in a running design is slightly more complicated.

Using the tiger's claw and the betelnut flower in running designs will be the subject of my next post.

Share if you like this and please feel free to point out mistakes I may have made. Do leave your comments on your experiences in working these motifs.

Free Online Kasuti Embroidery Tutorial Sample 2.2 - Basic Side-Trips

Here's the motif for this lesson.

For this session, I thought I'll take you through the steps involved in using a net for the kasuti embroidery. Here's my worked sample on net.

Here's what it looks like after removing the net. I plan to make this into a purse. Click on the image enlarge.

Before we get into working on a net, let's analyse the motif as usual. I'll explain how to use the net in my next post.  Here are the steps for the forward journey.

Start at 1 and complete all side-trips as you go along. As in life, in embroidery too, it's better to tackle tricky problems head on and be done with it.

The return journey as you can see from the image above is very simple only because we finished all the side trips in the onward journey itself.

Notes: 

First work this as a stand alone motif 2-3 times.  Once you get the hang of it, you may want to try this as a running border. To make the border, I placed 2 motifs adjacent to each other and added a horizontal connecting line.

As always, if you have any problems with working this pattern, let me know and I'll help you out.

I'll walk you through the steps involved in working with a net in my next post.

Free Online Kasuti Embroidery Tutorial Sample 2.1 - Two Tier Motif

Introduction to Side Trips - A Simple Motif
If you are done with the first 3 samples and the assignment, you are ready to venture into side trips. In this session, we'll try to understand the nuances of side-trips.  I've used a different colour for side trips for ease of reference only. 

Let's start this session of free online step by step Kasuti Embroidery tutorial with a simple motif. The style employed here is Ganti.

Ganti Kasuti: The Holbein stitch is worked in straight, vertical, horizontal or diagonal lines.
Designs that Employ this style:  Octogons, hexagons, swastikas (I'll add more as I come across them)

Here's Sample 2.1.

You can download a graph sheet ideal for Kasuti. Just click on Graph sheet to get your copy. Let me know if the link is broken.

 Step 1 is the onward journey + the side trips.

Notice that though 1-3 is a straight line, we work it as 2 lines. All vertical and horizontal stitches are equidistant. For obvious reasons, the diagonal lines are slightly longer.

Step 2 = return journey

Now try working the motif in a single colour. 

If you have any doubts, let me know.