Coloured Embroidery

About our coloured embroidery

• Colour beyond ivory. Peony, rust, sand, bottle green, red, ruby, champagne, gunmetal, grape, dusty pink, and black.
• Embroidered and 3D. Acanthus leaves with 3D flowers, laser-cut satin hydrangeas, and fine floral embroidery.
• Beads, sequins and crystals. Glass-beaded botanicals, flower-shaped sequins, art deco beading and diamanté mesh.
• Looking for lace? Our laces in colour, from black and navy to bottle green and baby blue, are on the coloured lace page.

Which one for your project?

What to make with it

• Evening and cocktail dresses
• Mother of the bride and bridesmaid dresses
• Colourful or black wedding gowns
• Sleeves, overlays and capes
• Debutante and party dresses

Choosing colours

Colour looks different on screen, and many of these are layered over a base fabric that changes the look again, so we always recommend ordering samples and laying them over your base fabric before you buy.

What to put under it

Most of these are sheer, so the layer underneath shows through. A matching colour gives a rich, solid look; a skin tone or ivory lets the embroidery stand out on its own. Silk crepe de chine, sandwash satin and stretch silk satin come in many colours to match.

Cutting

• Always cut flat on the table as a single layer: don't fold it and cut double.
• Lay it right side up so you can see where the motifs, beads and scallops fall, and allow extra for matching.
• Use an old pair of scissors for cutting through beads and sequins: they blunt good blades.
• Keep any beads or sequins that come loose as you cut, to sew back on later.

Sewing

• Clear the seam allowances: snip the threads holding beads or sequins inside the allowance, slide them off and knot the loose ends so the rest stay put.
• Use a fresh, fine needle (size 70), a fine thread in a matching colour, and a zipper foot so you can stitch close to the embellishment.
• Sew slowly, and turn the wheel by hand if the needle meets a bead or sequin.
• Once the seams are sewn, stitch the beads or sequins back over them by hand, so the design looks unbroken.

Edges

Use the finished edge where there is one, like the double scalloped edge on Gatsby Embellished Tulle. Tulle and mesh don't fray, so elsewhere you can trim close to the outline of a motif and leave the edge as it is, or face it with a narrow strip of tulle or silk organza.

Pressing

Press face down on a thick, clean towel, on a low setting, through a pressing cloth, so the embroidery and 3D flowers sink in rather than flatten. Never iron directly on sequins, beads or diamantés: heat can curl sequins and loosen heat-set stones. Test on a scrap first.

Questions