Silk Shaded Dahlia

Over the past eighteen months or so, I've been experimenting with embroidery trying out a range of techniques. The one I seem to keep coming back to, whether a PDF kit or being blown away by the creations I see on Instagram, is long and short stitch. I have found this style to be very mindful and love the sleek finish it gives. While the patterns and free resources on the internet have been great, I wanted more in depth instruction to help my understanding of this technique. The dahlia online silk shading course offered by the Royal School of Needlework seemed a perfect next step. 

The course price includes some materials. Once you've registered you get sent a kit that includes pre cut silk fabric with the design printed on, calico to back the silk, Gutermann thread to bond the fabrics, DMC stranded cotton in all the colours required, two different size needles, and a very handy canvas bag to keep everything in. You need to provide an 8" hoop and it is recommended that you have a hoop stand of some kind. I'd also recommend this as holding an 8" hoop can be a lot for your hands. On the RSN platform, you get 12 months access to a number of videos that explains how to create a design, the various types of stitches, a sample blending activity to get used to the colours and technique, step by step instruction to complete the dahlia, and a range of PDF files for downloading. The videos are clear and concise with the tutor demonstrating how to complete each section and explaining some of the theory.

This course contained a lot of firsts for me. I hadn’t stitched with two layers of fabric before and noticed a dramatic difference in the stability of the piece especially as more thread was added. Wrapping the hoop definitely allows it to more firmly grip the fabric keeping it in place. I learnt that sometimes it is easier to have a number of colours available in the piece rather than constantly changing the colours although keeping track of colours that are similar can be a little difficult.

While the petals are similar, each section of the dahlia is unique - each requiring a different amount of colour, blending at different points, and stitch direction. As I hasn't stitched on silk before, I decided to create a test version of the flower before committing to creating the finished piece. I traced the pattern on a scrap of calico and steadily worked through the videos. While it doubled the time, it was super useful in figuring out the various stitch directions and for practising blending.  Overall I think it was worth it as there's definitely a difference between my practice piece and my finished dahlia. 

I found stitching the petals fairly straight forward and quickly got into the rhythm of completing these. Watching the various shades of pink develop towards the centre was delightful. I particularly enjoyed added the darker shades as it brought the petal to life and you got results quickly with just a few stitches. I found the leaf harder to complete. In the video you get the instructions for the top half and are advised to reverse the colours for the bottom half but without guidance of which colour goes where. I managed to figure it out from the included finished pictures to work this out. This was also the part where I had the most number of colours threaded at the same time and keeping track of which needle was which colour wasn't always easy. The centre of the dahlia is the last part of be worked and includes French knots and bullion knots. I'm comfortable with French knots but had never tried bullion knots before. Keeping the tension even while wrapping the thread around the needle multiple times and then pushing the needle through the fabric while keeping the wraps neat is tricky. 

I'm absolutely thrilled with how my final piece turned out. I will shortly be blocking this piece rather than leaving it in the hoop and will be on the hunt for the best place to display it. Having a beginner mindset, learning new techniques, and achieving something that resembles the photos of what you’re aiming for was just what I needed to re-spark my creativity. I can't wait to pick up another design.