I’ve been away in Melbourne over the holidays visiting family. Normally I would bring some crochet with me to keep me busy, but this time I decided to get around some embroidery. A smaller, more compact, less cozy craft to carry with me in the summertime.

With me on my travels I brought crochet cotton found in op shops and dead stock heavy weight sewing thread that I found at Adelaide Leather & Saddlery on Waymouth Street, and started embroidering on my own clothes.

The grey hoodie is from an op shop. I chopped the middle out to shorten the length and then hand-stitched it back together, making a feature of the join. I chose designs to embroider pretty pragmatically, mostly inspired by the shape of the garment. The abstract, natural design in pale yellow I chose because it’s a motif I often doodle and because I thought it would sit well on the garment. The chain design I chose because I wanted something that signified connection and solidarity to me. I also just like imagery that evokes the industrial and chains looks cool. Especially in fluro yellow.

I intially intended to continue the chain design to the end of each arm, but a friend of mine saw the jumper and wants it. He prefers the chain unfinished, so I’ll leave it. Now it’s a collaboration.

To apply the design I’ve used something that I’m pretty sure is called a chain stitch. It’s similar to a chain stitch in crochet. You can get industrial embroidery machines that make this stitch. I’ve always wanted one, but they are pretty hard to get in Australia. This stitch doubles the thread and creates a chunkier line than other styles of line embroidery. I’m so pleased with how three dimensional the design looks in this stitch.

The hoodie is a work in progress. I want to do some embroidery on the front before I send this off to its new home.