Embroidery Techniques Kamal Kadai Tutorial

I have recently been experimenting with various kinds of embroidery from various parts of the world. So for the tutorial today I thought I would introduce you to Kamal Kadai which originated in India. We will be making an embroidered hankerchief.

You Will Need
A plain hankerchief
An embroidery needle
Embroidery thread
A small embroidery hoop
Pencil & Paper






 
Step 1

First you need to decide on your design. Try it out on paper first. Kamal Kadai works using lines, so bubble style writing would be rather hard, keep it angular and straight.

Step 2

Place your hankerchief into the embroidery hoop. Using the pencil lightly draw your design onto the fabric.




 
Step 3

Now we need to stitch the design on using long vertical stitch lines.
 







Step 4

The fun part! Bring your needle up at a corner and weave up and down horizontally through the vertical lines. Turn the needle round and weave the opposite way.

Keep going using this technique until you have filled that section of vertical lines. Then start on the next section according to your design. Make sure to keep the horizonal weave lines close together and ta da you've embroidered your hanky! If your design is hanging too far away from the fabric just put a few tiny stitches in to hold it down.

The small cross at the bottom of the hanky was created using another embroidery technique, if people would like I can teach this in another tutorial in the future?