Embroidery How To - Silk Shading Pansy (Viola).mov

This shows you the progression of a silk shading project - a pansy (or viola). The flower took around 8 hours to stitch, which has been condensed into 33 seconds for the video. Silk shading is an embroidery technique used to create a natural representation of a subject, usually flowers or animals. It is also known as painting with the needle or needle painting and is worked in long and short stitch. If you’ve ever wanted to learn how silk shading works this will hopefully help you. Each petal is stitched separately, working from the part furthest away. Did you notice how each part is outlined first with split stitch before filling in? Watch again if you didn’t... This prevents the stitching from putting too much strain on the fabric and gives a neat edge.