Introduction:
A couple of weeks ago I took a 2-day workshop learning how to do reverse applique. I love taking workshops at the Slow Fiber Studios/World Shibori Network in Berkeley, California. They have artisans from all over come and teach interesting techniques. I had no interest in the subject until I heard the teacher give a talk about herself and her work in India. Ahmedabad and Gujarat. Her mother-in-law thought that the bright colors of India would not be attractive in many other parts of the world, so she began a business using the techniques of the artisans but in neutral colors. Now she has a large business with designers from many parts of the world including Japan asking for their custom designs to be made by the local embroiderers. Here-to-fore the traditional textiles were thought of as ethnic. Now the women are using their local techniques for those designers’ custom garments and textiles. Rajka is the name of the company in Ahmedabad. Our teacher was Ritu Sarabhai: ritusarabhai@gmail.com
This is what we learned to do first: making this shape.
Reverse Applique is an applique technique. In traditional applique, the design to be appliqued is placed on top of the background fabric and sewn in place. For reverse applique, the fabric is layered and the top fabric is cut away and stitched in place to reveal the design.
Here is a close up of the shape. You make a cut inside the design and make little clips so that you can turn the edges under and stitch them down with tiny stitches.
In the afternoon we learned to make triangles.
Triangles were harder, especially turning back the raw edges at the points. This one I didn’t do a good job on. The others are better. This is slow stitching but pleasurable.
On the second day we were given a piece with different colors in different areas along with the white backing. We were to make our own designs. If your design crossed to a different color, you needed to change the color of the thread. Since I knew I wasn’t going to go down this “rabbit hole”, I had the teacher draw some of the shapes on a large gown she had brought from India. It is shown below.
Here is a close up of a small image that is half stitched and half left with its raw edges. This gives an idea of how you clip to make the curves possible to turn under to stitch. It goes slowly—turn under a bit and take a tiny stitch, repeat.
Here is the gown from the company she brought to show us. It was made to order for a designer in Japan, I think. It is completely covered with reverse applique images! And is light as a feather.
A close up of an area of the gown, above.
These are examples of reverse applique from the San Blas Islands in Panama which are familiar to tourists who go to Panama. I’ve known of them for years, but never appreciated what went into them until now.