Figures can bring an embroidery to life, but they are tricky to do well. This book guides you through the materials, stitches, body parts and clothes to give you the confidence and skills to embroider a figure and experiment, using your creative inspiration. With over 400 colour photographs it gives key information for getting started, creating designs and preparing embroideries; techniques for making three-dimensional forms using stitching and padding techniques; clear instruction for mastering stitches and then ideas for using them creatively. Specific advice is given for embroidering the face, hair, hands and feet as well as ideas for using stitching embellishments, such as beads, sequins, buttons, ribbons, feathers and jewellery charms. Step-by-step projects demonstrate a range of beautiful styles and techniques.

Stumpwork is a highly decorative and imaginative embroidery technique, which typically uses raised and padded stitches that are rich in texture. This practical book explains how to create your own piece of stumpwork embroidery. Beginning with an introduction to the appropriate materials, equipment and tools, it instructs on a wide range of stitches and techniques, and illustrates them with ten delightful projects. It then explains how to design your own piece of stumpwork before advising on finishing, presenting and caring for you work. Written by a leading embroiderer, this beautiful book will inspire and encourage you to try this exciting technique and create your own exquisite designs. Contents include: Practical advice on working with threads, as well as how to stretch and prepare fabrics; Over 900 photographs to guide the reader through a wide range of decorative and raised stitches; Detailed instructions on combining stumpwork with a range of other techniques to create unique designs; Ten projects show how to use the stitches in designs, including stumpwork human figures. This practical guide will be of great interest to embroiderers, designers, theatre designers, interior designers and historians, and is beautifully illustrated with 983 colour photographs.

"With a different and delightfully practical approach to a traditional and time-honored subject, Jan Messent shows you how to create portraits in stitch. There are simple instructions for shaping and padding different-angled heads, creating faces, adding features and stitching the hair and garments, as well as explorations of the most suitable fabrics, stitches, threads and embellishments to use. Within this book you will discover a host of personalities, including a mysterious white Edwardian lady, the formidable Bess of Hardwicke and a 'book-box' that opens to reveal exquisite renditions of Cinderella and Prince Charming. All of Jan's portraits are filled with character and charm, and have a timeless appeal that will enthral and excite textile artists and embroiderers alike"--Dust jacket cover.