As always, the foundation of a piece like this is all. So this will be a relatively dry post full of boring preparation shots. But, y’know. This stuff matters.

First of all, I knew how big the finished, framed size had to be, so I plotted this out on some brown paper, then added in the frame and mount sizes to give the aperture – the embroiderable (?) size.

Then I laid out the individual moth patterns I made to get an idea of how they would fit on the piece. I will be embroidering the latin names of the moths eventually so needed to make sure there was a good space for that.

Satisfied, I placed the brown paper on my fabric and marked it to  cut around so I have enough waste fabric for my framer to stretch it properly. My fabric is nice soft vintage cotton sheeting.

Using these marks as a guide, I printed my pattern on to the fabric. This is the moment of no return!

Finally, I decided to use my roller frame for this one, due to its linear design. As well as stitching the fabric to the frame on each roller, I also lashed it to the vertical bars with linen string to get a more taut ground.

Starting with the central Atlas Moth I drew on in air-erasable pen some of the detail.

Colour palette! There’s silk, cotton and wool in here.

I feel like these moths will take shape out of split stitch, satin stitch, french knots, some turkey rug, some back stitch…allsorts. This is all silk so far.