Spirograph I - the first spiral

With the design transferred to the lining fabric and everything set up on my big frame, I'm all ready to go!

Starting with the smallest, and fiddliest, of the spirals first, I went over the first part of the design in small running stitches in a terracotta sewing thread.

Spirograph patterns look as though they're one continuous line, and very often they are, but by no means always; this pattern has the same looped seven-pointed star repeated five times (a nerve-wracking process involving moving the cog along the correct number of little teeth each time,as I recall!). This means that doing the design in stages works out quite nicely - one star at a time.

So, here's the first star stitched through to the front:

I then couched two imitation Jap gold passing threads over the top.

You may recall that I was planning on using 'invisible' nylon thread for this, and was complaining bitterly about it. Elizabeth B made the excellent suggestion that I use a fine gold thread such as a blending filament instead, as it should be easier to work with and I'll be able to see what I'm doing. What a good idea that was! I hunted out some gold Sulky; it's not really meant for hand sewing, but it's still a whole lot easier to use than the nylon stuff. What's more, it's a great match for the passing thread, so the couching stitches still can't be seen. See if you can spot them!

This is exactly the effect I wanted, so I'm very pleased indeed how it's turned out. Thanks Elizabeth!

Now it's just a case of repeating these stages for each of the other stars. I've just done one more so far, but it gives an idea of where the pattern is heading.

I should have the finished spiral to show you next time. There's still a long way to go after that, though...