When Emma contacted me to say she was looking for someone local to embroider her wedding veil, I was a little excited. Then when she mentioned her wedding theme, of mexican embroidery, colourful, Otomi style, I got even more excited.
Otomi Embroidery –
“Otomi embroidery is a traditional technique from the Otomi people living on the central plateau of Mexico. Stylized figurative elements are arranged in a mostly symmetric form. According to legends, the animals depicted stem from cave paintings in the area, and often figures from amate paper cut outs made by local healers, however the style has influences of Spanish and aztec aesthetics as well.
Following a severe drought in the area in the 1960s, a simplified form of the craft, called Tenango, was developed to bring new sources of income to the region.”
Reference https://craftatlas.co/crafts/otomi
My bride was looking for florals, so I created a mood board on pinterest to get inspiration, and then started on a design.
I contacted the clients florist to talk to her about the flowers she was hoping to use for the wedding, then created the start of the design to go at the bottom of the veil.
The design was transfered on to a water soluble embroidery stabiliser using a Frixion pen.
I covered the embroidery hoop with ribbon to reduce the potential of snagging on the wooden hoop. The veil was placed over the stabiliser and hooped.
I use DMC stranded cotton from LoveCrafts. The colours were very important, clean bright colours, eg yellow, orange, blues, purple, turquoise, pink, red but I also used some corals for the peony style flowers as they were hopefully going to be used in her bouquet.
There were just 3 stitches used throughout. A split stitch for the stems, french knots, and the main stitch was the otomi stitch. There is a youtube video by someone else if you would like to learn. The benefit of the otomi stitch is that if done correctly you get a run of stitches along the shape on the reverse of the fabric which makes it very neat.
Once the central section was completed I extended out along the bottom and then slightly up the sides to finish it off. Each time designing the new pattern.
Once the embroidery work was finished the veil was submerged in to luke warm water, to dissolve the stabiliser. Then spread out on towels to dry so the veil would keep its shape.
Wedding Day
Oh and I never mentioned the fact that her now husband made her wedding dress and the veil! Added pressure not to snag the veil….
This commission was such a joy to do…..and such a privilage to design and create something so special for their wedding day.
Harebell & Heather 