Images_Digital_Edition_January_2019

www.images-magazine.com JANUARY 2019 images 31 KB TIPS & TECHNIQUES Award-winning digital embroiderer Jacky Puzey discusses the creation of this statement bomber jacket from Sadie Clayton for London Fashion Week Anatomy of an embroidery Photo credits: Photographer Ki Price, set designer Victoria Thomas Wood, stylist Bojana Kozervic, make-up by Illamasqua, hair by Vidal Sassoon, jewellery by Andrew Logan for Sadie Clayton, Hats by Monique Lee for Sadie Clayton, Shoes from United Nude S adie and I had met and discussed a potential collaboration. She sent me some moodboards and the patterns for the jacket and I created first some samples, and then the overall jacket embroidery. As soon as we‘d agreed the samples we liked, I had carte blanche to go ahead and design and produce the embroidery to fit the pattern she provided. When this fully embroidered jacket was shown as part of Sadie‘s presentation for London Fashion Week, staged in the RA Life Drawing Studios in London, Wonderland Magazine said: “ Wonderland’s favourite fiery piece was the bomber so delicately embellished in gold-orange and electric blue threads, with geometric mesh detailing in the sleeves and a chunky gold zip for a truly futuristic street look.“ www.jackypuzey.com I used Madeira threads – Metallic and Classic – over Bodybuilder soft foam to create the layers I wanted, and the gradient stitch tool in Aps-Ethos Virtuoso Plus to create the blended layers of blue and copper thread. I used all 11 colours/needles on my trusty ZSK Racer (it‘s an older model, the JF 0111-500, from Stocks Sewing Machines) and every bit of the 50 x 50cm stitch area, including developing ways to extend the embroidery to fit the pattern without seeing any joins in the several sections. I created this design inspired by the geometric patterns of a gorgeous image of folded concert hall curtains on Sadie’s moodboard, and by her signature copper work and concept of ‘space‘ – from architectural space to the clear creative ‘headspace’ from which the designs emerge. The embroidered ‘ribbing‘ structures also chime with the ribbed cuffs on the jacket. Nearly £100 of thread was used to create this design. Every inch of the garment, including the facings, is embroidered. The leather sprung needles really helped on the thick foam layers. I used an ordinary 75/80 needle SES point as advised for the foam, and it ran best on the needle with the heavy leather spring mechanism on it. My ZSK is not limited to stitch length, meaning I can set it to work with jump stitches of over 12mm if I need to. I was happy to have some leather springs on a few of the needles too. Each section had around 250,000 stitches in it, often taking a full day to stitch as we slowed the machine to produce the long satin stitches. The design contains 2,200,000 stitches; there are 400,000 on each sleeve.