THE JOURNEY OF AN EMBROIDERY PILLOW CASE

The origin of embroidery are lost in time, but examples survive from ancient Egypt, Iron Age Northern Europe and Zhou Dynasty China. It has many roots all around the world and is being done in many different ways because of their cultures.


Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with designs stitched in strands of thread or yarn using a needle.

The materials of hand embroidery are: scissors, embroidery hoop or tapestry frame, skein thread, skein thread and Aida cloth, or specially woven cotton and linen fabrics although non-even weave linen is used as well.


Hand embroidery is a traditional art form passed from generation to generation in many cultures, including northern Vietnam, Mexico, eastern Europe and Philippines. It is done without the help of a sewing machine or similar electric tool. However, machine embroidery has replaced hand embroidery as machine embroidery saves a lot of time and hard work. Today garments are often decorated with machine embroidery.

Embroidery has traditionally been used to decorate clothing and household furnishings including table lines, tray cloths, towels and bedding but one can literally embroider anything as long as it is made out of an evenly woven fabric and can be held firmly in the hand or in a special embroidery hoop or tapestry frame.

I learned embroidery from my elder sister. She did not teach me though because she don't want a boy doing a girl thing. I secretly looked at it while we were talking and at the same time she was doing embroidery at home. And when she was away, I took her work for the meantime. I was 7 years old at that time. I kept some of her patterns and some I traced without her knowledge. This one is from her collection of patterns I still keep.

Recently, I joined the creative swap of Caryn and I did an embroidery pillow case for my swap partners. Since I am a busy working individual, I can't focus much and I just did it at night in between KAPAMILYA teleserye episodes. Lemme show you my night by night embroidery journey.

first night

2nd night

3rd night

4ht night

5th night

6th night

Then I stopped for the meantime because I focused on work. Several days and nights of overtime work. Then resumed again after several weeks. It took a month for me to finish the embroidered pillow case.











The art of hand embroidery is a painstaking and laborious process but it's worth to see the finished embroidery stuff.




(As of present time, I don't know yet if they already received the package. I hope so)

One thing I learned in life. Never ashame of what you do as long as it is right... a good deed. Some people will judge you but it's your uniqueness. Hard work is a virtue after all.

I have to stop here. ABS-CBN Primetime Bida is about to begin. Have a wonderful evening guys!