Embroidery Designs Guide

Embellishments on Indian embroidery designs cannot be complete without the use of adornments like glass or mirrors at the right locations to give the right look and feel. The Hindi word for mirror is Shisha and embroidery using mirrors are known as shisha embroidery. The mirror glass used in embroidery, known as shisha or abla, can decorate clothing, torans (doorway hangings), household shrines, curtains and rumals (cloth wrappings).

How does one attach the mirror to the fabric?  The basic accessories needed are :

* Soft cotton fabric:
* Calico for backing
* Shisha glass generally of size 25 mm diameter
* Beads
* Embroidery frame
* Sewing thread to match the appliqué fabrics

The calico comes below the background fabric since it needs to support the weight of the mirror pieces. Stitching is done through both the fabrics. Once this is done, the panel is trimmed to the correct size and after turning under about 1 cm of fabric, the mirror embroidery is ironed in place (The information on iron-on appliques would be helpful here)

The common shape of shisha is round, but they do come in square and triangular sizes. There are no holes in the shisha, hence it has to be held in place with a network of stitches which forms the base for the decorative stitches.

The various types of shisha are :
* Handblown glass shisha is also known as antique shisha or mica. As it is hand cut, the sizes are more variable and the shape can be slightly irregular.
* Machine-cut glass is known in India as embroidery glass.
* Sequin shisha are in fact large flat sequins. They are thin and flat and have a hole at one side, but this is covered with the stitching.

Embroidered shisha rings are becoming popular, where you place the ring over the chosed mirror and slipstitch in place around the edge of the ring. The decorative ring around the mirror glass can be worked in various stitches, including shisha stitch, herringbone or cretan stitch.