Shadow work embroidery is generally stitched by hand with embroidery floss on lightweight wovens such as batiste or organdy. The “shadow” part is when the floss that is carried from stitch to stitch on the wrong side of the fabric shows through to the right side. With the invention of embroidery machines, however, we’ve learned to digitize shadow embroidery designs so the shadow effect can be achieved by machine in a fraction of the time it would normally take to stitch the same work by hand. Digitized shadow work motifs by Southern Stitches are unique to the machine embroidery industry and, just like the hand-rendered versions, are typically stitched on lightweight woven fabrics commonly associated with heirloom sewing. For this project, I decided to experiment with machine shadow work on baby knits and was quite pleased with the results! The secret is in the thread choice.
