Hand-guided machine embroidery is a skill used in couture dressmaking where the embroiderer creates a design and then embroiders it onto the fabric free-hand, using the needle of the sewing machine like a paintbrush.
It takes a huge amount of practice and concentration to get it right and the result is a subtle painterly finish unique to the artist's style. It is rarely perfect and utterly unlike digital embroidery which is used for things like logos. You can imagine the difference betwen the two like printed text vs. hand calligraphy.
Moon Tree Sun Tree Jacket
Yellow cotton chore jacket with an embroidered 16th Century drawing of a Moon Tree and a Sun Tree.
The background:
I love working on this style of traditional chore jacket inspired by French workwear, or "bleu de travail", which all kinds of workers have work for more than a century. The design is taken from the 1390 manuscript of the Medieval French alchemist, Jean de Roquetaillade.