Mixed Tambour and Needle with Justine Bonenfant

Designed and taught by Justine Bonenfant, this five-day course brings together Tambour and needle-based embroidery, exploring how the two can be combined to create texture, detail and dimension within couture embroidery for fashion and interiors.

You will begin by setting up and tensioning a slate frame with silk organza before learning the foundations of Tambour embroidery, including how to cast on and off and create Tambour Chain Stitch. From there, Justine will guide you through applying beads, bugles and sequins with the Tambour hook, working clean corners and creating discontinuous lines across different embellishments. You will also explore filling shapes with metallic threads and creating decorative Vermicelli effects with sequins.

As the course progresses, you will move from the Tambour hook to needle-based techniques, exploring how the two approaches can work together within a single design. You will experiment with appliqué using pineapple fibre leather, create shading with needle and metallic threads and construct raised fabric petals to introduce sculptural, three-dimensional elements.

By the end of the five days, you will have explored an extensive range of Tambour and needle techniques and developed a greater understanding of how they can be combined to create richly embellished, dimensional embroidery.