Whenever I visit the V&A I stand transfixed in front of these wonderful Persian coats with their fabulous bands of embroidery. They must be models after the coat of many colours. For however long I remain, it is paradise for me. And in fact the word 'Paradise' is rooted in Persian origins - pairidaza is the old Persian word for an enclosure; a haven. Paradise gardens similar to ones on Safavid textiles are seen on English spot samplers, and these bands are not a million miles away from from the those seen on band samplers in this country. We shall be talking more of this in the forthcoming books. This type of embroidery is called 'resht' from its place of origin in Persia and is often worked in cross stitch or petit point in diagonal lines.
I thought it might make a lovely project for the centre of a cushion or pillow - or worked small, the cover of a needlecase or pincushion. The download is available for you free as a PDF - click here. For those of you with Jane Greenoff's Cross Stitch Designer, you can download an editable JGG version by clicking here.
The Jgg link is wrong - it leads straight back to www.blogger
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I am sorry. Thank you very much for telling me - the link is now fixed - you will need to save this file and not open it when you download - it will only open in the Jane Greenoff software.
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