Behind the Design - Decorative Houses

Posted by: Stephanie Housley

Many years ago, I designed a little house made of linen, embroidered inside and out. It was one of my favorite objects (and still is!) that I have ever made, as it represents the feeling of the last home that my family (mom, dad, and brothers) lived in together as a whole. The other element that I loved about it was peering into the windows of this little house and being delighted by an entire interior, upstairs and downstairs.

House, 2014, as featured in our new book!

Working through our extensive archives and choosing what to include in our new book with Rizzoli, "In Stitches: The Enchanted World of Coral & Tusk," reignited my love for this little house and planted a seed to return to this concept. This seed of thought turned into three super fun "houses," each with its unique design, shape, and purpose.

Christmas Chalet: the paper prototype on the left, the final product on the right.

For the last few years, somehow I keep embarking on a 3D challenge, creating various embroidered objects made of felt. I never was a strong student in the 3D arts, so I found it enormously difficult to design these sculptures. However, since I discovered how fun and forgiving felt is, it is a dream medium for me to play with making and engineering these special pieces. I just love how the embroidery stitches interact so differently with the felt ground than the linen we usually use.

Halloween House: the paper prototype on the left, the final product on the right.

Sometimes, I begin with a paper prototype to establish a general pattern piece shape, and this was the case for both the Halloween House and Christmas Chalet. Other times, it is better to start with felt first and skip the paper portion, which is how I designed the Mushroom House.

I have a rough idea of what types of pattern pieces will result in the end shape I am going for. Sometimes, I am TOTALLY wrong and have to begin again. It is an improvised, spontaneous process, where I cut each piece down bit by bit, pausing to straight-pin pieces together for a mock-up. Then, sorting out what cuts to make next. There is the question of whether it will stand or sit properly, and some re-engineering has to happen. I continue to straight-pin all the pieces together or tape if I use paper until I feel good about the design. I make a second set of all the pattern pieces and draw on one so that I know how to create the embroidered design since it is impossible to tell by looking at a bunch of flat pieces.

Felt prototype of the Mushroom House

Next, if the prototype is felt, I hand-stitch the pieces together to have a good idea of the end result. Once the prototype is resolved, I send it to my trusted partner in India, Yukti, who works closely with our master tailor to recreate the concept, test the shape to see what needs tweaking for production, and then finally provide me with template pieces per pattern piece, so that I can be sure to create the embroidery design exactly within the pattern piece.

More Decorative House Details!

Left to Right: The completed Mushroom House with Woodland Guests, a detail of the collage published in our book, inside the Mushroom House.

Mushroom House and Woodland Guests

The concept for the Mushroom House came about only because of a watercolor collage spread I made specifically for the book. To date, when I imagined the habitats of our signature pocket pillows, there was always a limitation about being unable to actually GO INSIDE. I loved dreaming up what the entire interior of our chipmunk mushroom house pocket pillow would look and feel like, and it was liberating to create that in the collage for the book. We then brought that 2D experience to life by making a sculpture of the book spread! Each interior panel depicts the elements from the watercolor collage, including mushroom sconces and chandeliers, gardening tools, bookshelves, and neighbor friends!

Christmas Chalet

Based on A-frame ski chalets in the Swiss Alps, this chalet is adorned with the traditional ornate wooden railing and decorative elements. Ferns emerge from the cedar shake shingles, glistening with ice and snow. A woodpecker and red cardinal alight the aspen branch window frames, and a bunny, deer, owl, and squirrel roam around the surrounding forest. Inside, find fox and bear families decorating, getting little help from Papi the dog cozied up in the chair, and a sleeping cat on the rug. The baby bear is fully tangled up in strands of bulbs. The inside side walls feature vintage sleds and skis.

Halloween House

We rarely use dark grounds for our embroideries; creating the Halloween House was a perfect opportunity to let silver and gold metallic threads really SHINE. On the house, skeletons, stars, bats, and moon phases frame the entryway and windows. Inside find a mummy fox emerging from a coffin tilted against the back wall, an Ouija board on the floor, and bats flying down from the rafters. I have NEVER toyed with an Ouija board, so this was fun to incorporate into the design. On the back of the house, ghost bunnies peer over the shoulder of Kitty Witch as she summons the future in her crystal ball set on an hourglass.