For Hanbok Day 21 October

The World of Cross Stitch magazine has a design request section, I have never made a request for a particular design myself. However, I have found the small designs that have resulted from other peoples requests to be quite useful.

In the delightfully titled Wishes Granted section of the March 2025 edition a request was made for something in the traditional Korean clothing. Hanbok and the result was a petite design of a lady in Hanbok.

For some years, indeed so many I can't recall the exact number I have had a small snatch of material, possibly a curtain sample. A light mushroom pink with darker and lighter leaves on it. I always had in mind that it would be good for an Asian themed embroidery or cross stitch. The issue was one of size and coverage. It is a small bit of material and I wanted to utilise the pattern on it within the finished piece.

So it has waited and waited and then with this little lady the wait was over. .

The figure is stitched one over two, the red Chima (that's the skirt) follows the original pattern whilst the Jeogori (ribboned jacket) was originally a brighter blue and I used softer shades with a slight sheen. In retrospect that was perhaps too subtle and I should have used something brighter, or maybe not? I waver between liking the subtlety against the material and wishing I'd use the blue which would pick up the blue tones in the other pieces that it hangs amongst on my wall.

Offsetting the figure to one side at the bottom edge left the majority of the leaves in the pattern uncovered .

Whilst I was pleased with how the figure came out The piece itself somehow felt incomplete.

The solution to what was missing was made itself known when ,as I was listening to a favourite piece of music, Hijo de la Luna by Forestella. What was missing was the moon. She was looking at the moon. I could stitch a moon that sat behind the leaves and the picture would become a story. (there is a link to  recorded versions of the song at the end of this post)

The moon is mainly one over one, with a few half stitches, a few compressed stitches in both the vertical and horizontal to give the moon a subtle texture. I am pleased with the overall result.

The gold frame has a slightly aged look with little flecks of red visible which work well with the red in the figures clothing. Its slightly distressed corner also fits in with the pieces vibe and it goes well with the Celtic Knot Tree which has a similar vibe and of course la-sacpigliata both of which it will hang with.

I finished it back in April but I have waited until today to post it having found that there is a particular day of the year on which the traditional Korean dress is celebrated.

I am English, and we don't have a traditional dress. There are some more iconic outfits from particular periods, or occupations, like the Beefeaters from the Tower of London who still use the Tudor period uniform, or Morris Dancers, or even bowler hats and umbrellas. However, we do not have the one thing that you could consider a traditional dress. Bit sad that. The other three nations that make up the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland well they do, nice but not much help for me.

Oh, I sent the picture into the WOX and it was published.  

And of course it has to have a Forestella link and well it has to be for the song that inspired the addition of the moon. So here it is as promised. Well choosing one version was difficult so here are several.

I did say it is one of my favourites, but then most of what this group sing is a favourite piece of music so perhaps I should call it a favourite favourite! 

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