• Work by daylight for colour choices and for checking; use the lamp for counting.
• Rest your eyes every 20 minutes: look at something far away for 20 seconds.
• Find the hole by feel. Rest the needle tip on the cloth and move it gently until it drops into the gap between threads; then push.
• White under black: a white cloth under the hoop, or a small white card behind the area you are counting, makes the weave of a black ground much easier to see.
• Keep a lint roller nearby. Dark grounds show every bit of fluff.
• Cover the work with a clean cloth whenever you stop, even for a minute.
• Silk thread tangles: let the needle hang often so it untwists. Some stitchers use a thread conditioner; test it on a scrap first, as it may mark some cloth.
• Metallic and zari threads: use very short lengths (20–30 cm) and a needle with a slightly bigger eye, so the thread is not stripped as it passes.
• Roll, don’t fold, long lengths of fine cloth while you work. Roll them round a cardboard tube with tissue.
• Sit with your back to a window on bright days so light falls on the work and not in your eyes.
• Practise on an old saree before you touch a new one. It teaches you the cloth without the worry.
• Sharp needles split silk. Stay with a blunt tapestry needle unless the weave is so dense that you need a fine sharp one.

You can’t see the threads to count them.

1. Add light from the side and a white cloth or card behind the area.
2. Use a magnifier lamp or clip-on lens.
3. Prevention: set up your light before you start, and work on fine cloth in short sessions.

The hoop has left a ring mark on silk.

1. Lightly steam the mark from a little distance, without touching the cloth, then smooth it with your fingers.
2. Press from the back with a pressing cloth on a low silk setting.
3. Prevention: bind the inner ring, use a protective layer, and remove the hoop when you stop.

Needle holes show after unpicking.

1. Gently stroke the threads back into line with a blunt needle, working along the weave.
2. A light steam and a soft fingertip rub often close them.
3. Prevention: test your count on a hidden area first; silk shows every correction.

The motif comes out stretched.

1. Measure the threads per cm in both directions; the cloth is uneven.
2. For the rest of the piece, an experienced stitcher may count one thread more or fewer in one direction to keep the shape. Test first.
3. Prevention: always stitch a 10 × 10 test square and measure it.

The cloth puckers round the stitches.

1. Ease the stitches with the needle tip from the back.
2. Press face down on a folded towel, so the stitches are not flattened.
3. Prevention: lighter tension, a drum-tight hoop and shorter thread.

A silk thread of the cloth has been pulled into a loop.

1. Do not cut it. Ease the slack back along the thread with a blunt needle, a little at a time, on both sides of the loop.
2. If it won’t settle, take the loop through to the back with a needle threader.
3. Prevention: keep the work covered and away from rings, bangles and rough fingernails.

The thread colour has run onto the ground.

1. Do not iron it. Rinse the area at once in plenty of cool water.
2. For a valuable piece, stop and take advice from a textile conservator.
3. Prevention: test every thread for colourfastness before you use it (wet a short length, press it in white tissue).

There are marks from your hands.

1. On silk, don’t rub; take advice for a valuable piece, or ask a specialist dry cleaner.
2. On cotton, a little mild soap and cool water on the spot, rinsed well.
3. Prevention: clean, dry hands; no creams, no food or drink near the work.

• Mistake: jumping from Aida straight to a silk saree. Use net and handloom cotton first.
• Mistake: using 2 strands on fine cloth. The stitches sit on top of the weave and look heavy. Use 1.
• Mistake: leaving the hoop on overnight. It leaves a ring that is hard to remove from silk.
• Myth: “Silk is too hard for anyone but a master.” It needs good light, patience and preparation, not a special gift.
• Myth: “Experts never use a hoop.” Some very experienced hands work fine silk without one. For everyone else, a well-padded hoop gives better results.

1. Easy – count a cloth: count the threads in 1 cm of three different cloths, across and down. Note which are even.
2. Easy – test square: stitch a 10 × 10 Gavanti square on handloom cotton and measure it.
3. Medium – a border on khun: Project 1 again, on khun or handloom cotton, with 1 strand.
4. Medium – the dark ground: a small buti on black cotton, with the white-towel trick.
5. Harder – silk: a single small motif on a silk scrap or an old silk dupatta, with a padded hoop.

As a hobby: working on real handloom brings you closer to how Kasuti was made for centuries. A small motif on an old silk saree is a lovely way to give it new life.

For earning: bridal and heirloom commissions are almost always on silk or fine handloom. Practise until your back is clean on fine cloth before taking such work; a customer’s saree cannot be replaced.

For teaching: keep a box of graded scraps (Aida, net, handloom cotton, khun, silk) so learners can feel the steps. Insist on good light and short sessions for fine work.

• Remove tacking threads before pressing, one at a time.
• Press from the back, face down on a folded towel, with a pressing cloth, on a low setting for silk. Some silks spot with water, so don’t spray; test first.
• Trim thread ends on the back close to the stitches, after pressing.
• Store flat or rolled in a cotton cloth, away from light and damp. See Module 7, Caring for Kasuti.
• For old or valuable pieces, ask a textile conservator before any cleaning.

• Have you worked on net and handloom cotton before silk?
• Did you count the threads per cm in both directions?
• Is your light good enough to see each hole without straining?
• Is your back as clean on fine cloth as it was on Aida?
• Did the cloth come out of the hoop without marks?

• Handloom: cloth woven on a hand-operated loom.
• Khun / khana: a handloom blouse fabric of north Karnataka.
• Slub: a thick spot in a handspun or handloom yarn.
• Tacking: long, temporary running stitches used to mark lines.
• Pick glass: a small folding magnifier for counting threads.
• Bound hoop: a hoop with tape wrapped round its inner ring to grip and protect the cloth.