Simple Embroidery

By Elsie Mochrie

“Simple Embroidery” offers the reader a novice-friendly introduction to the art of embroidery, including chapters on the basic stitches, how to properly form borders, and creating simple patterns. With step-by-step instructions and simple diagrams throughout, this vintage book is ideal for anyone looking to step into the wonderful world of embroidery. Contents include: “Stitches”, “Description of Stitches”, “Run and Thread Stitch”, “Zig-Zag Stitch”, “Chain Stitch”, “Loop Stitch”, “Y Stitch”, “Buttonhole Stitch”, “Herringbone Stitch”, “Roumanian Stitch”, “Borders”, “Flower Sprays”, “Suggestions for Needlework”, “Descriptions of Borders and Motifs”, “The Table Runner”, “Cushion Cover”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Old Hand Books
• Release date: Feb 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9781528783583

Book preview

SIMPLE

EMBROIDERY

by

ELSIE MOCHRIE

Copyright © 2017 Read Books Ltd.

This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

PLATE 1.

A section from Anne Catherine Langdon’s sampler 1796. Kindly lent by W. R. Lethaby.

Pretty units of pattern like those shown above are always useful as they can be arranged in many ways to make complete patterns.

Contents

Embroidery

SIMPLE EMBROIDERY

SUGGESTIONS FOR NEEDLEWEAVING

Embroidery

Embroidery is the handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. An interesting characteristic of embroidery is that the basic techniques or stitches on surviving examples of the earliest patterns —chain stitch, buttonhole or blanket stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, cross stitch—remain the fundamental techniques of hand embroidery today.

In The Art of Embroidery, written in 1964 by Marie Schuette and Sigrid Muller-Christensen, they noted the ‘striking fact that in the development of embroidery . . . there are no changes of materials or techniques which can be felt or interpreted as advances from a primitive to a later, more refined stage. On the other hand, we often find in early works a technical accomplishment and high standard of craftsmanship rarely attained in later times.’ Embroidery has been dated to the Warring States period in China (5th-3rd century BC). The process used to tailor, patch, mend and reinforce cloth fostered the development of sewing techniques, and the decorative possibilities of sewing led to the art of embroidery. Embroidery was also a very important art in the Medieval Islamic world. One of the most interesting accounts of the craft has been given by the seventeenth

Reviews for Simple Embroidery

[kotus123 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Steps to building an original embroidery design and the suitable stiches for same