The Art of Embroidery
Senior 1 · Fine Arts
The Art of Embroidery
Lesson 4 of 4
25 min
Read the words stitched across the top of the embroidery below. Polly Bedford was about your age when she made it, in 1791, in the town of Marblehead on the coast of Massachusetts, in the United States. For girls in many countries at that time, a sampler was often the proof of their needlework: a piece that showed the stitches they had learned, signed and dated.
Worked example
Reading an embroidery: Polly Bedford's sampler, 1791
Step 1. What you see. A square house with chimneys and many windows between two trees, with birds above and sheep, a dog and three people in front. Across the top: “Work'd by Polly Bedford in the Twelfth year of her age 1791”. “In the twelfth year of her age” means she was 11.
Step 2. How it is made. Silk threads are stitched onto dark wool. The letters are fine lines; the house, trees and animals are filled with rows of stitches; leaves and flowers use smooth filling stitches that catch the light.
Step 3. What it means. The sampler shows off a skill: the stitches Polly had learned. Many viewers also see in it an ideal of home, a well-built house, a garden and animals, and it records her name and age so that the work would be remembered. More than 230 years later, it is.
Definition
Sampler: a piece of embroidery made to practise and show a range of stitches, often including letters, a name and a date. Example: a cloth with a row of each stitch you know and your initials.
Transfer: copying a design onto the fabric so that you can stitch along it. Stitch key: a list that gives the stitch, colour and number of strands for each part of a design.
Choose the size. A cloth 16 cm by 12 cm makes a good bookmark-shaped or small framed sampler. Draw your design full size on paper: one row for each stitch you know, a small motif (a leaf, a coffee cherry, a Nyungwe orchid) and your initials with the year. Then write a stitch key (Figure 2).
On light cloth, tape the paper design to a sunny window, tape the cloth over it and trace lightly with a sharp pencil. On dark cloth, draw with tailor's chalk or a sliver of dry soap. Draw lightly: the stitches must cover the lines.
Put the cloth in the hoop with the design in the centre. Cut threads about 40 cm long and separate the strands your key needs.
Work the lines first, then the filled shapes, then the French knots last, so they are not squashed. Finish each thread on the back before starting the next colour.
Rub out or wash away any marks that show. Lay the work face down on a folded towel and press it with a warm iron, so the stitches sink into the towel instead of being flattened. Turn under the raw edges twice and hem them with small running stitches, or glue the sampler onto card.
Judge your work fairly, with evidence, using the table below.
| Criterion | Excellent | Getting there |
|---|---|---|
| Range of stitches | all six stitches, each clearly recognisable | some stitches missing or hard to name |
| Evenness | stitches in each row the same length | lengths vary a lot |
| Tension | fabric flat, no puckering | fabric bunched round stitches |
| The back | tidy; threads finished off, no long jumps | knots, tangles, long threads across the back |
| Design | clear layout inside the margin, signed and dated | crowded, or runs off the edge |
Worked example: how big must the cloth be?
Byiringiro's design is 16 cm by 12 cm. He will use a hoop 20 cm across and needs at least 2 cm of spare cloth inside the hoop around the design, and, if he uses a frame instead, 4 cm of extra cloth on every side to fix it to the frame.
1. Does the design fit inside the hoop? The longest measurement across a rectangle is its diagonal:
A 20 cm diagonal needs the whole 20 cm hoop, leaving no spare cloth, so the design does not fit in one position. He must work it in two halves, moving the hoop once, or use a larger hoop or a stick frame.
2. Cloth size for a stick frame. Add a 4 cm allowance on every side:
He cuts a piece of calico 24 cm by 20 cm and laces it into a frame of four sticks.
<em>A neat and tidy way to start and finish your embroidery stitches professionally!</em>, from Sarah Homfray Embroidery. Watch the back of the work: see where the thread tail is hidden as she starts, and how she finishes without a knot.
Warning
Safety while finishing
Tip
“Lines, fills, knots, then press face down.” That order keeps knots round and edges crisp. In an evaluation, always give a strength, a weakness and one specific improvement, pointing to the actual stitches.
Practice
Put the stages in order: finish; stitch; plan; evaluate; transfer; set up.
Why are French knots stitched last?
Name a way to transfer a design onto (a) white calico; (b) dark blue cotton.
A design is 9 cm by 12 cm. Find its diagonal. Will it fit inside a 15 cm hoop with spare cloth all round?
Ishimwe's sampler has every stitch, but his rows run over the edge, the fabric has puckered and the back is full of long threads. Evaluate his work: one strength, two weaknesses and an improvement for each.
Plan, stitch and finish your own sampler with all six stitches, your initials and the year. Evaluate it with the table.
1. Plan; transfer; set up; stitch; finish; evaluate.
2. They are raised, so any stitching or handling after them could flatten or catch them.
3. (a) trace lightly with a pencil against a sunny window; (b) draw with tailor's chalk or a sliver of dry soap.
4. . It needs the whole hoop, with no spare cloth, so it will not fit comfortably: use a larger hoop, a frame, or move the hoop.
5. Strength: he has used all six stitches, so the sampler shows his full range. Weaknesses and improvements: rows run over the edge, so he should draw a 2 cm margin and plan row lengths inside it; puckering, so he should tighten the hoop and stop pulling when each stitch lies flat; long threads on the back, so he should finish off and restart instead of jumping more than about 2 cm.
6. Practical. Show the table with your own evidence for each criterion.
Further reading
Sources and credits
