Embroidery Styles and Techniques
Embroidery is an ancient variety of decorative needlework in which designs and pictures are created by stitching strands of some material on to a layer of another material. Begun circa 3000 BC, embroidery has been passed on from generation to generation. Ancient embroidery artifacts have survived from Egypt, Iron Age Northern Europe and Song Dynasty China.
Most embroidery uses thread or wool stitched onto a woven fabric, but the stitches could be executed in, for example, wire or leather strands, and embroidery can be worked onto many materials. Additional materials can also be used to decorate the fabric, such as sequins, pearls or beads.
The techniques discussed below are mainly in regard to hand embroidery, which is embroidery done without the help of a sewing machine or similar electric tool. Machine embroidery, used solely by TPS, is a vast subject on its own, used for creative work on individual pieces and for mass-produced clothing products. Many techniques and styles discussed below are used in the machine embroidery industry. For more information about a particular technique, click on the name.
FREE EMBROIDERY:
This is a form of “surface embroidery” in which the designs or patterns are stitched without taking the weave of the underlying fabric into account (the opposite of counted thread embroidery). A few examples of free embroidery styles are:
Appliqué:
an ancient
needlework technique in which pieces of
fabric,
embroidery, or other materials are sewn onto a foundation
fabric to create designs.
Art
needlework: focuses on a satin stitch in silk thread to
create shading often coupled with other novelty stitches.
Crewel:
a decorative form of surface
embroidery using
wool
and a variety of different
embroidery stitches to follow a design outline applied to
the fabric. The technique is at least a thousand years old.
Cutwork:
a
needlework technique in which portions of a
textile are cut away and the resulting "hole" is reinforced
and filled with
embroidery or
needle lace.
Jacobean
embroidery: refers to
embroidery styles that flourished beginning in the reign
of
King James I of England in first quarter of the
seventeenth century. The term is usually used today
to describe a form of
crewel embroidery used for furnishing characterized by fanciful
plant and animal shapes worked in a variety of stitches with
two-ply
wool
yarn
on
linen.
Stumpwork:
stitched figures are raised from the surface of the work to
form a 3-dimensional effect.
Whitework:
any
embroidery technique in which the
stitching is the same color as the foundation fabric (traditionally
white
linen)COUNTED THREAD EMBROIDERY:
In this type of embroidery, patterns are created and the threads of fabrics are counted for making a stitch or inserting the needle into the fabric. It uses open weave fabric as the foundation fabric and is just the opposite of free embroidery. Examples of counted-thread embroidery techniques are:
Assisi
embroidery: based on an ancient Italian tradition where
the background is filled with embroidery stitches and the main
motifs are left void i.e. unstitched. The name is derived from
the Italian town of
Assisi.
Bargello:
consists of upright flat stitches. The name originates from
a series of chairs found in the
Bargello palace in
Florence which had a flame stitch pattern. Also known
as Florentine Work, Hungarian Point, or Flame Stitch.
Blackwork:
usually stitched on
even-weave fabric, any black thread can be used, but firmly
twisted threads give a better look than embroidery floss. Traditionally
blackwork is stitched in
silk
thread on white or off-white
linen
or
cotton fabric. Sometimes metallic threads or coloured threads
are used for accents.
Cross-stitch:
a popular form of counted-thread embroidery in which X-shaped
stitches are used to form a picture. Other stitches are also
commonly used in cross-stitch, among them ¼, ½, and ¾ stitches
and backstitches. Cross-stitch is usually executed on easily
countable evenweave fabric, or more rarely on non-countable
fabric, on which a countable fabric is applied that is removed
later, by drawing out every thread of it under the embroidery.
Hardanger
embroidery: or "Hardangersom" is a form of
embroidery traditionally worked with white thread on white
even-weave cloth, using
counted thread and
Drawn thread work techniques. It is sometimes called
Whitework embroidery.
Needlepoint:
a form of
canvas work
embroidery, in which
yarn
is stitched through a
canvas ground
fabric. Unlike
surface embroidery, needlepoint uses the canvas, or ground
fabric, to create a new fabric. Needlepoint worked on very fine
(high-count) canvas is called petit-point. Needlepoint
is often referred to as "tapestry", but differs from true
tapestry which is woven on a
loom
rather than stiched on canvas mesh.Drawn
thread work: this form is based on removing threads from
the
warp and/or the
weft
of a piece of
even-weave fabric. The remaining threads are grouped or
bundled together into a variety of patterns.