The Dictionary of Needlework

LIBRARY ^tsSSACHt; ^^ -^^ • J895 I ItVc^Cy*cy i/&(://^ n^ / L^^ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/dictionaryofneed02caul THE DICTIONARY OF NEEDLEWORK. APPLIQUE UPON LINEN CLOTH APPLIQUE. DEDICATED TO H.R.H. PRINCESS LOUISE, MARCHIONESS OF LORNE. THE Dic;tioi];?^y of I^eedle!ho^^, ENOYCLOPiEDIA OE ARTISTIC, PLAIN, AND EANCY NEEDLEWORK, DEALING FULLY "WITH THE DETAILS OF ALL THE STITCHES EMPLOYED, THE METHOD OF "WORKING, THE MATERIALS USED, THE MEANING OF TECHNICAL TERMS, AND, "WHERE NECESSARY. TRACING THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE VARIOUS "WORKS DESCRIBED. ILLUSTRATED WITH UPWARDS OF 1200 WOOD ENG-RAYINGS, AND COLOURED PLATES. PLAIN SE"WING, TEXTILES, DRESSMAKING, APPLIANCES, AND TERMS, By S. E. a. CAULEEILD, Author of "Skic iVtjrs»i(7 at Home," "Desmond," "Avencle," and Papers on Needlework in "The Queen," "Girl's Own Paper "Cassell's Domestic Dictionary," iDc. CHURCH EMBROIDERY, LACE, AND ORNAMENTAL NEEDLEWORK, By blanche C. SAWARD, Author of "'•Church Festiva^l Decorations," and Papers on Fancy and Art Work in ''The Bazaar," "Artistic Aimcsements," "Girl's Own Paper," ii:c. Division II.— Cre to Emb. SECOND EDITION. LONDON: A. W. COWAN, 30 AND 31, NEW BRIDGE STREET, LUDGATE CIRCUS. 'A \^'0^ ^' ... ,^\ STRAND LONDON : PRINTED BY A. BRADLEY, 170, ^./^- c^9V^ A^A^'f THE DICTIONARY OF NEEDLEWORK. 97 Knots for the centre of flowers, as tliey add to their and taste of that period. The great merit of the work beauty. When the centre of a flower is as large as that and the reason of its revival lies in the capability it has of seen in a sunflower, either work the whole with French expressing the thought of the worker, and its power of Knots, or lay down a piece of velvet of the right shade and breaking through the trammels of that mechanical copy- work sparingly over it French Knots or lines of Crewel ing and counting which lowers most embroidery to mere Stitch. Marguerite daisy is sometimes so treated, but A fancy work. Lifted by this power into a higher grade, after that size French Knots alone are worked, and no it ranks with laces and ancient gold and silver embroi- velvet foundation added. deries that are in themselves works of art, and which Always work stems in Crewel Stitch and in upright were done in times when the best part of a life was spent lines ; Figs. 174, 175 illustrate two ways of making stems in the effort to give to the world one new type of beauty. that should be avoided, bnt which are constantly seen in Crewel Work has also the inestimable advantage of being badly worked embroidery. The rounded appearance given adapted to homely decoration, the cheapness of its material, to them by the direction of the stitches serves to raise the ease with which it is cleaned, and its strength to resist them from their backgrounds, and gives, instead of the rough usage, justly making it the chosen vehicle in the de- decorative flat design that is desired, one in relief. Stems coration of all common home objects of beauty. Partaking, should be simply worked up and down in Crewel Stitch in as Crewel Work does, of the general nature of ancient em- the manner shovni in Fig. 17^. broideries, it will be Bufiicient under this heading to point Crewel Work.—This is work that claims to be raised out its characteristics and manner of working. In it good from the level of ordinary fancy to an art work. The work is known by the design and colouring being treated name is but a modern one for embroidery with worsteds or as a decorative, and not as a realistic, copy of nature. It " Krewels " upon plain materials. Ancient Crewel Work is well ascertained that the materials capable of producing was indifferently classed with embroideries of silk and gold embroideries are not of a kind that can imitate nature in or work upon canvas, as "wrought needlework" in old her glories of form and colour, and that any copy will chronicles, therefore it is difficult to separate one particular be a failure ; therefore all work claiming to be good must kind by hard and fast lines of demarcation from other be conventionally treated, the design being represented flat embroideries. The proper definition of Crewel Work is upon a flat background, and no attempt made, by means of embroidery upon linen, twilled cotton or stuflls, the founda- shadows and minute shadings, to raise and round it from its tion material being in most cases left as an unworked back- surface as in painting, and incorrect Crewel Work this rule gi'Ound,or, when covered, only partially concealed with open is followed. Many unthinking persons object to this, proud Diaper or Darned Fillings. The employment of crewels of the idea of only copying from nature ; but let the in needlework was the first form of embroidery known, and effect be tried of flowers worked as they see them, and the worsteds mmgled with thin plates of gold, or the latter same treated decoratively, and a short experience will soon pulled into fine wire, ornamented all the fine needlework of convince them that one group can be looked upon for ever the earlier times before silk was used. The art came from with rest and repose, while the other offends by the bad- the East, thence spread into Egypt, acquired there by the ness of its copy, and the harshness of its colouring. Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, and taken by the latter Crewel Work is a difficult embroidery, because it de- wherever they carried their conquests ; and though by their pends for its success not upon the exact putting in of time embroidery with silk had become prevalent and super- stitches, and their regularity, or upon the time and labour seded the plainer worsteds, still working with crewels in bestowed upon reproducing a pattern, but upon the abso- various forms never entirely died out until the present lute necessity there is for the mind of the worker being century, when the introduction of the new Berlin wools, in more than a copying machine, possessing the power of 1835, with their softer texture and more varied dyes, sup- grasping and working out an idea of its own, and of distinguish between a good or bad design or planted it for a time ; but in 1875 it was reinstated by being able to artists who found it the best vehicle for the expression, system of colouring. The technical difficulties of the through embroidery, of design and coloui'. Amongst the work are so few and so simple that when described they earliest examples of this needlework are the curtains of the seem to be trifles, for after the broad rules of what Tabernacle, the coloured sails of the Egyptian galleys, and to do and avoid are stated, a written instruction is of the embroidered robes of Aaron and his priests. These are little help, as it cannot give the subtleties of form and worked with gold and worsted, and though the stitch used colour upon which the work depends for its perfection, on them is believed to be Ckoss Stitch, yet from the nor can it convey to an inartistic mind the power of foundation material of fine linen, and the workmen right selection between conflicting colouring. What can forming their own designs, they imdoubtedly rank among be learnt from instruction, is the manner of forming the art as Crewel Work. In latter times the Bayeux tapestry various stitches used in the woi'k, while practice will give and the productions of Amy Robsart and Mary Stuart are a free use of the needle, and the power of setting the witnesses to the industry of the sixteenth and seventeenth stitches so that each is put in with regard to its place centuries, while most of the hand-made tapestiy of that in the whole design, and is neither worked too close time consisted simply of crewel stitches entirely covering to its neighbour nor too far from it, but by its direc coarse linen backgrounds. In the eighteenth century large tion expresses the contour of a line or the form of a quantities of Crewel Work were done, much of which is leaf. Just as in painting no master can inspire his pupil still extant, and gives evidence of the individual energy with his own gift of colouring unless the power of seeing 98 THE DICTIONARY OF NEEDLEWORK. and delineating is already possessed, and only requires to Bolton Sheetings are used, while the work upon them is be brought out and strengthened by instruction, so in limited to one or two shades of coloiu-. Crewel Work the learner must have an innate taste for The embroidery upon all large objects is worked upon what is true in form and colour to profit by the rules that the material, and not applied to it, it being always better, are exemplified in the best examples of needlework. in an art point of view, to distribute the work in such One of the great advantages of this work over other cases over the whole surface than to confine it to certain descriptions of embroidery is its usefulness for everyday limited spaces, such as a line of bordering, or a strip needs, as, from the nature of its materials, it is adapted placed across the background. The material is cumber- to almost all kinds of household decoration, and is not some to hold, but the heaviness is much mitigated when out of keeping with either homely or handsome fur- curtains, &c., are made with dados of a different colour, niture, provided the stuffs it is worked upon are selected but of the same material, the embroidery being done before with regard to the ornaments and purposes of the room.

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